Hi all,

I've just ordered an '06 SLK 350 with COMAND and Nav. for European delivery in early December. As this package includes the Sirius radio I was wondering if the "wart" antenna is put on at the factory, or installed later at the port or at the dealership. I would much prefer not to have the "wart" and would rather go for an "under the hood" attenna installation.
Do any of you folks who've taken European delivery know the answer to the above?

Picked up my SLK on July 25th, the sirius wart was not there while I was in Germany, it is VPC installed at the port. You can asked your dealer to call the VPC, several members had the stealth installation. I don't mind it a bit, it's small and matches the paint.

I, too, understand that the VPC installs the warts... and my sales rep has already been in touch with his pal in LA to make sure my car *doesn't* get a wart on it's trunk.

BUT... the VPC has been alerted that there is going to be a change for '07. One of the changes is that warts will grow at the factory, not get bolted on at the VPC. What they don't know is *when* the factory is making the process change. My car isn't expected at the VPC until 10/10, so I should know thereabouts whether the car will be wart infested.

Just a heads-up, though... because changes are coming... What I'm hoping (for ppl ordering '07's) is that maybe they'll let you delete the sat radio from COMAND, so that you could do a custom install later.

Does the stealth installation work OK? Is so, why the wart at all?

Do you mean the "06 (as the '07 is a year away)?

Sorry... was speaking in terms of model year. The '07 year begins in early 2006 (in the US) for the SLK... and apparently the factory is already in the process of integrating procedural changes even before some of the material changes take place. It's not uncommon for this to happen with manufacturing lines, though. I've had others cars (not MB) that were "between years," having some features of the new year's cars and still lablelled as the previous year.

I just received the answer to my own question after emailing the dealer. He checked and has documentation that the factory is now installing the "wart" antennas, although the 05's and some of the early '06 cars had the antennas installed at the port. So- I'll have a "wart".

Bummer

Did the document indicate when they began this change? Specially, I'm wondering which decade (week of build). I know which decade my car was built, so I'm still clutching to the possibility that my baby won't be wart infested.

The wart is a wide-angle receiver for a satellite signal -- think of it as a small dish. And you want it within reasonable line of sight, just as you would a television satellite dish -- only using a lot less bandwidth. This line of sight issue is also the reason why the signal cuts out when you drive under overpasses or into dense forestation. From what I've heard from people with "stealth" installations, their reception isn't perceptably any worse than those with the very visible wart.

But hearing that the factory now installs warts, I wonder how much it would be to get the hole they drill for the purpose repaired, and get a proper wartless install done later.

No, I was told only that the early '06 cars had the "wart" installed at the port. But, the change has been made and cars now currently being built have it factory-installed.

I picked up mine in Europe last week and it had no wart.

Cool, Vodil when are you going to post some pics of your trip?

Posted on the picture thread