benefits of Comand v Nav50 v TomTom?

Hi all,

Completely new to MB and this forum but am about to buy a new W212 E220 Avantgarde CDI.

The only thing I cannot decide on is what option to go for with regards to the telephone/media/navigation unit.

I've searched high and low and cannot find any detailed analysis on the features of the Comand unit versus the Navigation 50.

The key questions I have are:

1. How does the Navigation module of Nav50 and Comand differ - is it just screen size or is there more to it.

2. How does the Nav50 / Comand navigation differ from the new TomTom's - I understand that Nav50/Comand does not have speed cameras, and relies on Radio TMC for traffic updates but can anyone assess their capabilities as a satnav unit against the modern TomToms

3. Is there anyway to update the Nav50/Comand unit with speed cameras as a custom POI?

4. Whats the general view of the integrated SatNav - whilst I can see its tidier - surely the general progress of aftermarket satnav's is going to make the MB versions obsolete fairly quickly - or can they be upgraded easily (and cheaply?)

Any advice / linkes to other posts or sites reviewing these would be really helpful,

thanks, Ed

 

If I was buying another Merc, I would always go for COMAND. It gives you everything in one tidy place and looks much better than unsightly marks on you windscreen that you get with aftermarket satnavs. I don't miss the camera warnings as they can be annoying and I don't tend to speed - cruise control has aften saved points on my licence in average speed check areas. I would always get telephone pre-wire so you never have to be caught out with mobile calls. Further, COMAND will add value to the car for selling on one day. Hope this helps.

 

Hi - thanks for the reply. Yes tidyness is better than unsightly marks.

As a frequent tomtom user in my old car (ford- dont ask!) I am worried that its general write ups are not very good when looking at the satnav function in comparison to tomtom.

is it a case of - yes, it doesnt match aftermarket satnavs in terms of function and ease / cost of updates - but its a) neater due to speaker integration and leaves no marks on windscreen and b) increases overall re-sell value of car. That to me seems to be the reason why people seem to be so pro COMAND. or am I missing something else?

thanks, Ed

Any further thoughts on this?

 

Hello and welcome,, in your shoes I would buy the Comand and get a tiny speed camera device, they a so very small and easy to tuck away. Thats what I do

 

Thanks Malcolm - any recommendations on the speed camera device - i've seen the battery life is a bit pokey on some of this....grateful for any suggestions. thanks again, Ed

 

I have hard wired a Talex into mine and lost the power lead through the dash top, they also work well in an upper corner. I would chose one that matches the car well

There are battery versions that go for 8 hours, little difference in most of them in how they work.

The current Comand in the 212 is so very nice

 

thanks Malcolm - its funny, your final comment really sums it up - yes the COMAND in the 212 is "so very nice" but its really expensive and, whilst I havent done a detailed product analysis, its no way near as good as a £300 tomtom from halfords. and you have to pay £1,745 for it on top of the basic media option of £440 - I think if you're going to spend the money on a new 212 then you might as well get it but I hope I dont rue the day that I ticked the box on the option sheet!

thanks again for your help, Ed

 

Maybe this all comes down to " how often will you use it" It was part of the standard equipment on mine so nothing to decide.

This debate has come up so many times, the advantage with Tom Tom is that you can fit it in other cars.

The guy that bought my car new ticked every box possible, and I thank him for that

 

Hi Ed,
I recently got another Merc with the 2004 version of Command fitted (dont know what that version it is known as ???).
I also have the very latest 5" screen TomTom which I used in my previous C270 Cdi).
My TomTom is in the following link: (Damned good price as mine was £269 !).
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...165685_langId_-1?cm_vc=IOV4PDPZ1&iozone=PDPz1

From an interface and sheer ease of use point of view, the TomTom is streets ahead (pardon the pun). I particularly like the "Lane guidance" feature when on busy junctions of motorways.
There is a particularly useful "Help me" icon on the TomTom screen which, when pressed asks if you need Doctor, Pharmacy, Police etc etc..
It asks if you want a driving or walking route..
You press say Doctor and it will list the nearest to you.. You then press the one you want and it gives the phone number and also EXACT details of where you are in case you are incapacitated for some reason. It even gives the full latitude/longtitude co-ordinates if you need them (Air ambulance?).

