DECENT Bluetooth options for Iphone needed.

[Homestar]

Has anyone got any suggestion for a GOOD bluetooth car kit for an Iphone? SWMBO has one, and finding something to work well with them is painful - for some reason Iphones are crap with bluetooth. Most of our Sales team run Iphones, but you can never talk to them while they are on the move, using them on the factory Commodore system - they are aweful. I have on old HTC Mozart that is awesome on the same Commodore system, so I have been unwilling to 'upgrade'.

But, I would love to get the missus something so I can hear her when she calls me from the car, so if anyone has EXPERIENCE with a decent kit, not just hearsay or what a webpage says, I'd love to hear from you, as I'm not wasting any more money on a another system that is garbage.

If there is nothing available, then I'll try to convince her to ditch the POS and buy something that can actually make a decent phone call.

Cheers -Gav.

[Rok_Dr]

Hi Gav

Interesting... Work has recently blessed me with an iPhone 5. For hands free in the car I have found it works best by itself using the speaker phone function. It also works ok bluetoothed to my garmin GPS, but is useless bluetoothed to the sony stereo for the phone. Audio Bluetooth to the stereo is awesome though.

Cheers. Steve

[Reads90]

Totally disagree about the iPhone not working with Bluetooth.
Our company has loads of Hyundai's and they have bluetooth and work great with iPhones

Also the Nokia blue tooth kits work great with the iPhone. I have them in my 3 landies

Cheap to pick up because people think you can only use Nokia phone with their bluetooth kits.

[WhiteD3]

Cheap to pick up because people think you can only use Nokia phone with their bluetooth kits.

x2. Had one in the D3 for 4 years, never missed a beat.

[Homestar]

I think the problem was addressed with the IPhone 5, but it is a known issue on the 4 and 4s. I'm sure it works fine on some factory car kits, but it doesn't in the commodore - sounds like they are talking into a tin can.
What Nokia kit are we talking about here?

Cheers - Gav.

[Reads90]

The Nokia kit I use is the CK -7W Bluetooth kit. Have used these for years with my iphone 4 , 4s and 3
Now in the landies but in the past was in the company Falcons

But can't understand the problems with the commodores. I hire SV6 and XR6's all the time when I do Cairns to Mackay run and have no problem with the iPhone 4 s and their bluetooth.

[decibelcore]

Hi Gav

I have the Nokia ck100 kits in my defender and the wife's Adventra they work fine with the I phones, an added bonus is if you can get the correct ISO lead or make one up you can stream your music from the phone to the stereo via Bluetooth, a feature I'm very happy about in the defender.
With reference to factory Bluetooth kits, a couple years ago they were not very good with any phones so an after market kit was often installed instead to give a better quality call, the kits I had installed in a couple of work vehicles were the parrot kits, though more recently I had a lot of Bury kits installed in trucks with a universal phone mount, these are working well.
The Bury system is good as has advantage of being able to change just the phone mount to suit the phone not the whole kit every time you upgrade your phone.

Cheers Decibelcore

[Homestar]

But can't understand the problems with the commodores. I hire SV6 and XR6's all the time when I do Cairns to Mackay run and have no problem with the iPhone 4 s and their bluetooth.

When the IQ system was first released, it didn't work with a lot of different phones, including IPhones and some Nokias. We bought over 40 commodores before they fixed this with a firmware upgrade.

The IPhones will connect no dramas to the dunny doors now, but they are bloody awful to listen to from the receiving end...

We now have over 100 Commodores with the IQ system now, and about 75% of the drivers use IPhones in them now, and most have made complaints about them. Most of them just stop now when they make or receive a phone call as customers complain all the time that they can't hear what is being said.

My old HTC doesn't suffer the same issue, and I've tried it in several different vehicles, so it is an IPhone issue, not the cars bluetooth issue.

That's why I'm trying to find a kit that doesn't sound like a tin can when listening from the other end when using using an IPhone.

Don't get me wrong here, I love the IPhones, and we have 3 in the house, but there weakest feature seems to be voice clarity when connected to a hands free system. My biggest customer has an IPhone running through a factory system in his new Triton, and that is just as bad. I can't understand a word he says on it, so he has to stop and switch back to the handset a lot, and it really ****es him off too.

Cheers - Gav.

EDIT - just had a thought - my Boss, and his Boss both have IPhones running through their BMW's and they work fine, so is it just something to do with how the IPhone interacts with cheaper?... Kits???

[jc109]

If you're willing to consider replacing your head unit I can vouch for the Pioneer DEH-8450BT (used with my iPhone 4S):

DEH-8450BT Car stereo with iPod/iPhone Control, Bluetooth, 2x Rear USB, SD card slot and 3 Hi-Volt RCA Pre-outs (RGB/Multi-colour buttons and display) - Pioneer Car Stereo - Digital Media Receiver

I fitted one to my 110 (along with new speakers) a couple of months back and it hasn't skipped a beat. The sound in all respects is fantastic. I haven't experienced any of the issues with connection that I used to have with previous car stereos. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Good luck.

[Jezzaol]

G'day Gav,

If you want to PM me your phone number I can go over all the ins and outs of the kits available on the market and what works best with the Iphone, all I do for a living if fit hands Free kits and sell all the major brands.

Iphone's from the get GO have had a very basic Bluetooth funtion, and YES it will pair but is what the other people hear on the other end, this is where the poor perforance comes from. Especially older software kits like the Nokia CK-7's will give very bad ecco, and there are also plenty of kits that wont work at all with the Iphone 5.

More than happy to ponit you in the right direction and give you my web site info for you to take a look at, and if you buy else where just want to make sure people get the right advice when it come to a good aftermarket Hands Free kit etc.

We also do very good cradles and high gain antenas for the iphone's that give much better recepeion in remote locations etc !!

Cheers and good Luck

Jeremy