Best/best value car kits for the iPhone

[Ari]

Having been quoted £344(!) to supply and fit a Parrot MKi9200 to my car (which will give hands free and stream music), I'm wondering if there's a better and/or cheaper way?

A fixed bracket (non Bluetooth) type for example would give somewhere to put the phone and it'll charge the battery rather than deplete it as streaming music whilst driving would.

Just wondered what solutions and/or recommendations people had for using an iPhone in the car?

[Tallbut Buxomly]

This......

http://www.bury.com/cws/en/hands-free-car-kits/sys...

Their systems are ridiculously good but can be a real pain to install depending on car and stereo.

I bought a 9060 kit from them 1yr ago and still haven't had it installed as it was too complex to wire up to my half bose stereo.
I now have someone to do it but its going to cost me 160 quid for parts and fitting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OioU4Ob5zsw

[Ari]

That's the kind of thing!

How much are they?

[Ari]

Tallbut Buxomly said:

as it was too complex to wire up to my half bose stereo.

And how do you have a half Bose stereo?

And which half...?

[H_Kan]

My mate has an Alpine headunit which links music and handsfree phonecalls from his Iphone. Quality is pretty good and think he paid approx. £250 for it about a year ago- no idea on model number though.

[Ari]

I've got Bose in my MX5 so I don't really want to mess with that, just add the iphone for hands free calling and music streaming.

[Tallbut Buxomly]

My audi has 5 front speakers and 5 rear speakers. 2 woofers three tweeters front and 2 woofers two tweeters and a 12 inch sub in the rear shelf.
The front five run off the Head unit the rear five run off a sub amplifier to boost power due to the sub.

Cost of the system is a good question. Fitting would be roughly 60-70 professional install and the kit itself would probably be around 160 i think depending on how you spec it.

There are two variant units the cc9060 and cc9060 music which comes with a line in and opod connection.I needed neither as my nokia is/was one of the few phones on the market that can stream music a2dp.

[Tallbut Buxomly]

Oh i bought the kit for the voice response system. I tested it at a motorshow stand with hundreds of people making a racket and standing +- 2 metres away the system easily picked up my voice commands and responded accurately with no issues which sold it to me.

[Ari]

Tallbut Buxomly said:

My audi has 5 front speakers and 5 rear speakers. 2 woofers three tweeters front and 2 woofers two tweeters and a 12 inch sub in the rear shelf.
The front five run off the Head unit the rear five run off a sub amplifier to boost power due to the sub.

Cost of the system is a good question. Fitting would be roughly 60-70 professional install and the kit itself would probably be around 160 i think depending on how you spec it.

There are two variant units the cc9060 and cc9060 music which comes with a line in and opod connection.I needed neither as my nokia is/was one of the few phones on the market that can stream music a2dp.

I like the sound of the stereo in your Audi!

That Iphone kit sounds really good, will have to look into that. I rather like the idea of a fixed bracket set up, keeps the phone battery topped up.

[jeebus]

Ari said:

Having been quoted £344(!) to supply and fit a Parrot MKi9200 to my car (which will give hands free and stream music), I'm wondering if there's a better and/or cheaper way?

A fixed bracket (non Bluetooth) type for example would give somewhere to put the phone and it'll charge the battery rather than deplete it as streaming music whilst driving would.

Just wondered what solutions and/or recommendations people had for using an iPhone in the car?

I have the mki9200, I got it from halfords for £169 or £159 can't remember exactly, and £21 for the lead, fitted it myself in about one hour. It is spot on for playing music through the iphone and has a lead that goes into the phone so you can either plug it in or stream it via bluetooth.

[hornetrider]

Ari said:

I've got Bose in my MX5 so I don't really want to mess with that, just add the iphone for hands free calling and music streaming.

Dude. I've got a 3.5 with Bose. My setup is a windscreen sucker iPhone cradle bottom right hand side of windscreen, and a griffin autopilot going to it from the 12v socket then under the steering wheel. The autopilot connects to the bottom of the phone only, and has a 3.5mm jack from the controller to the aux-in. Works really well, will get you a pic tomorrow.

Edited by hornetrider on Friday 7th January 23:28

[Tallbut Buxomly]

Ari said:

Tallbut Buxomly said:

My audi has 5 front speakers and 5 rear speakers. 2 woofers three tweeters front and 2 woofers two tweeters and a 12 inch sub in the rear shelf.
The front five run off the Head unit the rear five run off a sub amplifier to boost power due to the sub.

Cost of the system is a good question. Fitting would be roughly 60-70 professional install and the kit itself would probably be around 160 i think depending on how you spec it.

