Car stereo and gps

[Gillsy]

Originally Posted By: supton
Still toying with a new stereo for the new-to-me car. Mostly to gain Bluetooth for the phone, but aux&USB would be nice. CD and mp3 on CD would be nice too. Maybe $100 worth to me to gain all that; best I can tell, I can get around that cost with a decent quality Pioneer. [I looked into XO Vision and Dual, and Boss, but I suspect it's just worth the extra few dollars. Pioneer or similar.]

Question: if I add $100 to this cost, can I get one with navigation? Or would the quality of the unit, and the actual performance, be sub-par compared to a separate Garmin on the windshield?

I have Nuvi 55 (? something like that) which I like in my truck, and can swap between vehicles. But like everything else, if I can "have it it all" ...

Side note: I have a cheapo smartphone with Tracfone, I buy the cheapest / lowest amount per month required for it. I almost never have data turned on, and as such, am not interested in any smartphone app. A few months of data would pay for a GPS; several months would pay for a really quality one. I also don't have data available for several miles around where I live. So not an option! Not interested!
In my opinion a Pioneer Premier is tough to beat for features, and sound.

 

[4wd]

My Pioneer GPS is a "black box" stand alone wired to the Pioneer DD unit. It does not take up chassis space in the main unit and can be purchased later. The SD card goes in the GPS box ... (You hide it away, no controls on it) ...
Camera was a separate purchase ... Get advise on those, lot of them are not water tight enough ...

 

[supton]

Been toying with getting a Pioneer MVH-380BT. Bluetooth, USB, aux, AM/FM. No CD. $78 at Walmart. For $30 more I could get CD, but haven't decided if that is somehow important or not--I do have some CD's and mp3 on CD, but in years past listened very little to them. For the price difference I could buy a 64GB ($20 at Best Buy) and a 32GB ($10 at Best Buy) and probably move all my CD's onto them--probably with space to spare.

However, I'm not sure how easy it would be to navigate folders *while driving*. I suspect higher-dollar units have audio readout etc.

 

[Vikas]

Alright; with that kind of money you are NOT getting any GPS! I thought you were talking in $500 range head unit.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Alright; with that kind of money you are NOT getting any GPS! I thought you were talking in $500 range head unit.


In the first post I spoke of getting a $100 receiver; since I've gotten GPS units for $100 or so, it seemed like a possibility that, for $200, I could get a decent receiver and GPS, all in one. It doesn't sound like it exists at the $200 level.

What does a $500 unit do better than a $100 unit? Once you start moving and the noise floor rises up, I'd think anything halfway-decent and up would blend together in performance. A large touchscreen and voice commands, that sort of thing, is all that I *think* you get on more expensive units?

I realize there are people who are really into this stuff, but honestly--I'm not. I don't buy music, I don't have a favorite band nor follow any musicians, I commute usually with the radio off so as to enjoy the silence. I can tell that a CD sounds better than FM, but past that, I've never heard an issue with any mp3 file I've had or ripped. I'd buy the $20 cheapie if it wasn't for a) the premise of poor quality, and b) poor FM reception.

 

[supton]

Gave in and bought the MVH-381BT. More like $100 once done--$78 for the radio, $10 for the harness, $17 for the cubbyhole.

Harder to install than it should have been; but not hard to do. Pioneer's wiring instructions suck. They gave pin numbers going from 1 to 21; but the connector only had 16 pins--and only 12 had wires. Scratched my head for 15 minutes, trying to compare notes, before I hit up google and "discovered" that "everyone" sticks to a common set of wire colors.

The next hard part was putting screws into the Pioneer. The cubbyhole kit wanted me to reuse the screws from the Toyota head unit; too bad they were fine pitch and took forever to cut into the metal. Of course whatever screws might have been with the radio got left home (was in a rush today, finished the job while at work at lunchtime) so that may be my fault. Worst part: I wanted the cubbyhole on top of the radio. That way I could rest my wrist on the shifter and work the radio, done that in all my vehicles over the years. Oh well, I'll get over it--and if not, radio came with a remote.

Didn't use the BT yet but wired up the microphone and paired my phone. Did listen to FM and mp3's on the drive in--and it was quite nice (radio left sitting on the seat). FM reception I think is better than the Toyota radio (a boon), I like the RDS, and of course the BT/mp3/USB/aux will all be great to use. Already quite happy with it. Only things I don't like are: no battery backup in the radio (minor but I've already had to program twice), and no single button seek (have to hold down to make it seek next strong station) (not huge but all my other stereos do that).