In-car Hands Free Advice please?

StixUK

Hello All,

Looking for some advice re the above.

I work in my car all day every day and am often caught out with Private Numbers phoning me and I really need to take these calls as these people may never phone back and I can't return their calls as they leave no number.

So I'm looking for a good in-car bluetooth hands-free kit that is decent. It would preferably be able to:

1. Auto-sync with my phone
2. Play through car speakers
3. Have good audio quality both ways (to me and the to whom I speak to)
4. Play music off an SD card (saves me pairing my phone to the device for music playback)
5. Be almost 100% hands-free and be very user-friendly (i.e have a very good, quick touchscreen or answer calls without touching a button or one on a remote that could possibly link in with with steering wheel controls)

I want to spend less than £200 and have it fitted if possible as I have a 62-plate car and don't want to break any plastic faschia to put the wires in etc etc

I have found this from Halfords

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_569633_langId_-1_categoryId_165571#tab3

and it is £200 fully fitted (minus any accessories I might have to buy), which I think is a great deal but I just wanted some other opinions or if there is a better/just as good solution that I haven't found?

Stix

willgleave

I wouldnt have one of these, i fit after market products to vehicles everyday. Parrot are very good but the mki series let me down personally. And i think your asking a lot to have one fully installed for less than £200. And as for halfords have they mentioned what extra's youll need depending on your car and thats if they can do it, they are very particular to which cars they fit to as some can be tricky and they choose not to do them as i dont think they have confidence in their young workers trained by a video.

StixUK

I'm intrigued.

On Halfords website it has rave reviews in most cases (9 out of 10) and that is from 189 reviews.

I suspect there will be a cable, that you can pull off eBay for £5.99 Free Delivery but Halfords will charge £29.99 for, but overall in terms of cost I would pay it.

I also wanted someone else to fit the device as if they break something I can rip the hell out of them, whereas if I attempt it myself and break something, I will cry.

Have you got any advice for any other devices??

Stix

forgotmyname

On a budget buy a bluetooth ear piece / headset.

willgleave

The motorola tk30 i good, i did 30 for a company with very good results, the parrot 3100 is also a good bit of kit as well.

If your wanting someone else to fit it for you (profesional) what you have to think is that if something fails on the product they will charge you to look at it as they didnt supply the kit, also youll be looking at about £50+vat for them to install it.

what area are you in and what car do you have.

StixUK

I can't have the headset as for some strange reason it makes my ear ache and I suffer badly from ear infections, oh and the bloody thing falls out!!!

I think the choices I have are:

1. Bluetooth speaker - i.e attachs to visor

2. Fully integrated

But as I am essentially a driver and listen to radio/music all day and REALLY need to take the calls I would like some wholly inclusive device that can meet my 'needs'.

My car I solely use for business so I will be claiming tax relief on the cost of the object, so there is some remittance. If it is a mobile unit, I might struggle to prove solely business use, but if it is an integrated unit, I am likely to be able to reclaim 100%.

StixUK

I live in Exeter and have a 62-plate Vx Corsa.

sistafromanothermista

Hi, I've recently had a parrot kit fitted and it does everything on your list! It's great and the sound quality is perfect. It also has an SD slot. I got mine from halfords, fitted for £210 including the cable which was only £10. It took an hr to fit with no visible wires.

StixUK

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Hi, I've recently had a parrot kit fitted and it does everything on your list! It's great and the sound quality is perfect. It also has an SD slot. I got mine from halfords, fitted for £210 including the cable which was only £10. It took an hr to fit with no visible wires.

Did a spotty 16 yo fit it or did you get someone who looked like they knew what they were doing?

Lum

Slightly left field option here, but you could replace the entire radio with one that takes an SD card and has bluetooth.

You'd remove the radio and fit a £10 fascia adaptor that takes a standard size radio.

Then you could fit a radio like this Sonichi SB50 for £130 it comes with an external mic that you can clip to the sun visor and takes CDs (including MP3 CDs) 32GB SD card and also USB devices (memory sticks, iPod etc.). Don't worry about the magnetic aerial that's only for if you want to use DAB radio.

You'd also need a wiring adaptor, here's one for £13

My GF fitted one of those Sonichi radios into my GF's car quite recently and she's rather happy with it. Paired it successfully with both our Android phones and her works Windows phone. It's was enough to fit it. The DAB antenna was a different story, one that took both of us to do and has too many swear words for this story.

StixUK

Ahhh my current audio system is covered by Vauxhall Lifetime warranty so I didn't want to fiddle around too much by installing another system.

Also the parrot system seems to have rave reviews and doesn't take up much space, is an all in one device and looks pretty user friendly.

Wouldn't I have to get a double din bluetooth device to replace the standard vauxhall radio anyway as it is double the height of a standard cd player.

Stix