adding features to cars...

Botus

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why are Mercedes so hard to improve, the software's all locked or too stupid to work with and there's no knowledge base sharing how to guides

for pennies on the second car, I have added and coded myself using only genuine parts and software the features in the list below exactly as though it was bought new with them...

Cruise control (£60 leather 4 spoke wheel with the buttons - 1 hours labour)
Auto wipers and Auto lights (£30 loom, £15 RLS, £12 Auto light switch, £45 upgraded GEM [SAM in merc world] - 2 hours)
Auto dimming interior mirror (£25, - 10 mins once the loom's in place for the lights and wipers)
DAB radio (£100, with much more powerful amp - 25 mins)
Bluetooth phone, Bluetooth music streaming, USB audio (£120 module, £12 Mic and its trim - 3 hours to modify a £25 quid VW BT loom from china)
Voice control (£15 column stalk - 3 minutes)
 

rorywquin

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Presumably because Mercedes want you to pay for a car that is reliable and works without problem .....etc.

What you do, is quite common in Australia - buy the poverty pack then upgrade as you can afford it and "ultimately" rebadge it!:)
 

ajlsl600

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clk3202001,sl6002003 with everything regrettably sold ,A class 170cdi auto. NG/TF1800 ML250
sounds good, my ml came without electric folding mirrors any ideas how i might know if wiring is there in case i can find some used mirrors i could not find one i liked with them as std. and its a pain folding them.
 

flowrider

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For my Audi I have Carista which can add quite a lot of added functionality to my S5, it's a shame there is so little support for Mercedes cars.
 

LostKiwi

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I'd guess because MB want to keep a record of the spec for recall purposes.
If for example there was a recall on cruise MB know exactly which cars have cruise to recall them.
 

ajlsl600

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clk3202001,sl6002003 with everything regrettably sold ,A class 170cdi auto. NG/TF1800 ML250
I'd guess because MB want to keep a record of the spec for recall purposes.
If for example there was a recall on cruise MB know exactly which cars have cruise to recall them.


makes good sense that. but you can add stuff ,its just ridiculously expensive. £900 to do folding mirror say mb ! command do the reverse camera,thats a fortune as well so i did not even ask the dealer. for me the question is, is the infrastructure in the car to do it. i recentlt chopped up a diesel a class , thought to move the heated seat function over ,switches and mats ,no issues ,but harness different !
on reverse camera there are ebay options ? but until i find someone who has successfully done it ,i will wait. i can talk to my ml and it parks itself ! but i would have rathered the more useful stuff , in fact i do wonder who spec,ed mine ?
 

KennyN

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This is something i have wondered for a while now with MB cars, i had to drive 850 miles to get someone to code my paddle shift conversion on my CLS and i had to send my headunit to the same company so it could be coded for a simple reversing camera.

With my present car , a £20 bluetooth dongle and a £25 Bimmercode app unlocks a whole host of hidden features and upgrades especially when in "expert" mode.

Kenny
 

Craiglxviii

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Because MB sequence their cable harnesses for each individual customer order, so the function isn’t giveaway within the vehicle. BMW and VAG tend to give away maximum harness functionality to minimise part count lineside in their plants.

And- because MB can charge for extras that mist clients are happy to pay for.
 

LostKiwi

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Because MB sequence their cable harnesses for each individual customer order, so the function isn’t giveaway within the vehicle. BMW and VAG tend to give away maximum harness functionality to minimise part count lineside in their plants.

And- because MB can charge for extras that mist clients are happy to pay for.
Saw exactly this in play when I visited the factory in Sindelfingen back in 1998.
The dashboards for W202s were individually built according to specification, including harnesses and wood trims. If you look at the MB parts catalog you can see all manner of different switch panel configs according to options fitted.
 
