Recommendations for 2006 Vanquish CarPlay upgrade
Discussion
Can anybody recommend Apple CarPlay upgrade installers for a 2006 Vanquish (the one with the Volvo sat nav screen)? I believe it's the same centre stack as the early DB9 and early VH Vantage models.
Ideally, I would like it to be an integral new touchscreen (ie. no additional controller required), as fully integrated into the overall audio system as possible.
I have tried Aston Installations, but really not sure at £3.6k.
Failing that, I'll get a modern USB/audio connector kit installed and have the iPhone in a good cradle. Any suggestion for this route appreciated too.
Thanks!
Ideally, I would like it to be an integral new touchscreen (ie. no additional controller required), as fully integrated into the overall audio system as possible.
I have tried Aston Installations, but really not sure at £3.6k.
Failing that, I'll get a modern USB/audio connector kit installed and have the iPhone in a good cradle. Any suggestion for this route appreciated too.
Thanks!
I've just realised that you don't have the ski-slope and satnav as fitted to the Vantage of that era. You might be as well off with an iPhone, Waze and a good mount, which can hold the phone horizontal. Not ideal, but not £3.5k either!
I took out my Volvo satnav equipment and installed a Garmin in its place. I've since changed this to a car play unit. It's just held onto the original frame with Velcro and works fine.
I took out my Volvo satnav equipment and installed a Garmin in its place. I've since changed this to a car play unit. It's just held onto the original frame with Velcro and works fine.
Edited by stevenichols on Tuesday 16th June 18:12
stevenichols said:
I've just realised that you don't have the ski-slope and satnav as fitted to the Vantage of that era. You might be as well off with an iPhone, Waze and a good mount, which can hold the phone horizontal. Not ideal, but not £3.5k either!
I took out my Volvo satnav equipment and installed a Garmin in its place. I've since changed this to a car play unit. It's just held onto the original frame with Velcro and works fine.
Thanks! It's my backup plan I took out my Volvo satnav equipment and installed a Garmin in its place. I've since changed this to a car play unit. It's just held onto the original frame with Velcro and works fine.
Good idea! Much cheaper and probably just as good. Incidentally, I have attached a photograph of my Car Play unit fitted to the Vantage. Cost less than £100 from China and plays music and gives directions through the FM radio. If anything, the display is a little dim, but I'm planning on fitting brighter LED backlights this winter when the car is off the road. If anyone wants details of the make and model just shout. It was hard to find a unit that would fit in the ski slope space. This one fits fine.
stevenichols said:
Good idea! Much cheaper and probably just as good. Incidentally, I have attached a photograph of my Car Play unit fitted to the Vantage. Cost less than £100 from China and plays music and gives directions through the FM radio. If anything, the display is a little dim, but I'm planning on fitting brighter LED backlights this winter when the car is off the road. If anyone wants details of the make and model just shout. It was hard to find a unit that would fit in the ski slope space. This one fits fine.
That does look neatly integrated. I'm curious how you get the audio passed through to the stereo.The CarPlay unit has a built-in FM radio transmitter. I just tune the radio to the same frequency and voila, you get music, sat nav directions and hands free phone audio passed to the car radio. The quality is very good too. I just saved the frequency to one of the buttons so I just have to press "10" and away we go.
It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
stevenichols said:
The CarPlay unit has a built-in FM radio transmitter. I just tune the radio to the same frequency and voila, you get music, sat nav directions and hands free phone audio passed to the car radio. The quality is very good too. I just saved the frequency to one of the buttons so I just have to press "10" and away we go.
It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
Thank you! That sounds like a really easy-to-add solution.It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
stevenichols said:
The CarPlay unit has a built-in FM radio transmitter. I just tune the radio to the same frequency and voila, you get music, sat nav directions and hands free phone audio passed to the car radio. The quality is very good too. I just saved the frequency to one of the buttons so I just have to press "10" and away we go.
It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
I think perhaps a new, dedicated thread with product details, "how to" installation, etc. might be It automatically pairs with my iPhone so it is pretty seamless. Someone else has asked for more details so I'll dig out the box tomorrow and post the details here.
