2 DIN Aftermarket Sat Nav

[uuf361]

I'm looking to install a 2 DIN aftermarket SAt Nav unit to my Porsche 911 (996) to give it a very similar look to the PCM unit supplied by Porsche.

I'm hearing different stories about which one to go for, have had suggested Pioneer, Kenwood or Alpine. The first two are around £1K, the second £2K which is way outside my budget and can it honestly be that much better.

Any experience of doing this or suggestions for people to do it (I'm in the South East) or how good/bad some of these units are very welcome

[2something]

Something like this:
www.prestigeaudio.co.uk/auto/images-auto-2-26-44-488.html
or
www.prestigeaudio.co.uk/auto/images-auto-2-26-44-189.html

-> hughjayteens is your man

Edited by 2something on Friday 4th May 16:15

[uuf361]

Yep something like that

The last couple of places I've spoke to are usggesting only the Alpine unit at twice the price of the Pioneer and the Kenwood which is putting me off doing it altogether!

[FezzaO]

I have the Kenwood on one car and the Alpine on the other.

I would not use the Kenwood again if it was free it is that bad - I can provide details if you are interested.
The Alpine is very good on the other hand.
As far as I remember, the Alpine (£1,700) was slightly more expensive then the Kenwood (£1,400)

[uuf361]

Wow....the Kenwood that bad, perhaps I'll dispense with the idea altogether... Kenwood I've been quoted at £1,10 and the Alpine £1,800.

Was also considering a Porsche PCM 2.1...

I am used to a Tom Tom so only want to replicate this level of mapping

[bermyandy]

uuf361 said:

Wow....the Kenwood that bad, perhaps I'll dispense with the idea altogether... Kenwood I've been quoted at £1,10 and the Alpine £1,800.

Was also considering a Porsche PCM 2.1...

I am used to a Tom Tom so only want to replicate this level of mapping

The first link on Pretige audio is my car - can thoroughly recomend the pioneer unit as well as the work done by prestige

Feel free to ask any questions?

[uuf361]

Great. They are now saying they would not recommend the Pioneer uit as it has had problems.

Have you experienced any ? What model do you have and did they move the climate control down for you or had this been done already ?

Cheers

[bermyandy]

Whos they? Did they say what the problems were?

I was replacing the PCM 1 and so air con was already down low

[uuf361]

Sorry Prestige said they would not recommend the Pioneer (or the Kenwood for that matter)........I'm based down South but in Manc this week so may drop in and see them......

If you don't mind me asking what did they charge all in ? Am hoping to keep below £1,250

Edited by uuf361 on Monday 7th May 21:16

[bermyandy]

uuf361 said:

Sorry Prestige said they would not recommend the Pioneer (or the Kenwood for that matter)........I'm based down South but in Manc this week so may drop in and see them......

If you don't mind me asking what did they charge all in ? Am hoping to keep below £1,250

Edited by uuf361 on Monday 7th May 21:16

Do you happen to know which pioneer? i have the pioneer avic h1 or something, but no problems yet?

[uuf361]

bermyandy said:

uuf361 said:

Sorry Prestige said they would not recommend the Pioneer (or the Kenwood for that matter)........I'm based down South but in Manc this week so may drop in and see them......

If you don't mind me asking what did they charge all in ? Am hoping to keep below £1,250

Edited by uuf361 on Monday 7th May 21:16

Do you happen to know which pioneer? i have the pioneer avic h1 or something, but no problems yet?

I was looking at a Pioneer Avic D3

[bermyandy]

uuf361 said:

bermyandy said:

uuf361 said:

Sorry Prestige said they would not recommend the Pioneer (or the Kenwood for that matter)........I'm based down South but in Manc this week so may drop in and see them......

If you don't mind me asking what did they charge all in ? Am hoping to keep below £1,250

Edited by uuf361 on Monday 7th May 21:16

Do you happen to know which pioneer? i have the pioneer avic h1 or something, but no problems yet?

I was looking at a Pioneer Avic D3

Ah, ok. I went for the HD 1bt or something, and prestige installed it for me. Very impressed with the product itself, although i think it does need some updates on the maps (and currently dont know how i do that). As for Prestige's work, again also very impressed. They custom built a surround for me to make it look a bit more OEM than just a plastic surround and in terms of their quality of work etc, it was spot on.

Price wise though it was roughly £2k all in

[FezzaO]

I bought the Kenwood over the Pioneer based on Prestige's recommendation though when asked why the only thing Chris said is that he did not like the fact that you cannot used the front loading CD / DVD while navigating.

My issues with the Kenwood so far:
Initial unit with Defective gyro was replaced.
Second unit better but:
* On a recent weekend in France it could acquire satellite for the whole weekend
* Inside London it already sent me into car parks, swimming in the Thames etc.
* It does not recognise many country road or small town streets (the Alpine in the Ferrari does)
* Funniest of all, it could not find a Tesco supermarket - while seating in the Tesco car park.

As for Prestige, they are the most professional and knowledgeable car audio installer I have met.
However, they have fitted my two cars; one with the above Kenwood which they claim is probably still defective and i am still waiting for them to discuss this with Kenwood. The other, a £5,000 installation based around the Alpine that sounds horrible due to very uneven frequency response in the midrange. Speaking to Chris, it seems that in order to correct the situation I need to invest another £1000 - £1500 something that I find unreasonable. I also hate the fact that my emails discussing the above get no response without a reminder.

[CodeBreaker]

I had the Alpine unit fitted by Prestige Audio. It was the only one that provided the correct mix of audio and sat navigation I was looking for. It is my Cayenne that is on the Prestige Audio website.

The quality of the installation work is second to none. Everything is completely hidden and the effort taken by the guys at PA was considerable.

As for the Alpine navigation. It is mostly very accurate and I have used it in the UK and on the continent with no problems. The only negative thing I have to say is that it sometimes takes a minute or two to aquire the correct number of satelites. This means that you are relying on the inertial navigation for the start of your journey.

If I do a similar upgrade on a future vehicle, I will take it to Prestige.

[Rusty Surfer]

This is interesting.

I'm collecting my 996 on Monday and have been givin the sat-nav options much thought. I want a built-in system with Bluetooth and iPod adapter and was thinking of the Pioneer double-DIN unit and dropping the A/C controls down the centre console (as Prestige show).

I've got the single DIN Pioneer AVICS in two other cars and they have both been very good (accepting that no sat-nav - or map - can ever be perfect).

Edited by Rusty Surfer on Thursday 5th July 16:51

[Oakey]

I have an Avic X1 and whilst I think it's a nice bit of kit, I think it really lacks considering it's supposedly their top end system (or was at the time).

The updated models (X1BT, X3HDBTblahblahblah) barely make any improvements over previous models.

The Pioneer has a lot of potential if only they put a little more thought into it. Simple little things like not being able to read MP3's from DVD-R, the crappy low res screen, no speed camera locations / warnings, poor maps on the newer versions (I believe they changed map providers since the original AVIC), the inability to control other units (ie, their own £600 DVD changer!!!) via the AVIC's touchscreen, etc, etc.

I've considered replacing the AVIC with their new double din version but again, I hear it's pretty poor. Same map software, poor mp3 support (ie, slow at transfering files to the HDD), poor ipod support, etc.