eBay cheap and cheerful double din Nav/DVD/iPod system

[jke11y]

I am looking at the myriad of brands-i-have-never-heard-of double din sytems on eBay.

Does anyone have experience of one of these? I know the user menus may (or may not) be guff compared to units at £600+, but its for a smart car and if theres something cheap and cheerful available that will do phone, nav and ipod, a cheapo is ideal for a citycar.

Thanks in advance chaps.

[todd69]

Had several over the years, last one I just sold the other week, had nav, digital freeview, bluetooth and various other bells and whistles.

First thing, even though these units come with Sat Nav, usually find the processor isn't up to spec and find it hard to run any nav program in 3D view and running it for long periods can cause the units to shutdown due to the heat.

Most will only work with classic ipods unless stated other wise.

UI is nearly always appalling.

BT worked with ever phone I tried and was able to play music back via BT and control music from HU.

All in I never had any real problems with the ones I got, I just accepted the limitations as for sub £200 I felt I was getting a lot more for my money than spending a fortune on a branded model.

Then again, I've just bought a 2nd hand JVC double din and wish to good I had done it years ago, so much easier to live with LOL

Take from that what you will

[rick355s]

Hi,
would stay clear of the cheapo ones on offer on ebay... as you've mentioned, the menus (GUI) will be pretty poor, some are not "exactly" double din (can be slightly larger fitment), require speed pulse generators, CD mech's fail etc....

Have a look at these guys, they can supply an aftermarket double din sat-nav unit which should be fairly simple to install and will probably tick most of your boxes. They have a sponsored link in the 'oily pages' of pistonheads.

http://www.oilypages.com/links.asp?d=&page=aud...

www.caraudiosecurity.com

[jke11y]

Thanks for the advice chaps. I think I may have been drawn in by the Engrish descriptions and snazzy pictures

Some of them do look to have better menu layouts and graphics than others, but as I am coming from a 2006 BMW with i-drive some of them look better than that so it should be OK.

Other consideration is a lot of them dont have face-off, even the high end. My brother just had a Kenwood unit with Garmin (700+ worth) lifted out his Evo, and I am keen to avoid that hassle.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TD716G-7-2-DIN-SAT-NAV-BLUET...

for example. I have also read you can get them to run tomtom maps?

[todd69]

Run tomtom LOL

I've installed nearly every satnav software on wince 5 & 6 and tomtom is a pig and is really buggy on these chinese head units.