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Botus

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lost kiwi's idea about recalls is a sensible debate.... but bearing in mind no one ever does software updates, it doesn't actually wash for me.

on the 221 I have mentioned in various posts that the active cruise gets a fright on every now and then, *usually with vans of a certain shape and its been in and out over the years to have some checks / settings tweaked. All rather interesting when you find out its on the original software which was 2005.... when you then find out since 2008 updates have been sitting on the shelf waiting to be applied... and as it turns out is 3 minutes to update the main radar and 10 minutes to do the other two

I got it done this year and pick up from stationary is much more refined than it was... brakes later and harder (which seems strange as that was well judged before, but I'm getting used to that bit now) so clearly it is a substantial change. However it seems to get a fright a bit more frequently (in fact a few days after it properly freaked and stood on the brakes on an empty motorway... but not done it since)… As I'd almost eliminated its freaking out myself (by tweaking the main radar), I guess I could try that again.

Funny how merc needs this special tool (of which only in the country to lent out as and when dealers ask and only after a full front and rear geometry check... when in the BMW manual it just says regularly check its pointing the right way (and always worked far better)
 

Craiglxviii

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Why drive Mercs then if they’re so cr@p?
 

ajlsl600

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Why drive Mercs then if they’re so cr@p?


i dont think benz are crap myself i just dont think they are significantly better than a number of others ,whereas thirty yrs ago i would have thought they definitely were . and whilst i still have three i am not going to pull my punches concerning what i consider poor,bad design or other factors that i feel justified in bringing up . i accept nothing is perfect and that i could have recently bought a dacia duster of ford kuga but decided on another benz difference is, thirty yrs ago i would know the quality was such that it would easily outlive both of them today i am FAR from sure/confident of that. (my 85 G230 is STILL going in kenya with a friend who bought it from me ) but then i dont get the "disposable " car thing that younger generations seem to be brought up to simply accept.
 

Craiglxviii

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Andy- your first sentence nearly sums up the market. Cars in general have continued to improve massively; however the gap between the bottom and top of the main volume players in the market has closed significantly since around 2000AD or so.
 

ajlsl600

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right ! what that seems to mean to me is, previously i just drove the car ,knowing that come what may i would have little difficulty in maintaining it and keeping it going and now things are SO much better ? it has become prudent for me to spend significant time and energy investigating issues and solutions that have a more than an odds on chance of effecting me and my motor in an adverse fashion , if i investigate and collect information on the possible/known issues i have a chance of an economic, sensible solution ,if i dont i stand to become a victim of the makers seemingly deliberate made to fail policy. i just CANT understand why the makers cant make reliable parts especially NON moving parts . maybe they can ? but maybe thats not part of their marketing strategy ? it often seems to me that the policy is ,to simply make it reliable enought to ,on average make it out of warranty. i understand that some stuff lasts a long time ,i have changed 2x battery and 1x MAF 1x regulator, as electrical components on my w208 since 2003 ! but i think there is MUCH less likelihood of the becoming the norm now..
 

Flyinspanner

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The manufacturers want you to get all your spares & servicing “in house”, it generates much more profit than actually selling you a new car!

So the requirement for “coding” anything to your car means many go to the dealership... £££££

Comand system updates ££££

The fact that ICE has moved away from standard DIN fitments - they don’t want you to be able to get better units elsewhere for £300, when you can get an updated unit from them for £2000.
(Actually, that’s the stupidest unit to make ‘unique’ as hardware and software and media used is developing faster than the factories can manage, and software outstrips the hardware fitted quickly.)

(And as noted above, they often don’t do the free updates to software they are meant to as it will ‘cost’ the dealership 13mins)(#10)

A database for recalls is waaaaaay down a list, probably a happy coincidence. They could manage that via the dvla.
 

flowrider

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I can add all sorts of functionality / customisation to my Audi with a £16 ODB2 dongle and a £34 app. No need to visit a dealer.
 
