New head unit fitted to Polo 9N3

[hotbarrels]

Having just bought a 2006 NZ new Polo GTi still complete with the factory radio fitted, which was not compatible with Bluetooth or my iPhone, I decided it was requiring replacement.
After hunting the net for something suitable I decided to give a Android unit a go. Being that I have been issued with apple products for work for the past 10 years, I have never used android devices, but based on the reviews it seemed like a good option.

I ordered one of these 7" Android 5 1 CAR GPS Stereo DVD Player OBD2 FOR Volkswagen VW Bora Golf Jetta | eBay since it was correctly sized for the Polo.

My thoughts:

1. delivery was very fast.
2. fitting was easy, just remove the old unit and select the plugging from the bundle supplied with the new radio and plug them in as required.
3. the unit is deeper than the factory original, and as such is a very tight fit. I have to remove the WIFI antenna to get it in but an easy mod to the inside of the dash will resolve this. With the antenna removed in the interim the WIFI to the phone personal hot spot works fine. The longer range WIFI to the house suffers.
4. everything works (and works well) as advertised - GPS via google maps, Bluetooth music, WIFI hot spot with iHeart radio and Spotify, web browser, etc
5. only thing that suffered is the broadcast radio which I have put down to the need to replace the car antenna which is now on order, and the in car hands free sound quality is marginal using the mic on the head unit. I have a separate mic on order.
6. I have ordered the ODB dongle for the in unit vehicle monitoring.
7. I haven't fitted a reversing camera yet but will do once I work out the best camera for the job. The camera screen comes up as soon as you put the car in reverse, even if it hasn't fully booted up which is a great feature.

In summary, I am very impressed with the performance, ease of use and diversity that this unit provides, ready wired for the VW platform.

Highly recommended.

[hardy_bm]

Nice write up. Could you please post some pictures of the final product?

[seangti]

Hi,

Re point number 5 getting bad reception, the issue isn't typically the aerial itself but requiring an aerial booster. You will need something like this:

Inline Antenna Aerial Booster Amplifier FOR Volkswagen Passat B5 B6 B7 Alltrack | eBay

That red lead plugs into your blue "remote" power trigger from you HU or piggyback to your accessories power so it turns on when the head unit is running. I have it on one of my cars and reception is great, my daily drive Polo doesn't have it as the stereo was installed by autobarn and reception is ordinary. Plus I now can't get the unit out and rarely listen to radio so have never bothered to fix after 7yrs...

[hotbarrels]

Nice write up. Could you please post some pictures of the final product?

Sorry for the poor quality but the morning sun was being difficult

[hardy_bm]

Looks great. Thanks.

Did you have to use a Connects2 box to translate CanBus illumination and power on signals or does its own included CanBus box have the correct plug and capability?

[hotbarrels]

It came with two wiring looms - one with the VW canbus module pre-wired in and the other just a plain non-canbus. Plug and played the canbus loom between the head unit and the car wiring plug and everything ran as it should.

[hardy_bm]

That's great. Thanks. Will buy one.

[hotbarrels]

Here's a night shot with the lighting set to red to match the VW dash

[hardy_bm]

Looks perfect. Does the am radio have the correct stepping (ie freq increases 9 kHz per click) for Australia?

[flat6]

Nice looking deck, reminds me of my old Eonon D5101 but on a much better platform, let us know what its like to live with and if it does the simple things without excess fumbling (playing music, GPS ect.. )