Newbie to the B250e

[ALEXAKOS]

:mrgreen:
Thank you!
:mrgreen:
Thank you too!!
:mrgreen:
Oh so kind cheers!!

.... in advance for your congratulations ! :!:

Yesterday I picked up my Bee!!
An Anthracite Metallic exterior with Haselnut Brown leather interior, at 24k Km.
19” wheels, xenon, adaptive Reku and Navi as extras.
No parking sensors or reverse camera. Neither
any blue accents to distinguish the electric drive .


So far I am happy with the “more car” for my money in general.
However disappointed:
- that when braking, there is not Reku used
- at E+ it feels like it’s a veeeery heavy n slow car
- bad visibility all around
- vehicle settings menu is poor
- mobile app doesn’t show when charge will be completed
- mobile app services not free!!!(?)

If the bee had the same Reku options as the I3, that would give it another 20% charge back!

So which app with wireless OBD gives me more programming options?
Like the i3 has the Beamercode.

I need to pimp my ride

Thinking of making some nice “Powered by Tesla” stickers for the hatch door. Preferably in silver color.
Anyone else?

 

[rrattie]

I can't help you with any sort of extra ODB programming, but I can help a bit with the Apps.

My experience with My Mercedes Electric and Mercedes Me and that whole thing.

I took my car in for a safety recall notice and while I was there (last Friday) I got the VVC code from the dealer. I bought my 2014 used so I didn't already have it. I wasn't able to use either "app" even after that, my VIN needed to be verified.

I had a thought, gotta have full connectivity to use mbrace.. so I called and signed up for mbrace (3 month trial period for used cars). This provisioned my car in the system and got the ball rolling. Then after 2 days I pressed the i button above the mirror after receiving an email saying I should, to activate my mbrace service.

I pressed the button, confirmed the VIN and the 4 digit pin number... activation completed. "Mbrace service should be active in 24 -48 hours" the person told me. Okay, fine.. not my main objective but good. Then I tried both apps. Mercedes Me no longer complains about VIN verification and My Mercedes Electric is working great!

More than likely I'll cancel the mbrace at the end of the trial, but it's one way to get around going to the dealer to have the provisioning done since I heard they charge like $100.

 

[MikeP]

Oh dear, here are my thoughts, remembering that I have a UK spec 2016 build car:

No parking sensors or reverse camera. Neither - amazing, thought they would be standard!
any blue accents to distinguish the electric drive - me neither, just the 'e' in the rear badge

- that when braking, there is not Reku used - so don't you have paddles? Left paddle shifts to E-, providing strong retardation (Reku?). Press paddle again to get back to E(auto) mode.
- at E+ it feels like it’s a veeeery heavy n slow car - E+ is no retardation so the car drives like a bus (My car is Bessy the bus, by the way, as my other car is a CLS)
- bad visibility all around - agreed, especially the rear.
- vehicle settings menu is poor - yep, and there are some in the satnav display unit and others on the dashboard menu. Weird!
- mobile app doesn’t show when charge will be completed - my 'Mercedes Me' app does! It pings 'Charging Terminated' Also, have you used the iPad app? This gives a 'time to full charge' timeline, so I can go out and take it off charge. (If I leave mine plugged in overnight it wrecks the 12-volt battery. ChargeMaster is replacing my charger on 25th!)
- mobile app services not free!!!(?) -of course, this is Mercedes!

Anyway, have fun and let us know how you get on!

 

[GlennD]

I traded in (Lease return) my B for a InioQ. It has more bells and whistles than the B. So far I am happy with my choice. This is the second car I leased at list., The first was my 2012 Leaf. Leasing means an early turn in costs. Oh well, I am happy.

 

[arthurmartineau]

Hello,
First time posting here. I'm in the market for a B250e. I'm learning a lot about the car. Trying to pick one has been a challenge.

"Speaking of that, you should have the dealer show you the battery report so you can confirm that the car has retained 96+% of original spec. If not, move on."

Is there a way to pull this information up while in the car at a used car lot? It seems like a good number of owners are at the end of their lease now.
Thanks
Arthur

 

[JeffRay]

Arthur,

Hi and welcome. All owners are required to bring their B250e in for the annual battery check if they want to keep their battery warranty intact. That being said, I have brought my car in over the years but never received a printed battery report. Instead, got the invoice which said battery test conducted, no issues. So there are a couple of ways to check out battery effectiveness:

1. First test. Look at age of car and how many miles. The more miles, the more natural degradation of any battery. Look at the trip stats to see what mileage car has had since last reset. Take a picture of the screen. If you are dealing with a 2017 or 2016 coming off lease, this should be good enough.

