Ipod, Bluetooth installation £380

[ChrisPidwell]

I am just about to give the order for a Parrot MKi9200 installation on my E270 W211 2004 plate.

It currently has an audio 20 system

The parraot system will give me bluetooth access to my blackberry and also plug in options for my Ipod. All can operated via the steering wheel. It is not integrated withthe the stereo or dash display (does mute stereo et etc)

Its costing £380 installed?

Would I be better doing something else? Like upgrading to Command? or retro fitting a bluetooth mb phone system?

Help need to decide tonight!!!!!!!!!

 

[jberks]

If its costing £380 and it gives you ipod and bluetooth then I'd say you're doing the right thing. Command will give you neither of those things whilst costing you £1000+ and to retrofit MB prewire with bluetooth will cost £600+, and still no ipod interface.
Dash and wheel controls are overrated anyway. I have it and I rarely use it to be honest. Its nice having the numbers come up on the dash but its not £1300 nice.
So, £1600 vs £380 for virtually the same end result.
relax and sign the order.

 

[stripe]

Hi Chris

Did you ever get this fitted? If so how do you find it?

Cheers

Michael

 

[ChrisPidwell]

Hi yes it was fitted last week. Generally, excellent piece of kit. However:

Pro's
Brilliant voice commands and recognition on dial up
Clarity of sound for incoming calls.
Clarity of voice for recipient of call
Looks good (although positioning the small screen on the E270 W211 was tricky.
Good screen, easy to read, detachable to store to stop it being nicked.

Cons
Any sounds played through the Mki9200 (i.e. Ipod, mp3, sdcard, phone etc) comes through four speakers in the car. The main stereo (Audio 20) is muted. No option to fade or blanace speakers (yet that is as I have enquired about this)
Searching Ipod tracks is slow as it will only scroll through alphabeticaly to eac artist,albums etc, not the Ipod quick a-z type search. So ZZ-top being about my 500th artists takes a while to get to. ( I have set up multiple playlist and smart playlists to overcome this, include podcast, and audio book playlists)
Small con, when iPod is plugged in witht he proper interface, you can only control it from the mki9200. I haven't tried it or other mp3's players, using the usb or phone jack as yet.

Hope this helps.

Does anyone know if the MB Ipod kit, plugs into the stero (Audio 20) and allows fade, balance, etc functions, also wth this kit, how do you control the iPod?


The Unika box of tricks which give the steering wheel buttons control over the Mki9200 is out of stock and yet to be fiitted, so I'm using the jog wheels (wireless) at present.