Mercedes me - any catch?

[gordonwd]

So my Mrs has been offered a free Mercedes-me adapter for her 2016 SLK during her upcoming service. Free?

Any users out there who might know what the catch is?

 

[rf065]

I believe they are all free now from any dealers?

 

[gordonwd]

Thanks - it appears so.

My suspicious nature is making me ask "why? What's in it for them?"

 

[rf065]

They can collect data on how the car is used?
Lots of features available for the owner though, I can lock & unlock mine remotely, handy when you forget to lock it & your sitting in your hotel room on holiday.

 

[ernieh]

It will also tell you that your battery's flat....when you're in Benidorm on holiday!

Ernie

 

[Srdl]

Agreed it has some uses when built into a new car but I’ve a feeling functionality is more limited on the OBD adapter especially on older models.

 

[rorywquin]

Put it in my wife's B Class about 8 months ago, and she has never looked at it .....

 

[Nigel Hewitt]

I was rather disappointed with the adapter against the spec of the built in stuff on later models.
I get the impression that it Bluetooths some diagnostic stuff into my phone and all I get on the display is what was recorded before I turned the key to off. Mileage, fuel and the state of the battery just as I parked it (so always lovely).

Am I missing a trick somewhere?

 

[gordonwd]

I was rather disappointed with the adapter against the spec of the built in stuff on later models.
I get the impression that it Bluetooths some diagnostic stuff into my phone and all I get on the display is what was recorded before I turned the key to off. Mileage, fuel and the state of the battery just as I parked it (so always lovely).

Am I missing a trick somewhere?

Sounds about right. Unless the adapter has some data-only SIM card type thing, your mobile-phone has to be nearby (I.e. Bluetooth-close) to get any data out of it.

 

[ernieh]

You get better functionality with Comand On Line where the car has the SIM card and therefore doesn’t depend on blue tooth to transfer data.

Ernie

 

[TimGriff6]

I have one in my SLK. It has limited functionality so I can’t lock the car remotely. It does keep a record of every trip and refuelling so can be useful for expenses claims etc. The big drawback for me is that the app drains the phone battery at a stupidly fast rate and uses a lot of data. I don’t use it on my main phone and have an old phone plugged into the car which only uses Wi-fi hot spots but that limits location data being available. All of the data must be available to Daimler BENZ but that seems to be common to all new cars nowadays so it’s probably not worth getting excited about.

 

[ajlsl600]

wont be getting excited about that,seems just another gimick ? sounds like microsoft , mining data.. ! did get excited about 10 lit mobil 1 oil for 27£ at leclerc supermarket sales last monday.

 

[Headhurts]

It’s worth it just for the lock/unlock feature.

Just ask someone who locked their keys in the car on first day of a French holiday.

Doh!

Robin

 

[Andy.M]

It’s worth it just for the lock/unlock feature.

Just ask someone who locked their keys in the car on first day of a French holiday.

Doh!

Robin

Well there you go, every cloud etc

 

[TimGriff6]

It’s worth it just for the lock/unlock feature.

Just ask someone who locked their keys in the car on first day of a French holiday.

Doh!

Robin

So do you have the plug-in adaptor or the factory fitted one?

 

[Headhurts]

So do you have the plug-in adaptor or the factory fitted one?

Factory fitted with built in coms module/sim

Robin

 

[John Laidlaw]

The adapter option does not often have the lock/unlock window close feature sadly which as mentioned is probably the biggest benefit