slk55er

Would you please tell me what is the latest version of the map for the '19 SL550 that I am purchasing? I'll ask the dealer to make sure it is current. Is it available on a CD or can it be downloaded? Thank you very much.

KennyK

You can find them on line for about $100. Mine came in a USB (in November 2019) and installation was super easy

slk55er

Thanks Kenny K. I am expecting the dealer to install the latest update. It was easy on my CLS53 to download the latest update but I am not sure how this should work on the SL. I'm just looking for info on the latest version for the SL to convey to the dealer.

rmorin49

When I bought my '15 in June the dealer updated my mapset to the 2019 version. There might be a later update since it's now 2020.

slk55er

Thanks rmorin49er. I'll check that at least I have that version.

whoover

My 2019 can download map updates from the Mercedes Me portal. I am on my fourth update since January 2019. It's a 213, not an SL, but as far as I know all 2019 models use Mercedes Me, and support user map updates for three years.

You download the maps to a USB drive (speed depends on your bandwidth) and COMAND recognizes it when you plug the USB into the car. It takes about 1/2 hour for all North America maps to update in the car.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a major feature of the 2019 models.

slk55er

OK great. I'll give that a shot. On my '19 CLS53 I was able to download directly into the car without an intermediate step of downloading to a USB via my iMac.
Thanks much.

whoover

Yes, all models (I believe) also support over-the-air updates too. But there are three reasons to do it yourself instead.

First, OTA only updates one region while download allows you to update all of North America. This is important if you take any road trips. Second, OTA update can take months to get to your car while download is now. And finally, OTA does not update the voice files, so it's not really a complete update. To get the pronunciations of new additions, you have to do your own.

slk55er

OK. Thank you very much for the helpful advice. I do see that my over-the-air automatic update on 12/21/19 installed "North America 2019 (V18.0)" so perhaps all USA regions were installed, not just my region, Western States.

With a Manual Update, I am having trouble... the MercedesMe Download Manager does not recognize my USB storage which is a 60GB memory stick formatted as ExFAT. No luck with restarting my iMac to see if that helps, so it seems that I am up that famous creek for a manual update.

whoover

I had to format it NTFS. If that doesn't work for you, find a Windows machine to format it on (still NTFS). But I suspect formatting NTFS on the Mac will work.

slk55er

Hmm. Unfortunately NTFS is not an option in Apple's Disc Utility and I don't find an application for this on Apple's App Store. I did install and use Tuxera's Disc Manager to format the memory stick into NTFS but the disc is still not found or the MM Manager is hung up searching for it.

As you suggest, I'll either have to use a friend's Windows machine or rely on the auto download or the dealer installation. Thanks for your help.

Keon

I believe I may be in need of a map update as well. The last time I used my in-car navigation it thought that I was off-road instead of the Highway 400 South - one of Ontario's largest highways. It isn't even new, it's been around since 1952.
't't

slk55er

IT'S WORKING! I'm not entirely sure why. On my Mac, I did click on the "Download" button and confirmed that I wanted to update the manager, but I had done that several days ago. Perhaps Mercedes made a new update that allowed an ExFAT-formatted memory stick to be recognized. In any case, the download of nearly 30GB of data is well underway as I type this and I will post the results of my installation. I'm hoping that this will update for my CLS53, the SL550 that I am purchasing tomorrow and perhaps even for the '15 GLA250. We'll see what happens as President Trump often says.

And Whoover, you are correct -- the over-the-air only updated my region, not the entire USA, Mexico, and Canada. The download covers all this, including Alaska.

slk55er

I plugged the memory stick into my '19 CLS53 and the COMMAND recognized that there was a map update on the media. It was easy to install the 16.9 GB update which included all the USA, Canada and Mexico. This version was: 2019 (V18.0), basic V300, plus Maintenance Data basic V1585 V360, Speech V360 and all regions of the USA V360.

