Euro Delivery customers, check your compass zone!

We took Euro Delivery of our car in May of 2011. Our redelivery was in July 2011 and I had previously told my CA all the normal stuff, i.e., don't remove the Zoll plates, vignettes or any other stickers, and don't wash the car. In other words, don't touch it! When the car arrived my CA called and said that they literally rolled the car off the truck and parked it. When we arrived to pick it up, sure enough, it was sitting in the back of the lot and everything was still on it, Zoll plates and stickers, including lots of dirt and hundreds of German bugs. So they actually didn't do anything to it.

One of the things on my check list when I got the car home was to check the compass zone, mostly for curiosity, but for some reason I never got around to it. Today, prompted by some thread I saw that mentioned the compass display, I decided to check it following the instructions in the manual, and lo and behold, it was set to Zone 8. Germany is in Zone 8, not San Diego! I reset it to Zone 5, again following the instructions in the manual, which were pretty simple.

I thought that maybe the VDC would set this, but the zones in the continental US range from 4 to 13, with all but two zones east of the Rockies, so apparently this is something that the dealer must do during the standard dealer prep. At any rate, it was never done on our car, so you might want to check to see if your car is set properly.

The procedure is simple enough. Take a small pointed object (paper clip, ball point pen, etc.) and stick it into the hole on the bottom of the mirror as follows:

> Press briefly: switch display on/off
> 3 to 6 seconds: set compass zone

To set the compass zone, press the adjustment button for approx. 3-4 seconds. The number of the compass zone set is shown in the display.
To change the zone setting, briefly press the adjustment button repeatedly until the display shows the number of the compass zone corresponding to your current location. (You're going to have to look this up in your manual.)
The compass is operational again after approx. 10 seconds.

The compass display wasn't noticeably showing the wrong compass direction, so I'm not sure how significant this is. It probably varies in different parts of the country/world. But at least now it's set to the correct zone.

Just curious - have you ever look at the compass and actually used it?
Always considered it eye candy.

Originally Posted by SD 335is

We took Euro Delivery of our car in May of 2011. Our redelivery was in July 2011 and I had previously told my CA all the normal stuff, i.e., don't remove the Zoll plates, vignettes or any other stickers, and don't wash the car. In other words, don't touch it! When the car arrived my CA called and said that they literally rolled the car off the truck and parked it. When we arrived to pick it up, sure enough, it was sitting in the back of the lot and everything was still on it, Zoll plates and stickers, including lots of dirt and hundreds of German bugs. So they actually didn't do anything to it.

One of the things on my check list when I got the car home was to check the compass zone, mostly for curiosity, but for some reason I never got around to it. Today, prompted by some thread I saw that mentioned the compass display, I decided to check it following the instructions in the manual, and lo and behold, it was set to Zone 8. Germany is in Zone 8, not San Diego! I reset it to Zone 5, again following the instructions in the manual, which were pretty simple.

I thought that maybe the VDC would set this, but the zones in the continental US range from 4 to 13, with all but two zones east of the Rockies, so apparently this is something that the dealer must do during the standard dealer prep. At any rate, it was never done on our car, so you might want to check to see if your car is set properly.

The procedure is simple enough. Take a small pointed object (paper clip, ball point pen, etc.) and stick it into the hole on the bottom of the mirror as follows:

> Press briefly: switch display on/off
> 3 to 6 seconds: set compass zone

To set the compass zone, press the adjustment button for approx. 3-4 seconds. The number of the compass zone set is shown in the display.
To change the zone setting, briefly press the adjustment button repeatedly until the display shows the number of the compass zone corresponding to your current location. (You're going to have to look this up in your manual.)
The compass is operational again after approx. 10 seconds.

The compass display wasn't noticeably showing the wrong compass direction, so I'm not sure how significant this is. It probably varies in different parts of the country/world. But at least now it's set to the correct zone.

Thanks for the heads up. I used it quite a bit while on our ED trip.
cheers
vern

Originally Posted by tsoc88

Just curious - have you ever look at the compass and actually used it?
Always considered it eye candy.

No, with Nav it's pretty much unnecessary, but I've probably glanced at it a few times to confirm that we're actually headed in the direction that I think we should be heading. It wasn't like it was saying that we were headed south when we were actually headed north, but now at least I know it's actually set correctly!

Originally Posted by SD 335is

No, with Nav it's pretty much unnecessary, but I've probably glanced at it a few times to confirm that we're actually headed in the direction that I think we should be heading. It wasn't like it was saying that we were headed south when we were actually headed north, but now at least I know it's actually set correctly!

In the higher elevations in the Dolomites the nav was useless so we looked at the compass often.
cheers
vern