E55Soon

I can't believe it! M Benz has had 2-3 years to design the new generation phone system and still no bluettoth connectivity! All 2005 Beemers, Jags & Infinities allow you to go out & buy youro wn bluetooth phone and "version code" it for the car and your'e done. M Benz still forces you to buy ther V600 or V710 and your'e STILL STUCK WITH A CRADLE! I HATE DOCKING/UNDOCKING MY V60 PHONE! THIS SUCKS!

goldberg

How about bad docking connections....badly designed antenna that breaks off...generally miserable phone for a ton of money.

adx

Here is an aftermarket bluetooth setup for your car.

http://web.palmone.com/products/Prod...0002&cat=40004

E55Soon

No thanks! For 80 grand, we should have a better set up. I realize that Motorola signed a deal with Benz to be exclusive supplier of phones in America till 07'. I would actually be ok with buying the MB V710 if I just didn't have to dock it each time I entered the car. Jeez, the phone is Bluetooth enabled right out of the box. Why can't the car be too? Supposedly, Mercedes was planning this all along. I even heard that all 05' cars were equipped with the connectivity for B tooth and the only delay was with getting the phones out. NOW, I go to my dealer, he tells me the phones are out but you still have to dock them. It's almost enough to get me thinking BMW 5 series when my E55 lease is up. I checked out their brochure. B tooth connectivity is standard.... just buy a compatible phone and code it to the car! Now that's the life. Too bad the car is so fugly!

gmdebruyn

According to the tele-aid folks I spoke to, they only will sell long term contracts to 05 owners because we have the new digital gsm phone system built into our cars. which is good news. we just need someone to figure out how to activate this functionality/turn it on (bluetooth).

hasn't anyone figured out to hack this yet?

do other mercedes in other countries (05 and beyond) have to use motorola or is it just the US?

there has to be a way....

chem0

In Australia, we have the nokia 6310i which also has Btooth. As the dealer here puts it "I know, Its a oldie but its a goodie"

Can Drive 55

Got a question. If the phone remains docked in the cradle, do you have to manually turn it on when you start the car, or does it turn on automatically? Or does it remain on with the ignition turned off? Thanks.

vitaman

In defense of this phone that's being attacked from all sides....it works really well. I rarely take it out of the car so the dock, undock actions are admittedly no big deal. That could get annoying. But no more annoying than the bizarre radio controls on steering wheel or Headrest adjustment every time you move the seat up or back or Duplicating temperature adjustments when riding solo. But I digress. The phone(V600) has the best reception and best sound quality both sending and receiving of any I've used.

DRCrowder

Phone turns on and off with car power, not ignition. this means once you unlock the car, the phone boots up

Can Drive 55

I think vitamin is right about the reception of the V600 with the new system. I had a V600 that I used in my Lexus via Bluetooth. It was convenient, but reception was not always adequate. The phone (and antenna) was located on my belt, which was down inside of the car's interior. I think the external antenna on the MB system has to work better than an antenna surrounded by a metal car body.

Now, here is how I plan to deal with the MB phone system when my car arrives in a couple of weeks. I have added an extra line for the car to my cell phone account for $10 a month. I will program my main cell phone's call forwarding to "Forward if Unavailable" and enter the car's number. When I get in the car, I will turn off my cell phone and incoming calls are automatically directed to the car on the first ring. I do not have to dock or undock. If I forget to turn off the primary cell phone, it will take 4 or 5 rings to transfer to the car.

Anyone see any flaws with this idea? It seems workable to me.

Duane

Kind of off topic but I currently have cingular with a v600. I am not happy with it and want to change companies. Ever since Cingular changed to this new network the service stinks. What is the best phone to get and who has the best coverage? Thanks

gmdebruyn

vitamin,
agreed on all your points. bluetooth gives the feature of convenient feature of keeping all your contacts in one place. i keep my phone sync'ed with microsoft outlook, so it means that i either would have to a) take the phone out once in a while to sync up contacts, or b) put a small bluetooth antenna in my garage to sync over the network.

Question though. whether you connect to the car via a cable (current solution), or via bluetooth, do you use the car's antenna or the phone's antenna to make/receive phone calls? i believe that it would be the same in either case since the bluetooth just acts as a wireless cable to the car. also, for $$$ sake, it would just be nice to not pay $2k in hardware and installation fees. rather just have them do a software upgrade, punch in your version code, and you are good to go...

my two cents...

scorchie

I did t the opposite way... I used the car phone number as the main number, and always have that set to "no answer call forwarding" to my mobile number. Then when the phone in the car turned off, it was forwarded (immediately) to my handheld.

The way you want to use it will depend on when you use the phone more often, in your car or not (or if you don't car about extra charges because you're rich, or you get a discount or bill paid from work, or you know someone at the phone company who can turn off that extra charge).

