I've just been looking on ebay and have found an after market sat nav unit which appears to slot into the current radio/cd unit 'hole'. For £360 inc delivery (from Greece) it looks to good to be true!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120537648617&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have a few questions and would be grateful if anyone could answer them:

1) does the current Bolero unit come out and this sat nav unit slide it?

2) Does the bluetooth facility allow for complete handsfree use - assuming phone is compatible? If it does does anyone know what the quality is like - is the microphone built into the sat nav unit?

3) Would the bluetooth unit work with my maxidot - I will have maxidot but no multi function steering wheel when my new car is finally built!!

Thanks,

I've just been looking on ebay and have found an after market sat nav unit which appears to slot into the current radio/cd unit 'hole'. For £360 inc delivery (from Greece) it looks to good to be true!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120537648617&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have a few questions and would be grateful if anyone could answer them:

1) does the current Bolero unit come out and this sat nav unit slide it?

2) Does the bluetooth facility allow for complete handsfree use - assuming phone is compatible? If it does does anyone know what the quality is like - is the microphone built into the sat nav unit?

3) Would the bluetooth unit work with my maxidot - I will have maxidot but no multi function steering wheel when my new car is finally built!!

Thanks,

Something I've learnt... If something looks too good to be true it normally is...

I'd be very dubious about getting one of those, but if you do and it's any good, let us know

I've just been looking on ebay and have found an after market sat nav unit which appears to slot into the current radio/cd unit 'hole'. For £360 inc delivery (from Greece) it looks to good to be true!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120537648617&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have a few questions and would be grateful if anyone could answer them:

1) does the current Bolero unit come out and this sat nav unit slide it?

2) Does the bluetooth facility allow for complete handsfree use - assuming phone is compatible? If it does does anyone know what the quality is like - is the microphone built into the sat nav unit?

3) Would the bluetooth unit work with my maxidot - I will have maxidot but no multi function steering wheel when my new car is finally built!!

Thanks,

Just look at the feedback on e-bay.....All as a buyer NON as a SELLER.....would wait and see if he/she receives any feedback as a seller before even contemplating buying anything let alone parting with £350 !!!

I haven't looked at this unit in any great detail, but have looked into these types before, so...

1) does the current Bolero unit come out and this sat nav unit slide it?

Yes.

2) Does the bluetooth facility allow for complete handsfree use - assuming phone is compatible? If it does does anyone know what the quality is like - is the microphone built into the sat nav unit?

Yes, to a point - depends on the software on the unit - you'll probably have to find a contact to ring for example, not all of them support voice tag dialing etc. It probably has a microphone on the front of the unit with an option to add an external mic, which you could wire into the OEM position by the courtesy light perhaps. Mic built into the front is supposed to struggle a little bit, but again depends on the unit.

3) Would the bluetooth unit work with my maxidot - I will have maxidot but no multi function steering wheel when my new car is finally built!!

Nope.

A few people have bought these units so might be worth posting in the ICE section.

Personally, even though they have less features, I'd spend a bit more and stick a columbus in there. You could pick one up for £450 if you're patient.

This is very similar to a product I was looking at from Chinavasion, and after few month of ivnestigation, I came to conclusion that (from words of users, which were very few) the new unit deliverd worked in 50% like it supposed to (50% of that stopped working after few month and 50% worked fine after that) and in 50% it didn't worked at all.

Chinavasion King Cobra 7

Conclusion, the stuff from Chinavasion works if you are lucky enough to be in the 50%, but it's very likely it will stop working in a while.

About the warranty things are little complicated as the seller usually delays everything for months and months and nobody gets the money back, they should just buy something else, etc ... (talking about Chinavasion warranty) so in the end, if you consider everything and the risk of not getting what you paid for, in my opinion it's not worth it!

You might want to consider one of these:

http://www.timelesslong.cn/Simplified/ProductView.asp?ID=421&SortID=82

They get very good reports on the German forums where a lot of people have bought and installed them without problem. Seems to be the best of the Chinese units.

I was quoted £225 plus £40 shipping to UK for the version with all options (RDS, Digital TV tuner). Works with steering wheel controls, but doesn't support Maxidot display apparently.

I want something that I can install TomTom or iGO8 on (I have tried Skoda's MFD2 unit and don't rate the navigation at all).

These units run WinCE so fit the bill.

I am going to China later this month and so may pick up one over there and try it out.

I have heard of some people having issues with flat batteries with Chinese knock off units like this.

Apparently sometimes the CAN bus does not properly interface with the units so it keeps powering them even with the ignition key removed. If you don't drive your car for a couple of days it flattens the battery.