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My understanding is that the cars are actually spec'd out by a "tiny little division of Daimler-Chrysler" called MBUSA. I assume you've heard of them. THEY are the ones which tell MB what they want brought into the US, and with very little intervention D-C will happily oblige. This is the way MB/MBUSA has operated practically since the end of WW2, except in the early days it was this one individual, I believe in NYC (Max something?) that called all the shots. Sometimes Daimler-Chrysler will step in and say "nein" to a request, such as the feet-dragging over Diesels the past 4 or 5 years (Daimler-Chrysler no longer wanted to get involved with bringing in vehicles that couldn't be sold in all 50 states, particularly when one of the states is California, which is a big percentage of overall North American sales).
I am really unsure if they can order these highline cars in Europe without COMAND, my guess is that they can, not sure though.
Now in regards to the operation of COMAND, or the nav system in the Hertz cars, if you chose to "go your own way" and disregard the nav instructions, at least on COMAND-equipped cars, the nav system will recalculate the route for you. INITIALLY it tells you to do a U-Turn, but once it figures that this manuever is not forth-coming, it'll plot a new route, and most cases I've found that the recalculated route is just what I was planning on doing.
Gilly
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