One problem is that my calls came from two numbers, and my friends were 'trained" to call only one, but other aquaintances might try two still.

Since I switched my phone to something better to carry around (a Siemens), now I remove the phone from the car and carry it around. Of course this is only a good suggestion if your carrier and phone choices are compatible (there are a few good phones for GSM carriers supported by UHI).

And your point about bluetooth is correct, it's one of many that have been discussed at mbworld many times! Reception in the pocket/belt, that you are not supposed to use the phone inside a Mercedes-Benz, charging, and so on. Search for more information.

-s-

scorchie

I think the sound quality (incoming and outgoing) of the built in phone is outstanding, as you say. Reception is pretty good too, at least for the carrier I use in the locations I use it.

But I really just wanted to let you know that the dealership can turn off that annoying headrest movement. Mine has been turned off for quite a while now, I think in two of my cars.

-s-

vitaman

Scorchie:
Nice heads up on the head rest. Talked to my Service Tech 2 hours ago and was told it was a permanent feature that could not be turned off. Any more details on how to do? Would like to be armd with a few facts before I call them back.
Thanks!

E55Soon

I'm not slamming the phone in any way. It's Mercedes that I criticize for locking their loyal cusotomers into buying their phones and what's worse, not delivering on their promise to implement bluetooth when their competition has already done so since last year. WTF???? I know I could get MBNZNL's UHI package which would allow me to use any non-benz phone I wish so long as they have a snap-in cradle for it, That's not bad. But c'mon guys, bluetooth is by far the best option. No need to dock/undock or get an extra phone and 2nd line (Which I would NEVER do). BESDIES, EVEN THE MB V710 HAS BLUETOOTH FUNCTIONALITY! WHY ON EARTH DOESN'T MERCEDES USE IT?

scorchie

I agree it's bad that MBUSA (NOTE: MBUSA, not Mercedes) locking people into basically one-choice-per-carrier. But I disagree about the cradle, the phone needs to be in a cradle for many reasons. That's all been discussed before so I guess I shouldn't be repeating it.

-s-

mhh

I've done the same thing with my C32. I give out my car number. Apart from the cost of running 2 phones it works OK, except for one thing - text. Text won't divert (where I live at least) so my text messages often get missed if I've out of the car for any time at all.

My wife is happy with her Nokia in the cradle in her E500. She previously had an aftermarket bluetooth kit in her Volvo, but it proved unreliable. She doesn't mind docking and undocking, but it would drive me mad. I'm looking forward to trying bluetooth in my M5 - when it arrives.

W210

I actually quite like the MB V60ci setup as the reception is far better when using the in-car antenna. I don't care much about my battery longevit but need it to always have enough juice, so I charge it all the time whenever I go in and out of the car.

My experience with Bluetooth is that it drains the phone battery quite quickly. I make lots of calls in the car and I like the keypad MB provides on the dash. Voice recognition is not my thing I need my keypad (which is often missing in many car phone systems, Audi, BMW, Lexus, Acura to name a few).

Bluetooth is nice but I have seen too many incompatible systems (no phone book transfer, caller-id failing to match to address book, etc.) issues.

E55Soon

W210:
The main critique I find with your reasoning is the following:

If one does not mind docking, then one should not mind attaching an in-car charger when needed for battery issues. At least you have that option. With the current system that DC has for their cars you have no option. It's either dock it or forget it! For me, the battery issue is a no brainer...simply charge the damn phone each night at home. I can get in and out of my car 12-15 times in a day so for me the dock is a deal breaker. As far as poor performance, I have yet to meet a BMW owner with bluetooth in their 05' cars that doesn't love it ( & I have quite a few neighbors with 05' bluetooth-equipped cars). Scorchie: why do you say that the cradle is an important part of the phone system? Don't get me wrong, I could live with paying the $500 for the MB V710 phone. That part doesn't irk me so much. But, not being able to enjoy the phone's bluetooth capability the same way my neighbor does in his comparably priced 6 series pisses me off to no end!
We buy E55's for various reasons including their daily drivability! If I'm gonna drive it daily it should be utilitarian just like it's competitors!

W210

E55Soon, don't get me wrong, I would love to have Bluetooth in addition to having a craddle. However, do note that many cars such as Acura and Lexus provide Bluetooth yet without a craddle. (Of course, as you said, at the end of the day, it's not a big issue as one can easily find a cheap cigarette lighter charger.)

My biggest concern with Bluetooth is the lack of a universal transfer standard between the phones and the car. If you have played around with the technology matching different phones with various cars, you will see that very often there is much to be desired.

On a Lexus RX330 paired with a Motorola V600, one cannot easily transfer the phone book from the phone to the car. You have to do it manually and go through multiple steps every time. Worst of all, you can only transfer one phone entry at a time.

With the same car pairing with the Motorola V710, the system completely disallows any phone book upload. Motorola blames the service provider, while the service provider blames Lexus and Motorola.

