Hi everyone,

I'm picking up a Vrs tomorrow (very excited), but I don't think the symphony head unit is going to cut it??? I was looking into buying a new alpine (ipod) headunit and was wondering if anyone has any experience of these (fitting/reliability/where to get one cheap).

All comments welcome,

Rich

Fitting is easy enough to do yourself if you take your time to move the cables around behind the unit. As for what unit to go for, I've been pretty pleased with my Alpine 9884R which has both the USB and Ipod cables fitted to it. It can be colour coded with green illumination to match that of the dash and works pretty effectively. It sticks out looks wise more than I would like (the OEM one fits way better obviously) but as far as aftermarket units go, this one has at least been designed by someone other than a 5 year old on acid with a fascination for fairy lights and blackpool illuminations. I can get some pics of it fitted if you would like?

Fitting is easy enough to do yourself if you take your time to move the cables around behind the unit. As for what unit to go for, I've been pretty pleased with my Alpine 9884R which has both the USB and Ipod cables fitted to it. It can be colour coded with green illumination to match that of the dash and works pretty effectively. It sticks out looks wise more than I would like (the OEM one fits way better obviously) but as far as aftermarket units go, this one has at least been designed by someone other than a 5 year old on acid with a fascination for fairy lights and blackpool illuminations. I can get some pics of it fitted if you would like?

That would be great mate, I have fitted a head unit before, but the concensus seem to to think I need to fit an adaptor or cable straight to the battery? This is easily outside of my mechanical remit!!!

Fitting an aftermarket unit is very straightforward these days. No need to connect straight to the battery!!

That would be great mate, I have fitted a head unit before, but the concensus seem to to think I need to fit an adaptor or cable straight to the battery? This is easily outside of my mechanical remit!!!

Nope, I assume it's a Mk1 Octavia? If so, and I believe that this is the case across all Octy/Fab's, then it's just plug and play. You get the cables with the HU and it's all ISO stuff so just clips together. In fact, the biggest pain in the **** is getting it all squeezed in with the existing cables that are left in that small space behind the headunit. I've actually got a spare set of Alpine cables which I may butcher to create some room and I have also considered swapping the headunit with the position that the cubby hole is in. It would be early next week but I can take some pics of where everything goes behind the dash. Also, to fit the cables for the Ipod/USB, it's easy enough to pull the glovebox and drill a small hole for the cables to run through before plugging the gap witha couple of rubber gromets...just be careful with your knuckles when feeding the cable through though, remember that blood stains white seats very badly!

Don't forget the permanent and ignition switched live power feeds need swapping over, either manually or with an aftermarket lead.

Don't forget the permanent and ignition switched live power feeds need swapping over, either manually or with an aftermarket lead.

One some wiring harnesses (Pioneer) these are simply bullet connectors you can swap round. On my Clarion it was a simple case of moving the headunit fuse into another slot!