Bringing car into 2022 - car audio/handfree

T

Tiger78

Member
 Aberdeenshire
As per my other post - loving the car but with a few niggles.

I use the phone quite a bit but im finding the BMW handsfree is poor...looking to upgrade
My car doenst have the sat nav screen either so whats's my options?

I had a quote for an install of car play and screen but that coming in fairly expensive....are there option for a single din with a flip out screen?
What's everyone done in the past & is it possible to-do DIY....

any images of installs with approx. prices greatly appreciated.

Based in Aberdeenshire - so also if anyone has experience with companies in Scotland for these works?

Thanks in advance
 
I understand your pain.

Although AnnubisZed on here has done a great job in educating us and showing us how to install a CIC type system, i feel:
1) it's too expensive for me at the moment for what it delivers (i have an android system on my e90 already. I love that for the price & functionality).
2) i hate the thought of cutting into the dashboard etc.

Also, they all do have a shelf-life in terms of updates etc. and then what happens when they fail at some point.

I have a BMW Professional Radio with Bluetooth from my e90 that i am ready to install. This keeps everything OEM, provides bluetooth calling but no maps.
There may be issues with that relating to microphone, coding etc.
The biggest problem i've read from other owners is voice quality on the microphone on the steering wheel cowling. Others have said that the later model mic makes a difference. I may look at installing a mic elsewhere.

I was going to suggest a Parrot kit as they worked great for me in the past on other cars, but when i just checked i noticed that they exited the bluetooth car kit market and are now making drones instead :tumbleweed:
What a waste, they were global leaders in that space.

It's still possble to buy a Parrot Mki9100 used though, and a SOT harness for the E89/e90 etc.

The other option i've considered is a Garmin DriveSmart 65 or similar:
"with Amazon Alexa, 6.95 Inch Sat Nav with Alexa Built-In, Edge-to-Edge Display, Full Europe Map Updates, Live Traffic, Hands Free Calling, Voice Commands and Smart Features"

The benefit of this is that it provides handsfree calling, Alexa functionality and Maps and is totally portable from car to car.
I'm not sure of the voice quality though when the roof is down. However, my take on that is that when i'm top-down-driving i'm driving & enjoying the drive, not taking calls. Can always stop to take a clearer call.

The other potential benefit is that Garmin has the bc-40 wireless camera that integrates with this for reverse parking purposes.

hmmmm :driving:
 
Even though my car has iDrive it didn't have bluetooth (never assume anything with a BMW). I have a Parrot Mki9100 fitted in mine, voice activated / steering wheel control and bluetooth audio streaming. The only negative is if you are bluetooth streaming audio its cancels out the sat-nav & pdc audio.
 
Hi, This is what I had installed in my e85 o5 single din. Not sure if will fit in your e89. But it has all the options I wanted. Single din, flip out, 7 inch screen, bluetooth, aux, usb, car play, sat nav maps (using google maps on phone thru aux right now). Can us apple or pioneer maps but have not figured that out yet. Also cd, dvd player has hook ups for sat radio and back up camera but need cables and camera separate. I did over pay for the Pioneer unit but was hard to find due to chip shortage at the time. Only issue I have is doesn't quite fit flush with dash. My car is in storage for winter here in the US. But here is a pic from another forum member showing unit similar unit installed. Hope they don't mind I used his pic as reference to help you.

So here is the list of what I had installed. All cost in US dollars.
AVH-330NEX - aprox $500 (yes over paid but chip shortage) so very hard to find unit.
AXXESS Steering Wheel Control Interface- $59
Metra *AWG AMP Kit-$79
Kicker AMP CX400w class D Digital Amp with low pass cross over $145 pioneer.jpg
 
I looked into doing something like this with my 23i

The point I kept coming back to was with a flip out screen is because of the location of the original, it would either be too low, not visible because of reflection or MAY foul the gearstick.

An old iPhone in the centre console was the short term solution for music streaming
 
Argyll Andy said:
I looked into doing something like this with my 23i

The point I kept coming back to was with a flip out screen is because of the location of the original, it would either be too low, not visible because of reflection or MAY foul the gearstick.

An old iPhone in the centre console was the short term solution for music streaming
Click to expand...

Yes thatā€™s my concern also and not easy accces to heater controlsā€¦.
 
I looked at tweaking my E89 idrive system in various ways and came to the conclusion to leave it as is..all I did was mount my mobile in a place where I had a better view /access and would allow a brief glance from time to time..

If you want decent audio quality there's not yet a car play upgrade that works..

Obviously retrofitting an idrive is just too expensive and too difficult for most

Best option is a decent phone driving direct a decent amp and then having an android unit mopping up the sat nav..no cheap options that don't look tacky..IMHO
 
Here is my post for a year ago when I fitted an android unit to bring the interior up a few years. It's not a bad DIY job if you have a bit of know how and a few hours to spare. Think this took about 4 or 5 hours to do and cost me around the Ā£800 mark
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=126831&hilit=new+toy
 
Jollyjoiner said:
Here is my post for a year ago when I fitted an android unit to bring the interior up a few years. It's not a bad DIY job if you have a bit of know how and a few hours to spare. Think this took about 4 or 5 hours to do and cost me around the Ā£800 mark
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=126831&hilit=new+toy
Click to expand...

Looks a good setup - how was it after. Sim used and abused? Seeing what you had to dismantle - think itā€™s beyond my reach as my Z4 is used daily - my old one I would have tried it on as was a 3 car and only used on sunny days. Iā€™ve had a quote for a system just below the price you paid so maybe time to pay subject to a few more detailsā€¦ thanks for sharing though as that how I would like mine to look!!
 
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