I would love to use a Bluetooth cell/car setup, provided:

1. Automatic phone book upload (entire phone book transferred every time I step into the car).

2. Dash must be able to pull phone book and match incoming phone numbers to my name list. (Show me the name of the caller instead of just a number so I can decide whether to take or bounce the call to voice mail when driving.)

3. Good reception.

4. Car must have a physical keypad for dialling by touch, as well as alpha numeric dialling. (Useful for those "using a touch tone phone, enter the name of the person you're trying to reach", or 1-800-BMW-HELP situations). Without a keypad, too often I have to fish out my phone to make selections.

5. Hopefully the dash will even show a low cell battery warning so I never get unexpectedly cut-off.

6. Must allow me to easily switch from speaker to headset like the Mercedes for privacy.

7. It should also allow one to do a seamless call transfer from phone to car during a conversation. Often I start a conversation before getting into a car, transfer call to car then back to phone when arriving designation.

8. Showing SMS/Text Messages on dash.

Cannot comment on BMW system as I haven't played with it extensively. Hope it's not as bad as Lexus. However, I know as a fact the MB keypad is far superior than the iDrive virtual keypad on the 5 & 6 series. The 7 series offer a better solution with a physical numeric pad.

What I like about the Mercedes system is that it's brainless, yes, it's inconvenient to plug it in every time, at least it gives me a setup that works. With the keypad, it allows me to quickly recall stored memory entries and I never have to rely on the flaky voice recognition. My address book entries are always at my finger tips, my dash will always show the name of the caller. I have programmed in a few long distance carriers' numbers so that I can tell when a long distance call comes in. I even use the MB system to the full extent checking my SMS Text Messages on the COMAND screen. I have trained my staff to text me for unimportant messages.

If the typical Bluetooth cell/car setup can do the above, I'll then definitely complain to MB. Problem with the typical Bluetooth option is that most demos don't have it so it's really difficult for me to do my testing.

E55Soon

W210:

The BMW system does practically all of what you described a bluetooth system should do. Obvioulsy a b.tooth system is useless if it doesn't do all of that stuff. I can't say for sure if the system transmits battery info from phone to car display but everything else you described works fine. BTW, the problems you described with your Lexus earlier were likely just as much to do with that model phone than anything else. That model Motorola phone was notorious for problems!
My point was that MB was exploiting customer loyalty by dragging their feet on implementing this needed technology when their competition has already successfully done so. It's just not fair! Part of enjoying my car should NOT be my accepting that "Mercedes is not up to speed in the techno-wizardry department"... Actually, MB is very much a leader in those gadgets! It's just the whole phone business where they are utterly miserable...And it's gonna cost them business. My Mom's S class lease expires this coming fall. Come Thanksgiving, she'll be looking for a new car. She is the very type of person that Bluetooth was meant for. A 66 year old, gizmo-challenged, grandma DOESN'T MANAGE WELL WITH DOCKING/UNDOCKING HER PHONE. So, 90% of the time she just doesn't bother and ends up leaving the phone in her purse. Consequently, she doesn't end up enjoying any of the benefits of her S430's phone package! With Btooth she wouldn't have that problem!

W210

E55Soon,

No, most BMWs do not have a phone keypad which is why I'm still looking for the perfect system. My challenge with the BMW phone systems (nothing to with the Bluetooth connectivity) is the lack of a simple keypad. I really hate to dial a number using voice or having to twist and turn the knob.

Now if MB can combine their keypad, auto address uploads with the bluetooth optional connectivity, that would be nice.

And both the V600 and V710 failed to work properly with the Lexus. So much for Japanese advanced electronics. Perhaps it's Motorola's fault. What phones will work best with the BMW? I would have to personally test things out to ensure I can do the auto calls and address book transfer. Learned my lesson from the Lexus.

E55Soon

True that Beemers don't have a physical keypad to dial, but the truth is that keypad dialing is a rarity for most drivers. My VRS system in my 03' E55 works well enough to dial numbers all the time. Also: most of the people I call are people I go to the trouble of programming in my voice speed dial list so I personally do little key pad dialing. BTW W210, you should know that the Beemer btooth system allows connectivity with a fairly wide array of cell phones. What's more, new Beemers can accomodate up to 4 different phones "mated" to each car...That's cool!

W210

Not sure about others I can only talk about my own telematics needs. I find it much faster to dial a 2 or 3-digit memory location number then press send, than having to scroll through my big address book. I also sometimes get into an auto PBX having to spell out a person's name. This task would be impossible with iDrive as iDrive doesn't give you an alpha-numeric virtual dial pad.

Of course, with Bluetooth, they always say there is a wide range of compatible phones (just like Lexus did), but when you start using it, you realize all the bugs and that's when the three way finger pointing begins.

A testing is in order.