ICE upgrade for the Skoda

Post by **campbell** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:33 am

Concluded that nowt wrong with our nearly 5 year old Octavia so now considering giving it a new lease of life with a more fully featured audio unit. The existing poverty spec unit has no bluetooth and the iPod connector is a bit buzzy (from alternator feedback, so we're told...).

Not too bothered about satnav - Google Maps is quite good enough and we have a wee Garmin that's barely been used - so found this at Halfrauds...£225...

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165655

Looks like a decent deal and feels like a classy unit. Any views?

Didn't really know where else to look. But if anyone has a recommendation for a specialist in Edin or West Lothian area, feel free to recommend.

douglasgdmw · Post by **douglasgdmw** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:24 am

Campbell,

Only local specialist I know of is Ray Smith in Dunbar. Used them for the speakers in the 911 and they did a cracking job of fitting them.

Sad that in these days there is very little specialist out there nowadays. Halfrauds and internet has eradicated the majority if them (no way I would let Halford's loose on the cars)

George

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:29 am

From my experience of a hire car with a fancy Bluetooth headset, I found the touch screen really annoying. Took too much time looking at the screen to make here you got the right button, which was time with eyes not on the road. It's ok if you have steering wheel buttons to do the normal functions whilst driving, but not sure if the steering wheel buttons work with aftermarket head units.

Lazydonkey · Post by **Lazydonkey** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:31 am

I put this

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... -27766.htm

in the civic and i've been very impressed with it. 6.1 inch screen version is cheaper still at £249.

Steering wheel controls still work via an adaptor, the bluetooth hands free is excellent and the only time you need to touch the screen is to answer or hang up. Even then you can do that via your phone if you wish.

Post by **Shug** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:48 am

Here's a query - is it normal or rare for aftermarket head units to be able to control factory fit CD autochangers (welcome to the 90s, yo) with converters or the like? Or if I throw out the head unit in the truck for something more modern, do I lose the 10 disc autochanger sitting there?

Can you tell ICE has never been my thing?

Post by **campbell** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:44 pm

Lazydonkey wrote:I put this

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... -27766.htm

in the civic and i've been very impressed with it. 6.1 inch screen version is cheaper still at £249.

Steering wheel controls still work via an adaptor, the bluetooth hands free is excellent and the only time you need to touch the screen is to answer or hang up. Even then you can do that via your phone if you wish.

Had a look at that one. Very classy. Seems like a lot of kit for the money, albeit the pre-sale price might be misleading! It infers some kind of nav capability, some kind of app-link...can it run say Google Maps off an iphone?

Who installed it?

Post by **campbell** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:46 pm

mckeann wrote:From my experience of a hire car with a fancy Bluetooth headset, I found the touch screen really annoying. Took too much time looking at the screen to make here you got the right button, which was time with eyes not on the road. It's ok if you have steering wheel buttons to do the normal functions whilst driving, but not sure if the steering wheel buttons work with aftermarket head units.

Good observations, Neil.

We have steering wheel buttons in the MINI but I don't really use them for phone calls. Tends to be "Last 8" button on the stereo, top of which is either Home or Lisa Mobile so it doesn't take any more than changing a radio channel to make my calls

Skoda doesn't have any steering wheel controls in any case. So any audio control we do in the family barge has to be old stylee in any case

Stevoraith · Post by **Stevoraith** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:11 pm

I tend to prefer OEM solutions so in your shoes I'd go for a Bolero headunit from the facelifted Octavia.

That's what came in our one.
It's touchscreen, has a built in 6-disc changer and an SD card slot. With a 32Gb card in it, mine has more songs than you could need in a car.
You also get the park distance control graphics in full colour on the screen.

They seem to go for around £300 on eBay.

Only drawback is no bluetooth- you can buy the bluetooth module and have it retrofitted but it costs about the same again making it a very expensive option if you really need bluetooth.

Lazydonkey · Post by **Lazydonkey** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:20 pm

campbell wrote:
Lazydonkey wrote:I put this

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product ... -27766.htm

in the civic and i've been very impressed with it. 6.1 inch screen version is cheaper still at £249.

Steering wheel controls still work via an adaptor, the bluetooth hands free is excellent and the only time you need to touch the screen is to answer or hang up. Even then you can do that via your phone if you wish.
Had a look at that one. Very classy. Seems like a lot of kit for the money, albeit the pre-sale price might be misleading! It infers some kind of nav capability, some kind of app-link...can it run say Google Maps off an iphone?

Who installed it?

It was installed by Hannah Autosound in glasgow. Civic install is a bit of a nightmare as you need to take the dash to bits but i think yours should be more plug and play.

Never used the app link to be honest, but if you run google maps on your phone and have the unit set to bluetooth then the directions come through the speakers anyway.

So it's only an issue if you are wanting to listen to a CD and get directions. Welcome to have a look if you can drag yourself to livi during the day

Post by **campbell** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:29 pm

Stevoraith wrote:I tend to prefer OEM solutions so in your shoes I'd go for a Bolero headunit from the facelifted Octavia.

That's what came in our one.
It's touchscreen, has a built in 6-disc changer and an SD card slot. With a 32Gb card in it, mine has more songs than you could need in a car.
You also get the park distance control graphics in full colour on the screen.

They seem to go for around £300 on eBay.

Only drawback is no bluetooth- you can buy the bluetooth module and have it retrofitted but it costs about the same again making it a very expensive option if you really need bluetooth.

Believe me, an OEM would be my first choice, and if the Bolero had bluetooth in it for £300 on eBay I'd have bought it already

But at double the cost, if your figs are accurate, then it's a complete no go. Bluetooth is the main driver - but we also want it integrated, not via a Parrot etc. We have it on our Garmin Nuvi satnav which sits in a box most of the time...

BiggestNizzy · Post by **BiggestNizzy** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:00 pm

I'm in a similar position with the BMW, I onlly want bluetooth for the phone I can either go via the dealer and get raped on a bluetooth module / coding or wait for a buisness proffesional headunit to apear on ebay with integrated bluetooth but those are rare and can cost £300. Then you need to get your hands on a microphone and maybe get it coded for the steering wheel buttons to work.

Been looking at double din but I do prefer the OEM look.

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:04 am

Touchscreen in a car is lethal.

Siri is guff compared to my bberry for voice dialling. And as for scrolling for a name using controls see the above.

woody · Post by **woody** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:17 am

Sanjoy wrote:Touchscreen in a car is lethal.

Siri is guff compared to my bberry for voice dialling. And as for scrolling for a name using controls see the above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdOehv ... ata_player

Scottish Elises