Are COMAND sat-nav systems low quality?
Discussion
Never having had sat-nav before, I didn't bother using the COMAND system in my SLK since buying it a year ago. But yesterday, out of curiosity, I switched it on during a long journey on familiar motorways and roads, just to see what it would do - without inserting any destination.
I was disappointed to find that on the M6, the displayed map had significant "lag" - I had already passed exit slip-roads and roundabouts before they even showed up on the screen. Surely it should give advance warning - not show me things I already passed? And on the A-roads, for much of the time there wasn't even a number shown - just a plain red line running up and down the screen.
Is this typical for the standard COMAND system, or likely to be due to the software not being updated for many years? There was a 2016-17 set of DVDs in the boot, but I don't know if they were loaded by the previous owner. At best, it is 7 years out of date.
If the system needs new discs loading to work properly, are the after-market ones of good quality & functional, or should I get the main dealer do the update for me? And in each case, will it cure this apparent lag on the display?
I was disappointed to find that on the M6, the displayed map had significant "lag" - I had already passed exit slip-roads and roundabouts before they even showed up on the screen. Surely it should give advance warning - not show me things I already passed? And on the A-roads, for much of the time there wasn't even a number shown - just a plain red line running up and down the screen.
Is this typical for the standard COMAND system, or likely to be due to the software not being updated for many years? There was a 2016-17 set of DVDs in the boot, but I don't know if they were loaded by the previous owner. At best, it is 7 years out of date.
If the system needs new discs loading to work properly, are the after-market ones of good quality & functional, or should I get the main dealer do the update for me? And in each case, will it cure this apparent lag on the display?
You are using a very very old system in satnav terms - the newer systems (called MBUX) are far more responsive and detailed.
Although there are some that prefer Google maps and bizarrely and for reasons I can’t fathom, Waze.
I wouldn’t bother updating at this point, it won’t make a huge difference to the underlying experience, because the hardware it’s running on is ancient.
Although there are some that prefer Google maps and bizarrely and for reasons I can’t fathom, Waze.
I wouldn’t bother updating at this point, it won’t make a huge difference to the underlying experience, because the hardware it’s running on is ancient.
There's a lot of different versions of COMAND - I had it in a 2005 C Class that I owned from nearly new until a couple of yrs ago. It ran from a DVD inserted into the unit itself in the dash. I kept the DVDs reasonably up to date - think I had something like 2018 when I sold the car.
It navigated pretty well - perhaps it would be a moment too slow to tell you turn off a roundabout if you'd forgotten which exit it told you to use. It's worst feature was the indexing was rubbish - it didn't take full post-codes and often wouldn't know a particular road, but it would be in the map if you knew where it was and zoomed in. So I ended up finding things on my computer, printing a map, then locating it in the car, marking the point then navigating to it.
IIRC the traffic re-routing stopped working on mine - I think it stopped being transmitted on the frequency the car needed. It was bonkers anyway in areas like the SE - it just constantly kept trying to re-route.
Maybe yours was being slow becuase it had no route programmed. Or maybe the system in your car is a bit crap!
It navigated pretty well - perhaps it would be a moment too slow to tell you turn off a roundabout if you'd forgotten which exit it told you to use. It's worst feature was the indexing was rubbish - it didn't take full post-codes and often wouldn't know a particular road, but it would be in the map if you knew where it was and zoomed in. So I ended up finding things on my computer, printing a map, then locating it in the car, marking the point then navigating to it.
IIRC the traffic re-routing stopped working on mine - I think it stopped being transmitted on the frequency the car needed. It was bonkers anyway in areas like the SE - it just constantly kept trying to re-route.
Maybe yours was being slow becuase it had no route programmed. Or maybe the system in your car is a bit crap!
The OP needs to update his details, only a TVR S2 is shown. 
It will likely depend on the age of the system.