Edited by LTP on Wednesday 17th June 16:29
I will start a new thread, but for now, I bought it off Aliexpress. See https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009110612492.h...
It is called a JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player
Only £36.69. I would be quick though as it won't be long before it is obsolete.
The thing is, most car sat navs are now 7 inches minimum, which is too big. The smaller 6.25" ones are now only used on motorcycles, which is no good as they don't transmit to an FM radio. Anyway, at least this one is still listed.
It is called a JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player
Only £36.69. I would be quick though as it won't be long before it is obsolete.
The thing is, most car sat navs are now 7 inches minimum, which is too big. The smaller 6.25" ones are now only used on motorcycles, which is no good as they don't transmit to an FM radio. Anyway, at least this one is still listed.
stevenichols said:
I will start a new thread, but for now, I bought it off Aliexpress. See https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009110612492.h...
It is called a JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player
Only £36.69. I would be quick though as it won't be long before it is obsolete.
The thing is, most car sat navs are now 7 inches minimum, which is too big. The smaller 6.25" ones are now only used on motorcycles, which is no good as they don't transmit to an FM radio. Anyway, at least this one is still listed.
Great info! Thank you.It is called a JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player
Only £36.69. I would be quick though as it won't be long before it is obsolete.
The thing is, most car sat navs are now 7 inches minimum, which is too big. The smaller 6.25" ones are now only used on motorcycles, which is no good as they don't transmit to an FM radio. Anyway, at least this one is still listed.
Catchy product name
Follow-up on my quest to make the Mk1 Vanquish suitable for longer distance drives. It needs more modern connectivity.
I realise what I write below may be the bleedin' obvious to many. But hopefully it benefits somebody.
One of the reasons I bought a late model, 2006 MY, Vanquish is that it benefits from the DB9 and early Vantage centre console controls, including the erstwhile Volvo satnav. That satnav uses a CD-ROM based road library and Amstrad quality graphics. Quaint but useless. But potentially upgradable to CarPlay.
I've received a good number of leads following my recent posts here and on Facebook. A big "thank you" to all suggestions which range from replacement screens to simpler solutions.
My ideal remains a CarPlay touchscreen. A low cost option is the catchily named "JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player", as described above. For around £100, you could directly replace the built-in screen and then connect the audio via the built-in FM transmitter. It's apparently the right (small) screen size. Neat.
A previous owner had a Dension Gateway installed (the user guide was in the centre console), but even with apparently suitable Apple Lightning to USB-C adapters doesn't appear to work with the latest iPhone. It remains a convenient USB power cable. And the Dension solution, hijacking the CD player, was an awkward fudge anyway.
So, I'm still considering CarPlay options, but I thought about the FM transmitter audio connection more. A stopgap is to, of course, use the iPhone screen for maps/control and get the audio through the car's HiFi.
In this Mk1 Vanquish, the cigarette lighter power source in the centre console is awkwardly near the compartment lid, so the generic combined lighter/USB-power/FM-transmitter products on Amazon wouldn't fit.
In the end, I found this combination:
M08 Car Bluetooth 5.3 FM Transmitter
https://amzn.eu/d/03fb595u
MOSWAG Mini Dual-Port Car Charger
https://amzn.eu/d/03fb595u
Together, for around £10, it's a very compact and discreet solution. I plugged them in, found and connected to the M08 transmitter bluetooth instantly from the iPhone, set the FM transmitter frequency (3 available), tuned the radio to match and stored the station and... perfect!
What took me a minute to set up results in surprisingly good audio quality. The Vanquish's FM radio reception isn't great anyway, but it now automatically plays my iPhone audio.
Best of all — and really surprisingly — is that it maintains dual Bluetooth phone-audio-only connection direct to the built-in Vanquish system, and the M08 FM transmitter. Having done a quick test, playing audio through the car speakers from Spotify, a call came in. I pressed the car's phone pick-up button, used the car's hand-free phone system (which is surprisingly good quality), and then ended the call with the car's phone-down button. Immediately after, Spotify kicked in again.
I would still like to interact with the car's screen driven by CarPlay, but the value and urgency to me is now significantly less.
PS - this solution is relevant for nearly all cars, iPhone, Android and other Bluetooth devices.