There are two variant units the cc9060 and cc9060 music which comes with a line in and opod connection.I needed neither as my nokia is/was one of the few phones on the market that can stream music a2dp.

I like the sound of the stereo in your Audi!

That Iphone kit sounds really good, will have to look into that. I rather like the idea of a fixed bracket set up, keeps the phone battery topped up.

It does sound pretty epic the bass is great. The amazing bit is that it was standard fit its not even the bose upgrade system and this is on a 10 yr old audi a4 tdi.
I have watched terminator on an mp3 player running through the car stereo and it was like being in the cinema where sound was concerned just epic. Made sitting in a traffic jam much less stressful.

[rfn]

Ari - you can get an iPhone/iPod kit that connects to the back of the stereo from MX-5 Parts for about £80 - it doesn't do Handsfree but allows you to play music through the stereo?

[Ari]

rfn said:

Ari - you can get an iPhone/iPod kit that connects to the back of the stereo from MX-5 Parts for about £80 - it doesn't do Handsfree but allows you to play music through the stereo?

The thing is I specifically need hands free, the music streaming is just a bonus since I'm having to do the hands free anyway.

[Ari]

hornetrider said:

Ari said:

I've got Bose in my MX5 so I don't really want to mess with that, just add the iphone for hands free calling and music streaming.

Dude. I've got a 3.5 with Bose. My setup is a windscreen sucker iPhone cradle bottom right hand side of windscreen, and a griffin autopilot going to it from the 12v socket then under the steering wheel. The autopilot connects to the bottom of the phone only, and has a 3.5mm jack from the controller to the aux-in. Works really well, will get you a pic tomorrow.

Edited by hornetrider on Friday 7th January 23:28

That looks a nice bit of kit (just Googled it). Trouble is, mine's a MK3 so no aux-in, plus I still need the hands-free.

[Ari]

jeebus said:

Ari said:

Having been quoted £344(!) to supply and fit a Parrot MKi9200 to my car (which will give hands free and stream music), I'm wondering if there's a better and/or cheaper way?

A fixed bracket (non Bluetooth) type for example would give somewhere to put the phone and it'll charge the battery rather than deplete it as streaming music whilst driving would.

Just wondered what solutions and/or recommendations people had for using an iPhone in the car?

I have the mki9200, I got it from halfords for £169 or £159 can't remember exactly, and £21 for the lead, fitted it myself in about one hour. It is spot on for playing music through the iphone and has a lead that goes into the phone so you can either plug it in or stream it via bluetooth.

The problem is that Halfords don't seem to be able to get a lead that's compatible with the Bose.

Out of interest, how does streaming music affect the phone's battery life? I'm guessing it must add extra drain?

My thinking is if I could get a fixed bracket type it'd be charging the battery, not draining it.

[SlowlnFastOut]

Parrot MINIKIT SMART.

http://www.parrot.com/uk/products/plug-n-play-car-...

Purchased one from halfords the other day and am really impressed. Well built piece of kit, with the majority of the actual holder mader from metal. Kit can hold several different smart phones rather than just iphone and includes charging cable for iphone and several other smart phones. Easy to use, pairing takes seconds. Bracket is very sturdey and adjusted with an allen key. Works well if you have tomtom/naviagation app too. Highly recommended

hth

[Ari]

That looks good for £100.

Does it plug into the lighter socket or is it hard wired?

Is the speaker built in?

[jeebus]

Ari said:

jeebus said:

Ari said:

Having been quoted £344(!) to supply and fit a Parrot MKi9200 to my car (which will give hands free and stream music), I'm wondering if there's a better and/or cheaper way?

A fixed bracket (non Bluetooth) type for example would give somewhere to put the phone and it'll charge the battery rather than deplete it as streaming music whilst driving would.

Just wondered what solutions and/or recommendations people had for using an iPhone in the car?

I have the mki9200, I got it from halfords for £169 or £159 can't remember exactly, and £21 for the lead, fitted it myself in about one hour. It is spot on for playing music through the iphone and has a lead that goes into the phone so you can either plug it in or stream it via bluetooth.

The problem is that Halfords don't seem to be able to get a lead that's compatible with the Bose.

Out of interest, how does streaming music affect the phone's battery life? I'm guessing it must add extra drain?

My thinking is if I could get a fixed bracket type it'd be charging the battery, not draining it.

The battery life is reduced somewhat but I put my phone on charge every night anyway so I dont notice it.

[Ari]

I guess an in car power socket driven charger is another solution.