Unfortunately in the '19 SL550, it appears that only the dealer can update the map. The memory stick inserted into either USB port in the center armrest was not recognized. The version recently installed by the dealer for Western States is "2020 V13.0." I do not know if updates for other regions are available. You can check your version from the COMMAND menus -- in Navigation to to OPTIONS/MAP CONTENT/MAP VERSION.

whoover

If you select the SL550 as the vehicle in the Mercedes Me portal, does the Map Upgrade button appear? I ask because it's possible that you can download it but it uses different files than the CLS. No map upgrade button in the portal would confirm it's dealer only.

slk55er

Thanks for your suggestion and I believe you are correct: In the MercedesMe portal for the CLS, there is an "Online Map Upgrade" link which I used. Unfortunately for the SL there is only a "Software Update" link, but not a specific "Map Upgrade" link. Clicking on the S/W Update button yields a window that says "You are up to date." I suspect this is an indication for updated to the engine/Xmission management S/W so map upgrades must be done by the dealer, at least on my 2019 SL550.

Ozzief16a

Hello All,

I'm interested in updating the NAV S/W on my 2017 Merc SL 450. From reading this thread it appears that the owners of 2019 and newer
R231's are able to install the NAV updates via USB. Since 2017 was the first year of the R231 model update I'm concerned that the 2017 and
possibly the 2018 may not be able to update the NAV S/W via the USB port. I tried to order the latest update from an online company called Mercedes
Navigation Updates. When I tried to enter my car's model year only years 2013 through 2016 were offered to choose from. I'd like to hear
from 2017 SL 450/550 owners who have actually updated their NAV S/W via the USB port - did you encounter any problems with your update?

slk55er

From my experience with my '19 SL550, I do not believe that is the case. As suggested by "Whoover" and if you are subscribed to MercedesMe, check the options for upgrade on the MercedesMe page for your vehicle. You will probably not find a Map Upgrade link.

Dr. Manhattan

I went to Mercedes Map Updates page. When you chose the SL model, it asks which year. If you click on 2017, it just comes back and says 'your car is eligible for three years of free dealer-installed updates'. I thought OK, they haven't updated this page yet to recognize that it is now 2020 and that 2017s are now four years old. To test my theory I went back and clicked on 2016 instead, and it came back with 'that'll be $99 please', but said that it was still a dealer-installed option. Does that mean that you have to pay $99 for the update, and then additionally have to pay the dealer to do something that we can do perfectly well ourselves? If, that is, they ever get around to selling updates for the facelift cars. I have a $160 refurbished portable Garmin that came with free lifetime full-coverage map updates (which I do about three times each year, without issue), so this is all rather galling.

slk55er

Alas I believe that is the cost of driving "Nothing but the best." You can always use WAZE on your cell phone.

Dave NY

If you're connected to Apple Carplay and you have Waze on your phone and operational won't Waze show on the car screen? It does on my Audi.

Dr. Manhattan

There are people who chide me for often using in-car NAV rather than WAZE, but I do this mainly in cars that I take on the road. On long trips, there are many places where there is no cell coverage, and the car's NAV doesn't know the difference. It may not have all of the bells and whistles that WAZE does, but it always works. With that in mind, and the fact that the current SL is one of the ultimate Grand Touring cars (which I intend to use as such), it would be nice if I could keep the maps fully up to date rather than consciously allowing a major portion of my $100k car's infotainment system to go dormant/obsolete. When I referred to my cheapo Garmin, it wasn't so much the money I was talking about, as the fact that Garmin allows their customers to update their own units without any apparent problem. For a few years, I worked with Mercedes engineering/production people. Generally speaking, they had the attitude that they knew everything, while no one else knew anything. That same attitude seems to be pervading this situation: we're not smart enough to install our own map updates? Give me a break...

slk55er

Yes, it should, although I have not tried this on my SL. I (have on my CLS but I don't care to use it.)

DrLuke

Maybe the models have different versions but my 2019 450 currently has “2020 (V. 13.0) N. AMERICA”. Anyone have something different? Also, can’t find anywhere in the COMAND where an OTA download can be initiated.

rnmaas

This has been posted elsewhere, but if you don't get Mercedes navigation updates for free, or if you don't want to go to the dealer and pay $$ for a map update, you can get map updates here:

https://mbnavupdate.com/

I recently updated my 2016 SL 400 myself with 2020 Mercedes NTG 4.5/4.7 Navigation Update V20. If you are handy with a computer, you just upload the map update to your computer, extract to a USB (needs to be formatted correctly) and then insert the USB in the car. If you have done everything correctly, the car will recognize that you are trying to update the maps and ask you for a key (which you can then get from this company that sent you the update). There are helpful videos explaining the process, or you can get a preloaded USB directly for a slight upcharge which saves you some time with the computer upload and extraction.