Another point to consider is the FULL post code search..
To be honest I am not that bothered about the lack of full post code search on my version of command BUT..
My mums friend lives in a fairly remote rural location called Overton (Near ish to Morecambe) and the command unit wouldnt recognise her address. I then used the "MAP" search on Command to physically point to the road (which it did have in its data base) and asked it to navigate there.. It said "Route not possible" or words to that effect..
I asked TomTom to do the same and it plotted the route with no problem at all.
When we got to my Mums friends place I "stored" the location on Command and renamed it.. Later when I got home I thought I would try Command again and asked it to plot a course to the route I had saved... It still said route could not be calculated!
I would hope the latest generation of Commands have come on a bit by now!

A plus point for the command unit is the sheer speed of processing a route. For example the trip to Cornwall I am doing later this morning is 335 miles from home. Command worked out the route in under 10 seconds..
TomTom took about 50 seconds or so.
That aspect doesnt concern me too much but the antiquated input method of Command does.
To be fair the actual route chosen by Command seems to be very accurate and the spoken instruction is very good. I do like the way it turns the radio / CD volume down as it speaks (Optional and adjustable).
The only system I have used that really does give TomTom a true run for its money is the 7" touch screen units in the latest VW/Audi cars.
I had one retro fitted to a Golf once and I was very impressed indeed. It had a built in 30GB hard drive which allowed you to store music. That was all accessible through the touch screen...Excellent.

To sum up...
I dont know what year of Command you are thinking about but I think you should buy as late an example as possible.
Try to have a demo of the latest wide screen TomToms as they are incredible value for money.

They say "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" so I can only tell you that I have Command fitted to my car and yet my TomTom is not for sale nore will it ever be.
Its that good !

 

After Simons post (Simon, you have the APS version) the better thing on Comand that I have found that it tells you exactly when to turn and says "turn now" unlike others that say turn in 100yds,, that is a fat lot of good when sitting in traffic and not moving and there are multi rounderbouts, you also get the turns up in the dash, when comand tells you these things it is real time and not simulated

 

Ah thanks Malcolm..
The car had a faulty 2004 Command DVD when I got it so he replaced it with a 2008 free of charge..
Thats reasonably up to date so I shall leave it as is.

On the subject of the Command system Malcolm, have you experienced the latest versions?
I hear they are a hard drive unit.. How do they compare ?

 

The new ones are so much better in many ways,,so I am told with a 7 digit post code. Your car is MOST based and you could fit a newer version but an expensive operation.

Mine is the earlier version of yours (dx) it has always got me to where I want to go,,I have the 2010 disc

 

Hi Ed

If you are contemplating speccing either Navigation 50 or Comand APS in a W212 my advice would be to forget it. Save the money and use a Tom Tom. In my view it is a step back in time compared to earlier Merc satnav systems and Mercedes acknowledge major problems with the database and route planning functionality that they are attempting to resolve - at the moment without success. Sure the Media Interface aspects of Nav 50 or Comand APS are nice and the screen presentation layout is neat but that's as far as it goes.

I have Comand APS in a 2010 E class and despite having two recent system updates, Comand is often incapable of calculating the quickest route to a destination. Let me give you one example: if you were driving east on the M4 towards London and wanted to go to Sussex, would you turn left at the M4/M25 junction and go north or turn right and go south. W212 Comand tells you to turn left towards Watford.

The POI (Point of Interest) database is even worse. Example: from my home, if I want to choose a restaurant within a 5 mile radius I enter Destination/from POIs/Current Position/Restaurant/All. What appears is a list of Catering Companies, Chinese & Indian takeaways, fish & chip shops, and several restaurants that closed down several years ago.

The original database supplied with the new vehicle three months ago was rather comical if you asked for a restaurant search as it mainly contained Mc Donalds, Burger King, Pizza Express etc. The navigation side was grotesquely outdated eg if you wanted to go to Heathrow Airport it had Terminals 1, 2 and 3 listed but not 4 or 5.

Mercedes have a big big problem which, perhaps fortunately for them, the world doesnt yet know about. They issued a press release early last month offering free map/database updates to W212 owners for 3 years. I wonder why?

Earlier Merc satnav systems such as the ones in the CLS and R230 SL are excellent in comparison with the W212.

 

For some years we have used unbranded chinese units.

