Attention E46 owners..

Thought they were going to be £300? What do u expect for £300 though?! Unfortunately, like most things money buys quality. E46 is pretty dinosaur now but would pitching a high quality one out there for more money would ppl still buy it?
 
Sounds like your personal dislike for anything but the best photographic quality and metalwork is getting the better of you, god forbid the metalwork that nobody sees inside the dash look slightly scratched!
 
mrk said:
Sounds like your personal dislike for anything but the best photographic quality
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I'm not you.

The quality of the photographs aren't the issue, just that the plastic looks like the same generic cheap crap that most chinese guff is built from, lasts about a week before cracking or the paint coming off and going incredibly shiny.

The comment about the metalwork is the appearance of what look to be random attacks with a drill, messing up, but not actually being bothered about it and selling the units anyway.

The cabling also looks like generic poundland tat, the phono plugs in particular look awful.
 
They look like any bog standard plugs though, no different to any jack or connector found on the back of any OEM unit just that on OEM units there are no trailing leads, the leads go from the car into the HU socket - still the connectors aren't exactly gold plated or sheathed in special wrap!
 
I think they are quite a good solution, cheaper and more useful than the OEM equivalent, what more would you want? That it makes coffee or something?
 
Reading more and more about it, it looks like total ****. Wouldnt fit it to anything. Yet more chinese rubbish destined for bargain basement ebay adverts.
 
Seems like many think they are using early adaptors to do all the beta testing.

This obviously opens the chance of the later revisions being better - but they have said E39 model isnt out until May which gives plenty of time to see if it gets better or remains unacceptable.

Shame really, if this isnt very good then I'll need to retrofit the OEM system which from an objective perspective, is pretty garbage itself, but at least works properly.

The problem with E46/E39 audio isnt as simple as getting what you pay for - there are two non-ridiculous options. This or spending £1000 on a pile of second hand 10 year old navigation equipment. With perhaps 10% of the featureset.

If Pioneer offered an OEM-look and fit solution for £1500 I'd buy it.
 
Indeed, you'd almost be better buying something proven and then paying a custom place the €500 to personally hand craft a facia for you.
 
Jez said:
Indeed, you'd almost be better buying something proven and then paying a custom place the €500 to personally hand craft a facia for you.
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The problem is that the stereo area is not double din - its bigger. Which means if you buy a quality aftermarket unit its double din so the controls etc are all squashed into each side to maximise the screen space whilst conforming to double din standards. Then any fascia adaptor you get leaves you with two huge expanses of plain plain plastic each an inch wide.

Whereas if you buy the OEM kit its very expensive and delivers the sort of functionality and interface that made people think 'Whoa' in 2002.

Just wish somebody who knew what they were doing would take on the challenge of producing a QUALITY up to date alternative. The demand is huge!
 
Indeed. This unit however is not the answer, i think the double din and facia adapter is the best option all round here as it stands. BMW interiors are functional and solid - not beautiful. I therefore think that the extra inch of plastic each side IMO is preferable to the hassle and featureset of fitting the OEM solution. You could get the facia made of wood to match the OEM wood trim as an alternative, people have managed quite well with W220 double din fitments by doing that. :)
 
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I think the problem with the chinese solution as it stands is that they are inadverently having a very public development cycle. Many products such comprehensively during the development and testing phase, thats the point. I wouldnt want a Pioneer pre-release system either.

It's clearly a commercially stupid idea to release a product without having completed the development stage but the next few months will be interesting. They seem responsive to peoples requests.

If quality improves - great. If it doesnt, the search goes on.
 
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