Mercedes Launches iPhone App That Helps You Buy the Car

Because what might one expect a Merc iPhone app to do? Remote-unlock the car over Wi-fi? Control your in-car nav-system or stereo? Both would be kinda sweet–but no: Mercedes’ new iPhone app helps you to pay for the car in the first place. It integrates with Mercedes’ own financing scheme (at MercedesBenzFinancial.com) and makes paying for your luxury vehicle into a modern and convenient experience.

Or so Mercedes is spinning it. “Personalized and convenient account management” is how the app’s described, and it’s mercifully free from iTunes. It’ll let Merc finance customers keep track of their account balance, request payoff information and even make payments–while on the go. If you’re not currently a Merc owner, busy paying off your car loan from the comfort of your sofa, the app lets you know where the nearest Mercedes-Benz dealership is, speak to customer services, and check out if Merc’s financial package is attractive enough to temp you into buying a vehicle.

It’s slightly odd, if you think about it. But Mercedes’ Fiancial VP Franz Reiner explains why the app exists by noting “we recognize the need for multiple communication channels in today’s mobile environment.” Basically Mercedes has realized that the smartphone is perniciously penetrating many different corners of our modern lifestyle, and someone in the company has calculated there’s a benefit in making the financing system accessible through the iPhone. Maybe it’ll result in fewer late payments–particularly if the app’s smart enough to make a push message alert when it’s the relevant time (though there’s nothing in the PR to suggest this).

What this also is is a sign that we’re going to see more dedicated, specialized apps arriving from surprising vendors over time, as the companies realize that with a dedicated iPhone app they’ve got a unique personal comms channel to millions of customers.

 While some of the limelight has swung away from fuel cells, Mercedes is still chasing the technology and has just announced a new milestone: It’s F-Cell is the first series-produced vehicle that’s hydrogen powered.

This is the first time Mercedes has moved beyond a concept car into a “proof of concept” car with the tech, and it’s integrated the new fuel and drive-train into a B-Class car. The combination of an in-production chassis and the newly-polished engine means that the car is actually being produced in sample quantities late in 2009, and a short-run production will result in 200 cars in early 2010, which will be sold to customers in the U.S. and Europe. While that’s not mass-production by any means, it’s unquestionably a significant step in getting road-going fuel-cell cars into the public’s hands.

Unfortunately, most of the world still lacks any hydrogen fueling infrastructure, so unless you live along Norway’s hydrogen highway or in Iceland (aka “Energy Island”) you probably won’t have much use for this vehicle. Which is a shame, here’s why: Including the F-Cell engine into the B-Class results in a car that has the same interior space and trunk capacity as a traditional gasoline-powered version, and hasn’t compromised Mercedes’ famous high build-quality. This has been done by squeezing many of the components into a sandwich layer in the floor of the car, which places them out of the way and increases the safety aspects of the design–Mercedes has undertaken 30 extra crash tests on top of the normal certification ones, and optimized the safety of the new design as a result.

And how does it perform? Pretty impressive–it does deliver much of the promise of hydrogen-powered electric cars. It’s got a Li-ion battery to boost power and store energy from regenerative braking, a 100kW electric motor with 290Nm torque that can push the car up to 105mph. It does all this with zero CO2 output and, in the strange back-to-front fuel equivalence calculations, it manages 3.3 liters diesel-equivalent per 100km. It’s got a max range of 240 miles, and can even cope with wintry weather–its can cold-start at -25ºC.

The eight-inch Splitview Command display uses a clever masking system to direct light from alternate pixels in different directions, resulting in a two-at-once viewer where the other screen is completely invisible to one viewer. That will make for much less distraction, ensuring the driver pays attention to the road and navigation cues rather than J.J. McClure in his tricked-out Dodge Tradesman ambulance.

It’s an expensive add-on for a high-end car, of course, but it’s one that begs an obvious question: Why don’t S-class users simply talk to each other? Were I driving, and my passenger was ogling a movie, I’d prefer them to listen over headphones—because Cannonball Run isn’t all that funny the second time around.

Tags: car buying app, Mercedes, Mercedes buying iphone app, Mercedes iPhone app