My personal fav's are: -
Pioneer F900BT (Good flush fitting as long as you don't mind big knobs!) - http://www.pioneer.co.uk/images/products/relation/241/18210/canbebuiltinto/pioneer/vwgolf_tdi_large.jpg
Can I ask - have you ever used one of these?
I'm just curious as I bought one a few weeks ago and fitted it to my MK5. Agreed, it looks really nice and the interface is good - but the unit itself is absolutely dreadful!
For a start it takes about 1 - 1.5 minutes to actually start up from when you turn the key. Pretty useless for anyone with a reverse cam! Sit and wait a minute before you reverse! It has the most horrific beep noise everytime you press a button / touch the screen - which you CANT turn off!! You can turn the volume right down, but can't turn it off. The volume for this is the same as the navigators voice volume - so turning that down means no directions!
Theres also the huge box for your next direction - one for the arrow and one for the instruction. These are fine if you're navigating ie. a left arrow and 'turn left in 200 yards' - but they remain and take up a large portion of the screen even when you're not navigating. The map seems to spin round the nav arrow if you're on a hill as it can't figure out which way you're travelling at low speeds.
The 'night mode' is controlled by what time the unit thinks it should get dark - not when you put your lights on.
I could write a list of heaps more - but if you log into
www.avic411.com you'll get info from loads of dissapointed people... and a few who try to stick up for the unit because they've spent £800 on it!!
In summary - mine was playing up when playing DVD's / iPod Video and had black flickering lines appearing all the time. I called support (USELESS) who told me to contact where I'd bought it from. They told me to try a software update (No difference) and then said to return it for a replacement. I told them just to keep it and got a full refund.
An overall horrible experience to be honest - and I'm still out of pocket for a £45 Pioneer -> MK5 Golf fitting kit, and a £30 iPod cable.
Most of these faults are software problems and as its a new unit, alot of them may be ironed out with updates... but I can't see the unit ever starting up quickly as it runs Windows CE.
An overall bad experience for me - I then looked at a Kenwood 8220BT which was similarly priced and featurewise. The Kenwood booted up in about 10 seconds and did everything I wanted - but was not compatible with my phone (my whole reason for ditching my Alpine unit in the first place). I settled for a single DIN JVC unit which works with my phone and does everything apart from Sat Nav. I prefer being able to take the face off - as I felt paranoid about leaving an £800 stereo on display which can be removed in about 20 seconds by a pro!
All personal opinions obviously... but I'd seriously recommend looking at that AVIC411 forums if you're even remotely considering a Pioneer F900BT unit!
