Mercedes Benz offers Bluetooth connectivity in many of its models to enable drivers to talk hands-free. The Mercedes Benz Mobile website lists all the phones that are compatible with Mercedes' Bluetooth technology (see Resources). Even though the Bluetooth feature is one of the many in the Mercedes line of automobiles, owners have been experiencing problems with the Bluetooth technology.
According to BenzWorld, a technician's Mercedes Benz internal message board, a pairing problem occurred with the iPhone 3G on a 2006 Mercedes C-Class model with a cockpit management and data system (Comand APS). The Comand APS system controls radio, TV, DVD, GPS, Bluetooth and speakers.
Many Mercedes owners have a Bluetooth car kit that recognizes HTC phones, yet the car kit does not pair with the phone. During the pairing process, the car kit gives a 16-digit pairing code, but the phone does not initiate entry of the code. This might be a "role switching" problem; when the car kit finds the phone, the phone sends a "role switch" request to the car kit that the car kit does not understand. Other causes might be that the phone cannot read the role switch rejection or that the phone does not complete the role switch.
As a Windows Mobile 6.5 update, if a personal identification number (PIN) unlock is enforced by security policies downloaded and managed from the Corporate Exchange Server, Mercedes Bluetooth users will experience a problem dialing out. For example, the HTC HD2 phone may be synced to the Corporate Exchange Server for calendar and task information, and many users have had to use a PIN to unlock the phone.
