Just bought the MK3 Octavia, and Mirror Link in mine wasn't activated. It requires dealer activation. Any thoughts, is it worth it? How much does it costs...bla bla...? 

It's worth it if you're going to make use of Android Auto or Apple Carplay. I will be having it activated in our Beetle. 

Its around £140, I had it activated on my MY16 and wasnt that impressed to start with. I started using spotify later on and started using android auto more and more. Now Im in an MY19 and I use it every trip, it does my music from spotify (letting me select tracks etc, above what I can do with bluetoooth), I use google maps for navigation and it gives me message updates through the head unit.

 

I use it a lot now, its quite restrictive I wont lie but it has its uses. Probably just and so worth the money if you are keeping the car for a few years.

23 hours ago, Swirly182 said:

It's worth it if you're going to make use of Android Auto or Apple Carplay. I will be having it activated in our Beetle. 

That was the plan, to use it with Android auto. Also a gadget geek, and like to have all sorts of gimmick around... 

@ExSEAT thank you for a complete response, you did clear a lot of waters. I'm not sure if ready to pay £140 for the feature...tho 

Because I don't have SatNav built in, I would use phone for navigate. Also Spotify and such... But they work through BT anyway. 

Thank you so much for your help guys.

 

I asked a local dealer recently, they said £145.

 

I ended up just putting my phone on a mount and using normal Bluetooth.

I use Amazon music myself, so just shout at the phone anyway.

 

£145 is cheap. VW quoted around £250!

Our 2017 is a facelift so came enabled from the factory, however if I had a car without and the opportunity to enable it for £140 ish I wouldn't hesitate. I use CarPlay all the time in exactly the same way @ExSEAT mentions and from what I understand of Android Auto I would do the same with that if I was on Android. £140 ish is cheap in the realms of car upgrades and proper smartphone connectivity is imho one of the most transformative features in recent years.

 

BMW charge something like £85 per year.

As much as I kinda want to, as I do like having tech...  I genuinely can't work out what it will actually do for me.

 

Music plays via bluetooth from the phone and is voice controlled anyway, or as is often the case I listen to the radio.

Car has Satnav built in, which displays on the maxidot also, which google maps doesn't on AA.   If the built in nav is annoying me, the phone is on a holder on the windscreen and actually more visible when driving than the main infotainment screen.

 

What other functionality does it actually offer?  If the above is all it is then I don't think I'd really gain anything for the money.

Edited 6 January, 20206 yr by Alex-W

Everyone is different. I know I used to be happy with my phone in a holder, then I got CarPlay and I'm now annoyed when I have to drive the second car which doesn't have it. So much so that any time I have a bit of a fantasy "what could I buy as a replacement second car" browse I'm always considering how easy a double DIN CarPlay retrofit would be on any car that doesn't come with it. 

 

I was waiting to reply until I thought of a compelling reason why that is, I'm not sure I have one, I guess for me it's just nicer to have everything in one place on the big screen on the dash.

Edited 6 January, 20206 yr by uchuff

I thought £150 to spec SmartLink on my new car was great value because it was so much cheaper and better than the built in satnav.

Spotify on screen is nice. 

 

Press and hold steering wheel voice button to activate Google assistant. 

 

Always up to date sat nav whichever app is used. 

 

All messages accessible to select and listen to (not read obv) 

 

All these are not essential I agree, but you do get used to them. 

can you send a text using voice via google assistant?

Actually, can you read/send whatsapp messages (via voice)?  The fact that the Head Unit can show/send texts is a bit pointless...  everyone uses whatspp these days.  Even my 70yr old parents don't use SMS any more.

4 minutes ago, Alex-W said:

Actually, can you read/send whatsapp messages (via voice)?  The fact that the Head Unit can show/send texts is a bit pointless...  everyone uses whatspp these days.  Even my 70yr old parents don't use SMS any more.

Yes, you can.