Android head unit

[The Duke]

My loaner astra 1.4 bi-turbo, nice engine for town, vet nippy, sadly the chassis isn’t great.

However it had the latest on star /android auto/Apple car play.

The standard nav radio and source  interface is sub par. Sub sub par. I wouldn’t opt for it. The android alot connected once in the whole week, it was great that once, bit in Vx and Google defence, I am using a prerelease version of android O. Thr apple car play worked every time withy lads phone, (I think ip7), but a point against Google and Vx my lads iPhone was running a beta version of ios. So could do better.

Over the last few months I’ve been testing lots of car entertainment systems out, and I’m now decided, if the car doesn’t have android auto, on offer, I would still not opted for a oem nav option. I’ve never seen a single oem made one that it decent, a phone, or tablet (I used in France /Spain) last year offer a far superior experience .

 

As Toyota don’t do android or ios on the bulk of the cars, I think camry in us has it, It makes the rav4h, which is in second spot atm, loose a few more points.

The Toyota system, is bad too. Better than Vx but bad still.

[Robin Long]

The Duke wrote:

I’m now decided, if the car doesn’t have android auto, on offer, I would still not opted for a oem nav option.  

Any VX with Onstar supports Android Auto as of 2018 VX say/claim all new cars will come with it as standard, the commercial fleet to follow by 2020.

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[The Duke]

As I said above Robin, the astra I had as a loaner last week had android auto, it didn’t work well, though it could be down to my preview os, but that hasn’t had a negative effect in the other cars is tried it with.

The whole Vx enfotainment system wasn’t great, i wad disappointed with the car altogether really as I like the looks of the new 5 door astra, and heard it drove great.

It’s drive was poor, a focus is still better, no matter what the reviews say, though Ford sync is poo and they still lake auto/car play.

I wouldn’t get another Vx anyhow, too many niggles with my GTC and their CS is poor, or my many experiences over the last two years have been.

Maybe it will be better under pergeot, and hopefully they follow the new pergeot standard of interiors and enfotainment. They are doing some of the best stuff in reach of us normal folk. Shame they don’t have sportier rides, as that is the one thing they have missing for me.

[Robin Long]

The GTC was never the car it could have been, the VX Zafira I had on test worked quite well with android on on and LG G5 and an S7 that said they are both running nougat.  And yes the CS ain’t the worlds greatest.

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[The Duke]

The issue with the gtc is that is a very good car, it’s chassis suspension  is way better than it should of been. I actually though that the new astra was going to use the same set up. But it doesn’t.

I now don’t understand the whole gtc project, it only lived 3 or 4 years, sold over its predictions then canned it. I thought it wad a trail for the new car, maybe the hyperstut and multi link  set up is still to expensive for their main steam. Or may be GM just needed to maximise margins for its sale of vx/opel. I see holden was shuttered, to get the sale through.

Back to the gtc, it’s electrics are its down fall. And sad to say the new astra had all the same bugs as my gtc does. Vx know of the design flaw, they admitted that to me, so to see it on the new car is just un acceptable.

Also i have a few rattles now, which to me is unacceptable on a 2 yo car. Imagine what it will be like at 7 yo!

My door panel you need to punch to get it to stop. When it starts it sound like there is a vibrator stuck in between the door skins. The brand new astra also had the same rattle, much quieter, but the same punch would fix it. Vx have “fixed it twice” now, both times it’s come back before I’d got it home.

Another issue is having more than half a tank of fuel unsettles the balance. Which is annoying as I only do full fill ups. Especially with this car, as it averages 34mpg and only had a 55litre tank. So I’m there often enough, with out only half filling.

[Marc Berry]

hi guys.

today i took it to a car audio shop and it was quite refreshing. he didnt try to sell me anything like another shop i called asking for £300 to improve the sound.

he said that although my car didnt have factory sat nav so thus didnt use the 7th, front centre, speaker, it was in fact there and that the android unit was using it as a general speaker. i had already noticed that the centre speaker was now providing audio and was a source of the extra ‘tinnyness, i was hearing. its a bit odd it is present without satnav being there but as the car has bluetooth, maybe it was also being used for this but i hadnt noticed it before. so i guess the standard unit wasnt using it at all for music and only for the bluetooth output.

with that little fact confirming to me why i was hearing an extra output in the highs he said he was confident that an upgrade with that, only costing maybe £15 it could sound better. he mentioned a speaker that could give more mid range. i have since read up and believe he may mean a coaxial? if so, i could get one myself if anyone on here knows the size i would need.

he said the door speakers sounded okay and i wouldnt get much improvement from upgrading them but is it possible to upgrade the tiny speakers where the wing mirrors are? i guess they are tweeters.

cheers all

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