Just experienced MBUX, how are the competitors?
Discussion
Wasn’t sure where the right place to post this would be - as it’s not strictly related to looking for or buying a car, but it could be…
My parents just got a 2022 Mercedes GLB and I just helped them get everything set up, and MBUX is a fantastic experience, I’ve got Sync3 in my FiST which obviously is a different class of car but doesn’t come close
How do their rivals compare? I’d been looking at 340i’s, Arteon R, M2 and the like following a recent thread here, but haven’t experienced any of them yet - curious how they compare from peoples experience here? It was good enough that it’s swaying me towards a Merc myself
I’ve been in a newish S3 but didn’t get to have a play, the experience in that didn’t look too bad though - curious about BMW and the like? I seem to remember hearing good things about iDrive
My parents just got a 2022 Mercedes GLB and I just helped them get everything set up, and MBUX is a fantastic experience, I’ve got Sync3 in my FiST which obviously is a different class of car but doesn’t come close
How do their rivals compare? I’d been looking at 340i’s, Arteon R, M2 and the like following a recent thread here, but haven’t experienced any of them yet - curious how they compare from peoples experience here? It was good enough that it’s swaying me towards a Merc myself
I’ve been in a newish S3 but didn’t get to have a play, the experience in that didn’t look too bad though - curious about BMW and the like? I seem to remember hearing good things about iDrive
Banging your head on a brick wall in here, as the last two posts show! Go to the in-car electronics page and the first post right now is someone asking how to fit a CD player to a motorhome...
I'm interested in all this stuff, but where do you talk about it? It just makes most older people grumpy seemingly, and younger folk can't afford the newer cars, so dunno what the solution is for engaged conversations.
I'm interested in all this stuff, but where do you talk about it? It just makes most older people grumpy seemingly, and younger folk can't afford the newer cars, so dunno what the solution is for engaged conversations.
I love computers and technology and that sort of thing. I'm an early adopter with a loft full of failed products to show for it.
I love cars. Really love cars.
The two make for poor bedfellows. Nobody over 17 wants to talk about in car tech because only a teenager who can't drive could possibly think all this stuff is a good idea, or interesting, or maybe What Car people who actively want distracting from the tedious business of guiding a crossover down an urban street and it's worth crushing the odd child to avoid having to look at the road too often.
Manufacturers love it because it's easy to sell sizzle over steak, the automobile is now a mature product with little room for genuine innovation so they really do need to do something to keep people buying.
Get the one that's the least awkward and tedious to use, which will almost certainly be the one with the most physical buttons and knobs, make sure it has carplay so it's not an outdated load of crap in a couple of years unless you let them fist you for a subscription, and get the low attention span fix by scrolling tik tok on the bog rather than when you're driving.
I love cars. Really love cars.
The two make for poor bedfellows. Nobody over 17 wants to talk about in car tech because only a teenager who can't drive could possibly think all this stuff is a good idea, or interesting, or maybe What Car people who actively want distracting from the tedious business of guiding a crossover down an urban street and it's worth crushing the odd child to avoid having to look at the road too often.
Manufacturers love it because it's easy to sell sizzle over steak, the automobile is now a mature product with little room for genuine innovation so they really do need to do something to keep people buying.
Get the one that's the least awkward and tedious to use, which will almost certainly be the one with the most physical buttons and knobs, make sure it has carplay so it's not an outdated load of crap in a couple of years unless you let them fist you for a subscription, and get the low attention span fix by scrolling tik tok on the bog rather than when you're driving.
Edited by GeniusOfLove on Monday 18th September 16:48
It's subjective, but out of my recent cars I have much preferred the MBUX/Apple car play combination over the BMW, Kia and Nissan offerings.
Not a whole view of the world and I dare say the interface technology has all been "refined" again, however so far I have genuinely found that in my limited experience and knowledge that MBUX was the easiest for a mid 40's person who takes technology with a pinch of salt the most impressive and endearing of those sampled.
In reality though whilst it's a contributing factor to a car purchase it isn't critical and really so long as you have ideally wireless apple car play or android auto you don't really need any of the other gubbins.
Not a whole view of the world and I dare say the interface technology has all been "refined" again, however so far I have genuinely found that in my limited experience and knowledge that MBUX was the easiest for a mid 40's person who takes technology with a pinch of salt the most impressive and endearing of those sampled.
In reality though whilst it's a contributing factor to a car purchase it isn't critical and really so long as you have ideally wireless apple car play or android auto you don't really need any of the other gubbins.
In the past month to so my wife has bought a BMW Z4 and I've just picked up a BMW 840, both have the latest iDrive system. We've both used iDrive before so familiar with the way it works but setting stuff up, synching phones, setting the cars up to our preferences etc was very easy. Didn't get the dealer to do these things cos we both learn by doing - as I say, v v easy. In recent years we've had Audi, Porsche, Suzuki and Ford. All were OK, but BMW's iDrive is the best in my opinion.
My wife has MBUX in her 2022 GLC and we've both had Mercedes before so it wasn't too big a jump.
It's fine, and reasonably intuitive but it has some frustrating issues in my experience.
