Yes, I wonder myself if I would spend $700 on a factory analog phone when a nice digital phone is under $100. Analog cellular is old technology (people with scanners can listen in on your phone calls, steal your credit card number and clone your phone). Also I hear it is beginning to cost more for airtime than digital phones. An advantage of analog is that the pure digital phones (OmniPoint type) will drop the call in a poor coverage area, but an analog (or TDMA digital) will either distort or fade, but come back after the signal improves.

When I got my digital phone cost for airtime was the same as analog. Who knows if it will stay that way forever? Today my phone display read "AT&T" ... I call customer service, and they tell me that Cellular One was bought by AT&T.

I, myself just put my NEC digital phone on the oddment tray in the center console under the armrest, or next to the gear selector.

Of course, if I had a newer car with phone prewiring, I'd be tempted to have the genuine "factory phone" ... or the same model phone from Motorola, or whoever. I could forego the MB name if it saved me $500 as long as it was functionally identical. What MB has done (I've heard) is to make the same unit, but change some of the pin configurations, so an adapter might be needed on certain models. Most cars have an installation kit on the market. Perhaps contact Crutchfield or PartsShop for an adapter/harness?

You might even want to search Dejanews for this topic; I recall reading about it some months ago. I think someone mentioned an adapter was available.

Hope this helps,

Robert W. Roe
1984 300SD 165K miles




[This message has been edited by Robert W. Roe (edited 08-15-1999).]