Hi,

 

Well after being a Fabia owner a long time ago and having to use a Fiesta (!), boringdriver junior has now arrived and my wife and I have just secured a 1 yr old Octavia Elegance 1.6 TDI.

 

Can anyone shed any light on whether any of the Pioner ICE systems are compatible with the MK 3 Octavia? I am of course particularly interested in the Apple CarPlay integration.

 

Thanks

 

James

Edited 21 October, 201411 yr by boringdriver

I was after knowing the same thing. Every avenue I've looked at so far says no though, unfortunately. Will watch this thread for any good news. Would love CarPlay in the car.

The issue is that the 'ICE' unit is no longer just 'ICE' - it also controls / displays a lot of car information / settings as well.  Therefore, if you did manage to cable up an aftermarket ICE unit, it might work for ICE functionality, but you're going to lose all of that car functionality, which is almost certainly highly detrimental to the car.

The headunit is no longer just a headunit, think of it as an infotainment centre, so its entertainment and information in one single unit. Nothing aftermarket will currently give you the information part, so you'll lose a lot of functionality with the car even if you could get it to work. The Octavia MK3 uses an encrypted MOST databus instead of canbus for its infotainment so even getting it to work is a problem.

There's also no space behind the screen for a 'normal' ICE unit's depth, I believe. The Skoda 'unit' is in the glovebox, not behind the screen.