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Botus

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right ! what that seems to mean to me is, previously i just drove the car ,knowing that come what may i would have little difficulty in maintaining it and keeping it going and now things are SO much better ? it has become prudent for me to spend significant time and energy investigating issues and solutions that have a more than an odds on chance of effecting me and my motor in an adverse fashion , if i investigate and collect information on the possible/known issues i have a chance of an economic, sensible solution ,if i dont i stand to become a victim of the makers seemingly deliberate made to fail policy. i just CANT understand why the makers cant make reliable parts especially NON moving parts . maybe they can ? but maybe thats not part of their marketing strategy ? it often seems to me that the policy is ,to simply make it reliable enought to ,on average make it out of warranty. i understand that some stuff lasts a long time ,i have changed 2x battery and 1x MAF 1x regulator, as electrical components on my w208 since 2003 ! but i think there is MUCH less likelihood of the becoming the norm now..


you need to lead the slaves slowly towards the end (you can't have them notice there's an issue till its too late to do anything about it)

if we all knew up to 2005 years cars lasted 15 years with little ill effect then we wouldn't have all swapped them out for ever earlier dying rubbish

these days 4 years is enough for the long lease cars to pay back enough till the manu can afford to scrap them.... along with all the other changes in life, fakes terro15m events killing friends and loved ones, will you have a job long enough to have any form of retirement plan that works, the wife still tolerates you, the ability of the planet to survive etc. and you don't notice you were totally robbed
 

Craiglxviii

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I’d love to know which cars prior to 2005 you think were longer lasting than today’s crop. Until 2014, manufacturers worked on 5 years with the first owner as a global average. Then, a number of very large surveys were done which surprised everyone- the global average lifetime of a new car with its first owner was 8.1 years. So, OEMs started changing their parts lifetime assumptions. All that means that cars are now designed to last longer than they were before.
 

LostKiwi

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I’d love to know which cars prior to 2005 you think were longer lasting than today’s crop. Until 2014, manufacturers worked on 5 years with the first owner as a global average. Then, a number of very large surveys were done which surprised everyone- the global average lifetime of a new car with its first owner was 8.1 years. So, OEMs started changing their parts lifetime assumptions. All that means that cars are now designed to last longer than they were before.
W124. Made from granite.
Other contenders are R129 and 190E.

There are a lot of 190e still around - not much doubt in my mind they'll outlast the W203 and 204. They've already outlasted the W202.
 

d215yq

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right ! what that seems to mean to me is, previously i just drove the car ,knowing that come what may i would have little difficulty in maintaining it and keeping it going and now things are SO much better ? it has become prudent for me to spend significant time and energy investigating issues and solutions that have a more than an odds on chance of effecting me and my motor in an adverse fashion , if i investigate and collect information on the possible/known issues i have a chance of an economic, sensible solution ,if i dont i stand to become a victim of the makers seemingly deliberate made to fail policy. i just CANT understand why the makers cant make reliable parts especially NON moving parts . maybe they can ? but maybe thats not part of their marketing strategy ? it often seems to me that the policy is ,to simply make it reliable enought to ,on average make it out of warranty. i understand that some stuff lasts a long time ,i have changed 2x battery and 1x MAF 1x regulator, as electrical components on my w208 since 2003 ! but i think there is MUCH less likelihood of the becoming the norm now..

What I don't understand is you make this argument in many a thread and yet you have a R230 SL 600 which has to be possibly the most "designed to fail" (or in my opinion more just designed with gimmicks/complexity to a price which means it fails) car ever, from what I hear even a 1990s Bentley Turbo R is cheaper to run than one of those!. If you really spend so much time worrying about all this design to fail stuff why not just buy an old W124/W123/R129/W126 and be done with it. All my W124s including my completely mechanical 33yr old daily driver have done 20k mile/year and never ever had a failure that wasn't easily fixed by someone with tools and basic mechanical skills. As I'm a bit of a beginner with no garage (not even a drive) I've had to pay for some of the rare failures they've had but even then have fixed half myself with a bit of help from here. At the end of the day people don't care about this designed to fail/hard to repair/modify stuff but if you do you can quite easily buy some nice 80s/90s stuff that fits the bill.
 
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