Are MB ripping us off - Traffic, Monitoring & Vehicle on 3+years old car

[rorywquin]

I don't mind paying a reasonable price to use the features but I think they are taking the p1$$ with these costs. I can only use 6 / 14 services available and yet will have to pay for all 14. £277 to get a 3 year deal (best bang for buck).

 

[Blobcat]

Yes they are, amount of miles you do I wouldn’t bother

 

[grayb]

Traffic is pretty essential, surely, if you are going to use the Satnav? They are looking to claw revenue wherever they can.

 

[JBell]

Google maps now has a specific driving App. Waze is also popular on here

 

[EmilysDad]

Traffic is pretty essential, surely, if you are going to use the Satnav? They are looking to claw revenue wherever they can.

If it's going to be busy I use WAZE. It uses up to date maps & is live which is more than be said of Comand. My up to date Comand maps are at least a couple of years out.

 

[Blobcat]

Traffic is pretty essential, surely, if you are going to use the Satnav? They are looking to claw revenue wherever they can.

It’s not, it’s only as good as the Data

 

[Srdl]

I don't mind paying a reasonable price to use the features but I think they are taking the p1$$ with these costs. I can only use 6 / 14 services available and yet will have to pay for all 14. £277 to get a 3 year deal (best bang for buck).

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I think it’s actually worse than that. There’s probably only three services I really value enough to want to pay for and they are spread across all three categories. So I would be paying £277 for just those three functions.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Not dissimilar with BMW
“Connected package Plus”
Gets you:-
Remote services (equivalent to vehicle monitoring and set up)
BMW Online
BMW Connected +
Online speech processing
USB Map update
RTTI
This costs £99 for the year , you don’t get the chance of extended years at a prorata discount
I could add concierge services and digital charging service for another £75 ish but can’t see the point!
The RTTI is the important one

 

[rorywquin]

Traffic is pretty essential, surely, if you are going to use the Satnav? They are looking to claw revenue wherever they can.

Waze is the way around "MB traffic" but it is doing weird stuff with my safety systems - I've yet to work out what is happening but, when I use Waze, "lane assist" etc is disabled....

 

[rorywquin]

I think it’s actually worse than that. There’s probably only three services I really value enough to want to pay for and they are spread across all three categories. So I would be paying £277 for just those three functions.

Exactly & ditto.

 

[mioba]

Thats ridiculous to squueze that from customers given what we pay for a car.
That said the technology moves so fast going subscription offers flexibility.
My old w220 uses TMC for dynamic traffic info (the data it gets from the radio) its ****** old technology considering but is still always spot on.

 

[rorywquin]

If it's going to be busy I use WAZE. It uses up to date maps & is live which is more than be said of Comand. My up to date Comand maps are at least a couple of years out.

ED..... SAT NAV traffic is a small component. MB have restructured the system so that we are paying for stuff we do not need. The owners of newer cars are really getting screwed to be able to use functionality that the car was sold with.

My 3 year old car can only use 6/14 of the stuff I would have to pay for.

 

[sonic]

Google maps now has a specific driving App. Waze is also popular on here

Got Waze on Apple Play in the new car its great & free.

 

[rorywquin]

Thats ridiculous to squueze that from customers given what we pay for a car.
That said the technology moves so fast going subscription offers flexibility.
My old w220 uses TMC for dynamic traffic info (the data it gets from the radio) its ****** old technology considering but is still always spot on.

No flexibility - I have to pay for 14 functions and can only use 6. I've written to them (Mercedes) and they do not care. I paid for a (£80K) car that did 'A' and in a month will be downgraded to a "B" car.

 

[rorywquin]

When you sat in that car in the show room, did the salesman/woman tell you that in three years you would have to pay a £100 or more / year to keep the same car that you purchased (i.e. you bought the car)?

 

[davemercedes]

When I first bought my (used) car in 2013 I thought it might be sensible to have it serviced within the franchise to maintain the value and get the benefit of Mobilo... I still have the correspondence on file where I tried to get 12 x months of servicing to cost me no more than the equivalent service costs which was a rather frustrating exercise. Almost the same week my bank introduced a packaged account that included full European breakdown cover for both SWMBO and me in any car at any time and the sums just did not add up. I had one experience of trying to use my Mercedes warranty to get the Aircon fully operable and of course MB wanted to charge me something like an hour's labour to check it...

So sadly, Mobilo got the finger and I took my car to a local garage with a very good reputation who service the car correctly to schedule and can't do enough for me with odds and ends - for example when my arthritic fingers couldn't cope with changing the headlamp bulbs the manager just called over a mechanic who spent 10 - 12 minutes on it and they waved me away when I asked for a bill. In any case their hourly rate is 1/3rd less than MB anyway! If I have any "funny" problem I can talk to the mechanic who's going to do the job before and after they do it and most of them know me by now and they've taken care of it from 66K to 104K (miles) just coming up.

Personal service at a reasonable price is definitely worth a lot!

 

[rorywquin]

I'm heading into year 4 with my SL and it will go to my indy for the next service. HOWEVER, MB are adding a cost to the car that they never told us about. Worse is, that they are structuring it to gouge as much money as possible.

 

[grayb]

Waze and Google maps are only relevant if you have Apple CarPlay or the Android equivalent, I guess? Unless you have your phone on a mount in the car (and look like a taxi driver). I've never owned a car new enough for such connectivity so I rely on TMC or our stand-alone Garmin.

 

[EmilysDad]

...). I've never owned a car new enough for such connectivity so ....

Neither have I so I prop up my phone in the centre console

 

[grayb]

Neither have I so I prop up my phone in the centre console

I have done that in the Honda when desperate! It has a cup holder to the right of the steering wheel that works OK.