Like the Tom Tom, you talk of, they are mobile plug in units.
Most seem to use IGO (8.3) software, but they are supposed to be capable of running other software. The IGO worked well for us so it wasn't a consideration to be explored.
IGO has favourites, recent, help for petrol, doctor.......
The software is very comprehensive, but I have little experience of other.

I see on Ebay these units are now sporting 5" touch widescreen for £50 (plus some postage).
Full postcode facility.
They bluetooth your mobile very effectively.
They carry entertainment on the SD card to play background in Sat Nav mode. Here there is choice of music, photo and video files (and Ebook). (Maybe useful for showing holiday snaps to family when you get there).
The next sweet thing is that they output all this via a preset FM frequency, you tune your car into this and listen to the unit through it.
Watch Sat Nav, turn spoken directions on / off easily, background music plays with directions spoken over (I prefer this to units that switch between as the music disappears and takes a second or so to return when the lady shuts up).

Rather than suction onto the screen on my wife's BM I cable tied the units holder onto the air vent, on my 2001 C class I mounted the holder below the audio. Not as neat as comand but an improvement on screen mount and much cheaper.

For £50 it could be worth a try out.

 

I have the Navigation 50 in my new W212 Estate; and I was impressed with its quality, and accuracy ("turn now!"). I am however frustrated by its lack of postcode granularity - you can get to the first number of the second part, but then have to have a street name - and more than once I was stumped because I didn't have one, or the Merc didn't seem to know it.

Command is almost another £1000 on top - and I am not convinced it is worth it. Nav 50 does increase the car resale value (per residual), but it doesn't have the voice recognition and the slightly larger screen (or DVD playback, if you want that in the front dash).

 

I retro fitted a NTG2.5 into my 2004 W211 .

On balance, it's absolutely the thing to do, because-

It's looks the part - aftermarket units look exactly that, aftermarket...
Blue tooth telephony works very well and sound quality is rated
DVD playback is a pure toy to show off, but useless in practice
Sat nav in the centre of the speedo is very useful - map and user interface is beaten hands down by Tom Tom, but it doesn't have the integration in the dash and speedo.
Music register is a nice touch- all those Mp3s in one unit is nice
The retro radio display just looks great- none of that neon garish look

The cost of Comand is horrendous compared to aftermarket, but you have to pay for quality and more importantly, the aesthetics...

 

A portable device has to be removed every time you leave the car and you need it with you each time you want to use it.
Built in means its always there whenever you need it.

Now a windows device built in would be superb, would be able to use any satnav systems and would be able to navigate with google maps in satellite view :lol:

 

If you're buying new, then you're paying a lot for something that is functionally inferior for some users, inflexible, and apparently only adds £250 to the resale value of a Merc that's older than three years.

In specifying a new car last month, it was a no-brainer to ignore it and use my Garmin (which allows for Bluetooth connection to my phone, by the way, but I'm still going for telephone pre-wiring anyway).

I do like Television's suggestion of an additional speed camera alert tool, but that works (for me) only if the car came with Comand as standard.

I would use the money for something else on a new Merc. The "help" functionality described above for the Tomtom is excellent, and Mercedes would do well to mimic that. I'd pay the extra £1k for that if it were updated every year for the three year subscription, and if I could add POIs as I needed them (lots of European driving, new French cameras popping up all the time, etc).

 

In the debate about built in versus stuck to the windscreen, I have Brodit mounts in both cars for my Navman, and have a B2+ traffic and bluetooth module on each. The Brodit mount system is 2 pieces - one specific to the car (and where on the dash / centre console you want it) and the other part specific to the item you want to mount - so you can get mounts for Garmins, Tom Toms etc. Have a look at DSL Developments www.dsldevelopments.com.

I've read quite a few threads on here about Command, and my overall impression is that, if it's already there, fine, but in your case it's a hell of a lot of money for something that Tom Tom's do a lot better.

 

Default benefits of Comand v Nav50 v TomTom?

My current E class has command system installed and is very good. Prior to this my C270 CDI did not and I used a Tomtom sat nav. My tomtom is now redundant but I use it if I have a hire car on holiday or loan it to friends. The sat nav and command with my current car is very good but I missed the cash cameras on the tomtom so I bought a Novus rider and that is brilliant in use and operation. Hope this helps. Nav 50 has a smaller screen and only covers U.K.