I realise what I write below may be the bleedin' obvious to many. But hopefully it benefits somebody.
One of the reasons I bought a late model, 2006 MY, Vanquish is that it benefits from the DB9 and early Vantage centre console controls, including the erstwhile Volvo satnav. That satnav uses a CD-ROM based road library and Amstrad quality graphics. Quaint but useless. But potentially upgradable to CarPlay.
I've received a good number of leads following my recent posts here and on Facebook. A big "thank you" to all suggestions which range from replacement screens to simpler solutions.
My ideal remains a CarPlay touchscreen. A low cost option is the catchily named "JIUYIN 6.25 inch Universal Car Radio Multimedia Navigation Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Mirror Music Player", as described above. For around £100, you could directly replace the built-in screen and then connect the audio via the built-in FM transmitter. It's apparently the right (small) screen size. Neat.
A previous owner had a Dension Gateway installed (the user guide was in the centre console), but even with apparently suitable Apple Lightning to USB-C adapters doesn't appear to work with the latest iPhone. It remains a convenient USB power cable. And the Dension solution, hijacking the CD player, was an awkward fudge anyway.
So, I'm still considering CarPlay options, but I thought about the FM transmitter audio connection more. A stopgap is to, of course, use the iPhone screen for maps/control and get the audio through the car's HiFi.
In this Mk1 Vanquish, the cigarette lighter power source in the centre console is awkwardly near the compartment lid, so the generic combined lighter/USB-power/FM-transmitter products on Amazon wouldn't fit.
In the end, I found this combination:
M08 Car Bluetooth 5.3 FM Transmitter
https://amzn.eu/d/03fb595u
MOSWAG Mini Dual-Port Car Charger
https://amzn.eu/d/03fb595u
Together, for around £10, it's a very compact and discreet solution. I plugged them in, found and connected to the M08 transmitter bluetooth instantly from the iPhone, set the FM transmitter frequency (3 available), tuned the radio to match and stored the station and... perfect!
What took me a minute to set up results in surprisingly good audio quality. The Vanquish's FM radio reception isn't great anyway, but it now automatically plays my iPhone audio.
Best of all — and really surprisingly — is that it maintains dual Bluetooth phone-audio-only connection direct to the built-in Vanquish system, and the M08 FM transmitter. Having done a quick test, playing audio through the car speakers from Spotify, a call came in. I pressed the car's phone pick-up button, used the car's hand-free phone system (which is surprisingly good quality), and then ended the call with the car's phone-down button. Immediately after, Spotify kicked in again.
I would still like to interact with the car's screen driven by CarPlay, but the value and urgency to me is now significantly less.
PS - this solution is relevant for nearly all cars, iPhone, Android and other Bluetooth devices.
stevenichols said:
Good idea! Much cheaper and probably just as good. Incidentally, I have attached a photograph of my Car Play unit fitted to the Vantage. Cost less than £100 from China and plays music and gives directions through the FM radio. If anything, the display is a little dim, but I'm planning on fitting brighter LED backlights this winter when the car is off the road. If anyone wants details of the make and model just shout. It was hard to find a unit that would fit in the ski slope space. This one fits fine.
I presume the sat nav will fold away. Or is it always up. If so how do you fold it away - which button. Also where do you take power from?Thanks Neil
Yes, it can fold away. I routed two wires to a switch in the trinket box and spliced them into the wiring loom. This was because it had a mind of its own and went down on its own. By putting the switch in I can cut the power when the satnav is up and it stays up. By flicking the switch before I turn the ignition off the satnav goes down. I can then flick the switch and it stays down - I hope that makes sense.
I basically followed the instructions here:
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_descr...
I basically followed the instructions here:
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_descr...
stevenichols said:
Yes, it can fold away. I routed two wires to a switch in the trinket box and spliced them into the wiring loom. This was because it had a mind of its own and went down on its own. By putting the switch in I can cut the power when the satnav is up and it stays up. By flicking the switch before I turn the ignition off the satnav goes down. I can then flick the switch and it stays down - I hope that makes sense.
I basically followed the instructions here:
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_descr...
thank you that's great. I basically followed the instructions here:
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_descr...
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