Something's amiss in the infotainment world, 2009 style at Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz with its just-announced fleet of ultra-clean diesel SUVs - the ML320 (see review), GL320, and R 320 - also rolled out NGT (next generation telematics) 2.5. That's the descriptor for its in-dash navigation system, navigation, and Bluetooth cellphone connection that also falls under the umbrella term Comannd. It's pretty impressive, with DVD audio and video in front, an iPod connector, an SD card slot, a line-in jack, AM/FM radio, HD radio, weather band radio, Sirius satellite radio, a hard disk jukebox, and two-screen entertainment in back that can have two sources. Nothing wrong with that. But the little quirks - ouch! Here are 10 issues that make the center stack and infotainment controls more difficult than they need to be and make you wish for NGT 3.0:
1. Center stack complexity. With these SUVs, you encounter button hell rather than the reasonably useful iDrive-like Comand controller that's on the S-Class and C-Class. I counted an LCD display surrounded by 32 buttons.
Slideshow: Telematics & Infotainment Quirks
2. The most commonly used buttons (rocker arrows, select button) are in the lower right, farthest from the driver. Go figure.
3. If the screen isn't touchscreen, then it may as well be at the top of the center stack for quicker glances, not in the middle.
4. The volume control dial is hard to grasp because it's almost flush with the center stack in a triumph of style over functionality.
5. The entertainment information shown when you're in the map/navigation mode is a bit too Spartan: track number or play time but not artist or song info. Similarly, the multifunction display is a bit shy on entertainment info; when Sirius plays, you see the channel but not the artist name or song title.
6. The line-in connector in the glovebox has a female plug. It should be a male connector so it plugs directly into the female jack of your player.
7. The iPod adapter in the glovebox is iPod-only. More cars are going to a USB adapter that works with all players as well as with memory keys, allowing the steering wheel and dashboard control of the music, plus player recharge, that a line-in jack doesn't. The 25% of the music player market Apple doesn't control now numbers in the tens of millions.
8. You can transfer music files to the hard disk only as MP3s. You can't rip audio CDS directly, which is more common among the few cars with hard disk storage. Ideally, a car should allow both.
9. The 40GB hard drive allocates only 4GB for music. 10GB would be a more useful storage space.
10. The hard drive is called, confusingly, the Music Register, which to me sounds like a Gracenote service. And the iPod connection is called the Media Interface. (The line-in jack, blessedly, is called Aux; nothing wrong with that.) Mercedes infotainment guru Jens Koesling said that were Mercedes-Benz to expand its music player interface in the future to work with all music players - hint, hint - then the term Media Interface makes sense. Of course, how hard is it to reprogram one line in the display. Or they could just say, now and later: "iPod/Wannabes."
Still, the only way to have a less-than-optimal hard disk or iPod configuration is if you've got these infotainment options at all. And that, thankfully, Mercedes-Benz has.
Do you have quirks in your car's entertainment or navigation system that drive you crazy? Tell us in feedback, below.
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