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Navigation without an attached cellphone using Apple CarPlay? [No, but alternatives]

2826 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Huey52
So, I am the type of person who investigates as much as I can about a car before buying one.
My wife mentioned, a couple months ago, that she really wanted a new EV. So, I checked out
several EV's before both of us took a look at any. She decided on a VW ID4 and ordered one.
Early this week, we took an ID4 for a test drive and she liked the car. HOWEVER, for some
reason she wanted to go to the Mercedes dealership, which was right next door. I own two
pretty old Mercedes, a CLS500 and a GL450, 2006 & 2007 so I'm familiar with MBZ. While
walking through the MBZ dealer she liked the GLA 250......enough to commit to buying one.
Today, we picked it up........she's getting used to it. I think it's great personally.

When I was getting familiar with the vehicle, I had to call the salesperson because there
was no navigation at all! I asked the fellow about the car and he said navigation is all done
through the attached cell phone. I was literally shocked that the new SUV has no GPS.

Can I add an SD card with map data for navigation??? If so, if anyone has a link to a
card that will work with her 2023 GLA 250 that would be awesome. My salesperson
does not know if navigation can be added to a GLA if it didn't come with it as an option.
He told me he will have to check early next week and let me know. I assume if they
can add it at the dealer it's going to be a big cost. If I can just plug in an SD card with
map data that would be awesome..........but I have no idea if that will work or not.

Any suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!
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check your Mercedes Me Connect purchase options on the vehicle. there may be an option to buy activate it, from which it will be permanently activated in the car, however related features such as map updates, live traffic, etc., will require a subscription. without the full navigation package from the factory though, you won't have other driving assistance things like augmented reality, automatic speed limit, etc

this is the case with my 2022 model, and I don't expect it would've changed much in the '23 one
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While walking through the MBZ dealer she liked the GLA 250......enough to commit to buying one
funny thing by the way, this is my story too :LOL: as well as one other forum member's. I noticed that all but one of the YouTube videos of GLA owners were women
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Thank each of you for your helpful responses. I received an email from our MBZ sales person. We can add navigation but it costs $550 to have it implemented. I found out that MBZ removed the SD card slot from 2023 MBZ's so any updates to navigation has to be done via download only. This is the link where this can be ordered. I was able to synch my iPhone with CarPlay last night and it works well. I did also download WAZE to my phone and my wife's phone, very nice interface. So, now after learning that I'll have to pay $550 for the MBZ provided navigation, we just might stay with WAZE.

Mercedes me connect USA
Waze is good. smartphone Integrations don't look so good as mbux's own navigation, but oof, $550...
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