Firstly it relies on you using "Profiles" for each driver which is fine, but what it remembers in each profile is very limited. For example a profile can't be tied to a key, so if I open the car with my key it won't move the (electric memory) seat to my position. Our 2014 Q5 did that no problem. In fact the seat positions aren't even remembered by the profile which seems like a significant omission - even though it warns you the seat might move when you switch profiles.
Similarly my wife like to have the Sat Nav instructions in front of her in lieu of the rev counter. I prefer to see the rev counter. So you'd think that the dial display preference would be saved in the profile, but no, for some reason it isn't, which is maddening because we both have to change it when the other has been driving the car. Similarly you can't link a phone to a profile - the car instead connects to whichever phone it sees in the car first so if my wife is driving but I get in the car she can't answer her phone if it rings. As far I can tell all the profile remembers are the radio presets and the HVAC controls.
So it has these frustrating limitations and yet I can have 48 different colours of ambient lighting which is needless and 3 colours would have been more than sufficient in my opinion.
It's fine, and reasonably intuitive but it has some frustrating issues in my experience.
Firstly it relies on you using "Profiles" for each driver which is fine, but what it remembers in each profile is very limited. For example a profile can't be tied to a key, so if I open the car with my key it won't move the (electric memory) seat to my position. Our 2014 Q5 did that no problem. In fact the seat positions aren't even remembered by the profile which seems like a significant omission - even though it warns you the seat might move when you switch profiles.
Similarly my wife like to have the Sat Nav instructions in front of her in lieu of the rev counter. I prefer to see the rev counter. So you'd think that the dial display preference would be saved in the profile, but no, for some reason it isn't, which is maddening because we both have to change it when the other has been driving the car. Similarly you can't link a phone to a profile - the car instead connects to whichever phone it sees in the car first so if my wife is driving but I get in the car she can't answer her phone if it rings. As far I can tell all the profile remembers are the radio presets and the HVAC controls.
So it has these frustrating limitations and yet I can have 48 different colours of ambient lighting which is needless and 3 colours would have been more than sufficient in my opinion.
James76G said:
My wife has MBUX in her 2022 GLC and we've both had Mercedes before so it wasn't too big a jump.
It's fine, and reasonably intuitive but it has some frustrating issues in my experience.
Firstly it relies on you using "Profiles" for each driver which is fine, but what it remembers in each profile is very limited. For example a profile can't be tied to a key, so if I open the car with my key it won't move the (electric memory) seat to my position. Our 2014 Q5 did that no problem. In fact the seat positions aren't even remembered by the profile which seems like a significant omission - even though it warns you the seat might move when you switch profiles.
Similarly my wife like to have the Sat Nav instructions in front of her in lieu of the rev counter. I prefer to see the rev counter. So you'd think that the dial display preference would be saved in the profile, but no, for some reason it isn't, which is maddening because we both have to change it when the other has been driving the car. Similarly you can't link a phone to a profile - the car instead connects to whichever phone it sees in the car first so if my wife is driving but I get in the car she can't answer her phone if it rings. As far I can tell all the profile remembers are the radio presets and the HVAC controls.
So it has these frustrating limitations and yet I can have 48 different colours of ambient lighting which is needless and 3 colours would have been more than sufficient in my opinion.
That is absurd! Negates the whole point of profiles if they're so limited. This should be basic. Tesla has done very well to engage its audience on the digital side. Dunno if it nails the profiles thing, but car companies in general so far have been bad at software and that's maybe why engagement is so poor. Or they use it to push subscriptions, which is only going to annoy the majority.It's fine, and reasonably intuitive but it has some frustrating issues in my experience.
Firstly it relies on you using "Profiles" for each driver which is fine, but what it remembers in each profile is very limited. For example a profile can't be tied to a key, so if I open the car with my key it won't move the (electric memory) seat to my position. Our 2014 Q5 did that no problem. In fact the seat positions aren't even remembered by the profile which seems like a significant omission - even though it warns you the seat might move when you switch profiles.
Similarly my wife like to have the Sat Nav instructions in front of her in lieu of the rev counter. I prefer to see the rev counter. So you'd think that the dial display preference would be saved in the profile, but no, for some reason it isn't, which is maddening because we both have to change it when the other has been driving the car. Similarly you can't link a phone to a profile - the car instead connects to whichever phone it sees in the car first so if my wife is driving but I get in the car she can't answer her phone if it rings. As far I can tell all the profile remembers are the radio presets and the HVAC controls.
So it has these frustrating limitations and yet I can have 48 different colours of ambient lighting which is needless and 3 colours would have been more than sufficient in my opinion.
We have a 21 Merc A220d (1st and last) and a 22 BMW M135i (our 5th bmw)
The Mbux in my view is shocking in comparison to the I drive in the BMWs…. And don’t even get me started on the next to useless sat nav in the Merc….: the sort of Nav that would send you into the sea If you followed it!
And the screens which love to go blank at any time also with an apology letter from Mercedes with needing updates!
I cannot wait for it to go back in March. I will never have another Merc in my life.
The Mbux in my view is shocking in comparison to the I drive in the BMWs…. And don’t even get me started on the next to useless sat nav in the Merc….: the sort of Nav that would send you into the sea If you followed it!
And the screens which love to go blank at any time also with an apology letter from Mercedes with needing updates!
I cannot wait for it to go back in March. I will never have another Merc in my life.
Edited by Luanmapo on Tuesday 19th September 21:50
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