Hands Free Kits

[mcdnjim]

I am waiting for the arrival of my new 08 Cabrio next month and would like to pick the collective consciousness about Bluetooth choices and the experiences members have had so far.

I will be on the road quite a bit with my smart and will be required to use my Crackberry. I would prefer to have a set up that will allow me to voice dial, which leads me to the Motorola T- 605 so far. I also want to sync with bluetooth enabled MP3s and such - so that would be a good choice - are there any others out there that people have had experience with?
I am also looking to include a navigation system, either as part of the handsfree kit or separately, that would also work with the above handsfree kit.

Anyone have any experience in these issues - any advice would be appreciated.

Jim

[gamsberry]

I tried the the bluetooth function of the Garmin Nuvi 760. I didn't work out for me. The built in speaker wasn't loud enough to hear at speed. Plus it had a strange anomaly with the Blackberry where if you were already using a headset with the phone the Nuvi would pop up an "unable to connect" message every 30 seconds. It does support an external speaker & mic so I expect it could be made to work successfully with a little troubleshooting. I didn't put any effort into making it work.
I put in a Parrot Mk6100. Fantastic integration with the factory stereo & the Blackberry (8300). It auto mutes the radio when a call is received or placed. Address book entries from the BB are automatically transferred so that the caller's name info is shown on the display on inbound calls. The kit supports pass through voice calling on some phones it also will do it's own voice calls if you manually record a voice tag on any of the address book entries. I've only used the latter & it works flawlessly. As a handsfree unit I'm pretty happy with it. I prefer it's UI & feature set to the Chrysler Uconnect system I have in another car. The smart is relatively noisy inside at freeway speeds so you're probably not going to want to lead a seminar at 70 mph but at urban speeds its fine. you have to make a small mod to the included wiring harness then it's plug & play with the stock radio. It does also have bluetooth music capability & it does work with BB 8300s mp3 ability. Due to the fact that it only routes the audio to the "front" speakers (in the smart that is the little dash speakers) you get no low end which is fine for calls but I wouldn't want to listen to music on it. You may be able to re-arrange the installation harness to use the door speakers but effort to find out exceeded my desire for the function.

[mcdnjim]

Excellent advice - thanks!!!

[Al&EdsAutosoundSmartCar]

We like to use Raytel add on kits. The sound quality on both sides of the call are superior.
The best option is changing the head unit to a bluetooth compatible product. Something like the Pioneer, Alpine or kenwood navigation units. Contact me if you have any questions.

[SmartieUSA]

Originally Posted by mcdnjim

I am waiting for the arrival of my new 08 Cabrio next month and would like to pick the collective consciousness about Bluetooth choices and the experiences members have had so far.

I will be on the road quite a bit with my smart and will be required to use my Crackberry. I would prefer to have a set up that will allow me to voice dial, which leads me to the Motorola T- 605 so far. I also want to sync with bluetooth enabled MP3s and such - so that would be a good choice - are there any others out there that people have had experience with?
Jim

I have installed the Parrot Hands free and had excellent results.
It is almost drop in as the connecters are provided to inline before the stereo. It auto mutes the stereo and uses the speakers and amp if one is fitted.

The model I have is the 3100 but the same applies to the other Parrot models including the ones with GPS and such. http://www.parrot.com

I use a braket to mount the Parrot head unit on the roof and have my Garmin GPS mounted in front of that.

Sounds quality and use are excellent.
PM me if you want details.