Retrospective fitting of Sat Nav in a C-Class?

[HKW]

Hello all,

We have an A160 Elegance C-Class, automatic, about 18 months old. Husband has recently become obsessed with Sat Nav and wants to have it fitted in the car....

We live in West London, can anyone recommend a reputable company that can install? Apparently there was an ad./article about Sat Nav installation in a fairly recent issue of the Mercedes Owners magazine, but we can't find our copy.

Any help, advice etc. gratefully received! Many thanks!

hkw

 

[steptoe]

why not buy a portable type, much better than to have one retro fitted into the car, then you can transfer it from car to car -

I've got a BMW navigator ( same as the garmin street pilot 3 ) , i use it on my motorcycle and in the cars.
Cost around £300 second hand with all the extras , the garmin 2610 is the top of the range, and is available for around £550 new.

Couldn't do without one now .

 

[HKW]

Unfortunately husband is adamant that the fitted ones are far superior to the portable ones...and I must say I've read some pretty ropey reviews of the TomTom, especially within the London area (doesn't work very well around here, apparently). NavMan seems to be better reviewed, but still limited apparently.

We were even looking at replacing the Mercedes with a BMW X5, but husband decided that the standard of SatNav fitted in used X5s at the moment is inferior to that of the Mercedes!! :roll:

 

[jberks]

A160 C class - not sure what your car is. Swapping an A class for an X5 seems a bit drastic for a sat nav system.
The tomtom is never quite as accurate as the in car units as they don't have the wheel speed sensor. But then if you have an A, you may not have a feed for this anyway (not sure). I have used a tomtom quite a lot and find it ok most of the time.
I suspect the problem in London is the buildings blocking out the ariel. You can get external roof ariels for tomtom systems which would give you the same results as a factory fitted one, and all for a lot less than a fitted system or new car.

If I remember right, the A class has a standard din radio. If so, it could be replaced by a range of units at your local in car stereo specialist. These units are far better than the merc units which have become notorious of late, plus many also play dvd's!

 

[HKW]

DUH! Sorry - getting the cars mixed up!! Too blonde...


We have two cars: mine is the A-Class - forget about that - it's the husband's C-CLASS Elegance I'm talking about.

 

[guydewdney]

there are a few articles about of fitting a COMAND system to the C class - but you have to be handy with the scalpel... - see under the radio theres a small cubby hole? COMAND takes up double head unit space, and thus takes up that cubby hole.

You have to find a COMAND from a ML as the C class doesnt have canbus - (computers talking to one another across a mini network) which the comand needs - except the ML ones.

This is assuming yours is a W202 series (square-ish headlights) not 203 (melted headlights )

what abotu a Carputer? e.g. www.karputer.co.uk ? (i have no affinity with said company)

 

[HKW]

Just checked and apparently the car already incorporates Command (and melty headlights).

It's a 2003 reg. C-240 Avant Garde (not Elegance)

Guess I should get my facts straight before I post, eh!

Well it's not MY car....and I'm only a girl....

 

[guydewdney]

then you already have sat nav...................................


huh....?

confused...

 

[HKW]

Sorry..... I'm not being very clear...and as I say, this is more the husband's territory than mine! So bear with me....

The car doesn't have sat nav. As I understand it, sat nav is/was available an an OPTIONAL EXTRA with this model, but the specific car that we have does NOT have that extra. So we want to get it retrospectively fitted...

So I guess the car has the capacity to have Comand sat nav, but just doesn't have it fitted. Does that make sense?

 

[guydewdney]

so it needs a 50 quid GPS reciever, a cable to connect it to the Canbus (prob not needed as i think it must be attached for the steering wheel controls to work) and a friendly MB dealer who will tell the system to activate the GPS menu...


however - i may be wrong and it might be a physically stripped down comand, but i doubt it...

to take comand out - which is double DIN and insert a single DIN would be a) silly and b) a nightmare.

theres a guy on ebay called MBenzNL (i think) who participates in another forum (www.mbclub.co.uk) who is VERY good at retrofitting comand systems - see if you can get hold of him..

 

[c250 turbo diesel]

Sat nav

Hi, everyone will tell you what is best ! so here is my two penneth ! I was going to buy the tom tom go, but was reccomended the navman icn 510, I am a white van man Mercedes sprinter travelling all over, and have found it to be great, with no problems whatsoever, easy to use and slips in your pocket.
All updates can be done from pc. I give it 10 out of 10 regards Roy

 

[HKW]

Thanks guydewdney!! - I've found MBenzNL's details via that other site, and have sent an email....

Turbo Diesel - unfortunately husband is not interested in the "portable" dash-top systems like TomTom and NavMan etc (good job I didn't buy him one for Xmas after all then isn't it!). He wants the "real McCoy" integrated one that would have come an an optional extra on the car.... :lol:

Thanks, all!!