I have a 2009 SLK and the COMAND Navigation is fairy good for a system 15 yrs old. I occasionally show as being off-road of course on recent new roads. It isn't dynamic either, wheread Google Maps advises about accidents and road closures. I think mine is NTG 3.5 :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_COMAND
It will likely depend on the age of the system. I have a 2009 SLK and the COMAND Navigation is fairy good for a system 15 yrs old. I occasionally show as being off-road of course on recent new roads. It isn't dynamic either, wheread Google Maps advises about accidents and road closures. I think mine is NTG 3.5 :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_COMAND
The Comand system in a 2009 SLK would be NTG 2.5. I have the same in my 2010 :-)
To be honest I've never had a problem with it, yeah it's ancient by today's standards, it doesn't have online traffic or anything like that. But the SLK for me is a summer car to take out for sunny weekends, in that respect the sat nav just needs to get me to a town / place on a Sunday drive which it still does perfectly. (I'm never in a rush to care about about online traffic)
The system navigated me perfectly from Yorkshire to The South of France and back this year for my summer trip. No issues at all. I think with the older systems you just need to be realistic in your expectations. If you really must have all the extra modern features you need to use your phone, but for basic A to B route planning it still works perfectly.
To be honest I've never had a problem with it, yeah it's ancient by today's standards, it doesn't have online traffic or anything like that. But the SLK for me is a summer car to take out for sunny weekends, in that respect the sat nav just needs to get me to a town / place on a Sunday drive which it still does perfectly. (I'm never in a rush to care about about online traffic)
The system navigated me perfectly from Yorkshire to The South of France and back this year for my summer trip. No issues at all. I think with the older systems you just need to be realistic in your expectations. If you really must have all the extra modern features you need to use your phone, but for basic A to B route planning it still works perfectly.
Edited by gregpot2000 on Monday 2nd September 11:39
Exactly, it's not low quality, it's just of it's time and ancient by modern standards. Calling it low quality would be akin to trying to use a mobile, or the first iPhone from 2007 today, and complaining it cannot be used in 2024 effectively with modern expectations.
Ironically, I think it was actually a £2000+ option when the car was new!
The same phone would probably work today fine for making basic calls and the occasional SMS message though, and that's the same here really.
Ironically, I think it was actually a £2000+ option when the car was new!
The same phone would probably work today fine for making basic calls and the occasional SMS message though, and that's the same here really.
The biggest annoyances are,
It's very slow to plan a new route once you vary from it's initially chosen route. It keeps trying to make you turn around and go back.
It's not good at correctly estimating time to destination.
Even quite old COMAND has live traffic information, which is one of its few redeeming features.
Generally speaking Mercedes in-car technology seems very clunky and non-intuitive. The i-Manual (or whetever it's called) is a useless thing that's beyond useless, which is particularly annoying when the half inch thick paper manual contains nothing but safety warnings.
It's very slow to plan a new route once you vary from it's initially chosen route. It keeps trying to make you turn around and go back.
It's not good at correctly estimating time to destination.
Even quite old COMAND has live traffic information, which is one of its few redeeming features.
Generally speaking Mercedes in-car technology seems very clunky and non-intuitive. The i-Manual (or whetever it's called) is a useless thing that's beyond useless, which is particularly annoying when the half inch thick paper manual contains nothing but safety warnings.
Faszination76 said:
Although there are some that prefer Google maps and bizarrely and for reasons I can’t fathom, Waze.
I have not tried Waze so may be completely wrong, but my understanding is that users can report mobile speed cameras, therefore warning other Waze users.
Those with a collection of cars, probably abide by speed limits these days, so warnings are not needed.
Insurers probably enjoy customers having speeding convictions. They can apply a premium loading to every car owned by the policyholder, not for 3 years (the expiry of points), but 5 years. The total extra premium cost, could be a multiple of the fine imposed.
A comment about MBUX.
Was this the first M-B infotainment system to have 'over-air' updates? That seems to be one way for the navigation information to be kept more up to date. Overall the whole system works very well, but I am not yet sure whether the various slow/stopped traffic coloured lines are as good as Google. Google Maps use (is it) four colours; green flowing; orange slower; red very slow; black stopped.
I think MBUX seems to just display orange, indicating slow/stopped traffic.
The MBUX Media is good. I have a music collection on a USB memory stick. The files were originally mp4 music videos. Software is used to extract the audio (enabling the car to play the files). To complete the professional look, software can be used so that Artist and Song Titles are displayed. Just for fun, you can even add a picture of a passenger, which will automatically display on the screen, when their favourite song is playing. Doing all this is very quick, once how to do it has been worked out, but that is always the case with computers.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Tuesday 10th September 17:37
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