Looking to change my car and seriously considering the Octavia, possibly VRS or Scout. However, finding one with Maxi Dot isn't so easy. So have thought of just finding one I like and retro fitting and possibly adding nav too. But how much hassle is it to install Maxi Dot? And getting everything to work perfectly with the car? Anyone who's had experience with this I'd appreciate your advice/tips.

You need to speak to Brimma..........

No hassle once you have someone with the right tools and knowledge for the Maxidot. depending on the age of the car you buy it might have to go to your dealer to have the Maxidot dash put in.

Columbus is easy.

Would be a few years old at the most.

Has anyone used one of these aftermarket headunits from china for VAG cars, there seems to be a lot moving on ebay.

Plenty of threads about the Chinese aftermarket head units, and plenty of threads about the problems, hassles and upsets about having them too. There are one or two who say they are OK, but from experience, I would advise you not to touch one with a barge pole.

I bought one from eBay, it wasn't compatible, and had a hell of a struggle shipping the thing back to China without it costing me a fortune.

Now running a Skoda Columbus head unit, and couldn't be happier.

The Chinese unit I had did not integrate with the maxidot, it kept locking up, the integral bluetooth was useless, the radio reception was useless, and the nature of the wiring plugs meant that the boot mounted CD changer was totally unavailable. The bulk of the extra wiring made the unit difficult to locate in the dash, and the optional TV tuner that I bought with it simply did not work, even though it was a digital TV.

Columbus? Slotted in great, coded in great, nice 30GB hard drive so you don't need CD's, everything works exactly as it should, including perfect integration with the maxidot.

No contest!

Hope this helps

Mike

Spot on! Just what I needed to know, nearly bought one for the Fabia, glad I didn't now!