I just got my hands on my dream car, a 2005 e320 wagon. It is great, but has barebones stereo installed (no navi, bluetooth, etc.) What are my options...is it better to buy the phone cradle & bluetooth & navigation unit or is there a financially reasonable alternative? I sold my girlfriend to get this, so is it possible to find a new COMAND unit with gps & bluetooth already installed cheap, or am I stuck with a tom tom & hands-free kit?
2005 W211 E320 COMAND Question
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go for a garmin nuvi or for an aftermarket build in.the mercedes navi sucks big time,bluetooth cost you as much then the best nuvi and you still need the cd-update
First it depends what you consider cheap and second it depends on your current head unit. Is it a Euro or a US car? Some more details would be useful because the basic head unit is different on different markets.
For a basic Euro car one could install the new NTG2.5 Comand reasonably easily and it contains everything from navigation to BT HF. You can find a lot of posts about this option here.
An NTG 2.5 unit would not be cheap, but I would not make my MB look cheap by installing an after market garmin or nuvi, even if those are very good for navigation. But my main point was to leave the decision for yourself, from the forum you can get personal views from one end to the other and a single (or two) views would not help a lot unless you get the full picture and make the decision yourself.
I disagree that the Mercedes 'navi sucks big time.' I agree that the unit in my 2007 E550 was not state of the art when manufactured, but it has always done a satisfactory job of getting me where I need to go. Between installing an up-to-date aftermarket union with all of the complications and compromises, and using my factory nav, I would go with the factory unit. It integrates into the instrument cluster display as well, which an after market unit wouldn't do.
Sorry, my car is US car, standard 2005 COMAND system with fiber optic cables. Obviously, having a full MB setup would be ideal, but I'm getting prices quoted to me at well over $3,000. This is definitely not worth it. I want to know if the new COMAND systems have everything built-in, I know they now have bluetooth. I was hoping I could find a new COMAND unit cheaper than a Phone cradle + Bluetooth adapter + navigation module.
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