2. Second test. Arrange a test drive. Reset the historical trip stats to zero. Take the drive being sure to do some local and some highway. Take picture of the trip stats when done. Tell the dealer you are interested and ask them to fully charge the car. Take picture of what the GOM has to say in terms of range. It should show up in the 90s if you are in warm climate, perhaps high 80s if in cooler climate. Would do this for 2014 and 2015 or high mileage 2016.

3. Third test. Ask to see the annual battery test or last invoice that says pass. They won't have unless they are a MB dealer reselling. If they can't, then ask to take the car to MB dealer to have them run the standard tests. This is today's version of "I'd like my mechanic to take a looksee". Up to you whether to do this as the odds are pretty good that the battery is okay if it passed the first two soft tests.

For all electrics, whether one owns already or is looking to purchase new, taking care of the battery and watching out for motor lemons is the a risk to be considered. It should be fine as Tesla batteries and motors which are in our car have been examined and reported actively. Look up in youtube or google as there is a lot there about Tesla battery life and the occasional motor failure.

Hope this helps. I am not a technician so this is merely an accumulation of what has been posted to the forum and my experience with a lightly driven 2014 and now a 2017, both on 3 year leases.

 

[arthurmartineau]

Thanks for the great information JeffRay. Hopefully I can find one. The options I've settled on are paddle shifters, 8" screen, heated seats, and not white.
Arthur

 

[hallcp]

Bad visibility? Gosh, visibility in my B is so much better than my 2018 Chevy Volt. My only gripe is that rear view mirror seems to block a key portion of my forward vision.

As for the other issues, mine is a 2014 and I am guessing that by 2014 standards having blind spot detection, a great back up camera and some sort of primitive collision-avoidance was probably great stuff. I think maybe M-B just never bothered to do serious updates. The skunks. I want a re-designed 2020 Electric B with 200+ miles range....

 

[rrattie]

I want a re-designed 2020 Electric B with 200+ miles range....

Yes!!! Can you imagine a 2019 (look at the recent design) with even just 200 miles range... and DC fast charging.

 

[ALEXAKOS]

Bad visibility? Gosh, visibility in my B is so much better than my 2018 Chevy Volt.

Don’t know what the volt is like. I also don’t consider cars with a gasoline engine as REX, even EVs

I just got off an i3 and boarded the Bee.
These were the first things that I felt unhappy about.

All in all, it’s much more car than the i3
Still very upset I can’t customize a bit more like I could with my i3

I did manage to open the engineering menu and changed the splash screen to AMG when starting up.
Whoopeedoo.
Still wanted to get other features changed like headlight LEDs. Start up mode etc.

I am also creating some visual EV accents . Will post here soon
Everybody also in the FB group?

 

[MikeP]

Hey, how did you get the engineering menu to open? I've tried various options on my 2016 car and nothing worked!

 

[ALEXAKOS]

Hey, how did you get the engineering menu to open? I've tried various options on my 2016 car and nothing worked!

Hey mike...
Before I let you in the holy grail... what is it you wish to change?

For one... there is close to null you can do without screwing something up and getting error messages display on your screen.

Splash screen is one.

Plus you need to reset all your setting ( phone, navigation and preferences) in order to enter the menu

 

[rrattie]

 

[MikeP]

Well, I’m a retired electronics engineer and I like to poke around to see what’s under the bonnet (hood) to see what I can optimise. I also have a charging problem and just wondered if I could see some further settings or diagnostics that might shed some light on the issue! But if it wrecks all the current settings then maybe I’ll leave well alone... thanks anyway

 

[GlennD]

ALL bs 2015 or later in the US have the range extender that allows you to charge to 90% instead of 80%. This allows slightly more range. Most 2014"s did not have the range extender.

 

[ALEXAKOS]

I’ll post a step by step tutorial for you to log in.

In the mean time I’ll post some images on the FB group. I can’t upload images here (don’t have any online photo album)

But don’t have any high hopes.
No EV settings.
It’s the Standard B class menu.
All that can be turned on is what your car has.
No use turning on back camera or ambient light if you don’t have one.

See you on the FB Page.
I am Alex Akos there

 

[Smile19w]

What was the solution to enter the engineer mode? I tried car settings menu and hold controller to the left. Also tried hang up+1+#. I would like to activate the aux function. Please help.

 

[hallcp]

Try holding all three buttons down for several seconds. That’s what worked on my 2014.

 

[Smile19w]

Which 3 buttons? Hangup+1+#? I tried nothin happens.

 

[hallcp]

Yes, HANGUP, digit 1, and '#', all together for several seconds. That is what worked in my 2014.