Newbie questions

[karl brierley]

glad to hear your opinion on the discover media sat nav , is good . I was beginning to think I had done wrong by ordering it , as I've also heard a lot of negative stuff about it too.

I commute to London.

when using my tom tom in central London i.e. the bigger built up area's it starts to lose it's GPS or its head as I call it lol.

the Discover Media as never done this. and when connected to my phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot the traffic works brilliantly. it also has some great built in features. for example when I'm low on fuel it automatically comes on media screen with option to find nearest petrol station with one touch on screen I'm on my way lol..

 

[carlg]

Hi and welcome
I have high beam assist and have had no problems with it ,the only thing is when it came new it doesn't work till 38mph which on country roads is not good ,so I have had it set now to come on at 10mph .
Great spec van

 

[StudleyGlass]

I high beam assist and its my favourite bit of kit. Works fine for me, i did make sure i coated the glass over the sensors (rear view mirror) with rainx or similar regularly so its kept clean and rain free, seems to work. I drop the range on mine to 10mph also.

 

[Twoguns]

I high beam assist and its my favourite bit of kit. Works fine for me, i did make sure i coated the glass over the sensors (rear view mirror) with rainx or similar regularly so its kept clean and rain free, seems to work. I drop the range on mine to 10mph also.

Looks like I may have yet another fault then, as my high beam assist is so random in detecting or not detecting on coming lights and dipping. Yes the symbol is definitely on to indicate its active and I know it has to be above 38MPH to activate as mines not been modified.

 

[StudleyGlass]

Sorry to here you are having some problems @Twoguns hopefully you can get them all ironed out soon as. I would be like you very very pi$$ed off with the time and trouble its causing you at the moment !!
As for your HBA seems strange yours is behaving that way, worth some investigation i think.

 

[Twoguns]

Sorry to here you are having some problems @Twoguns hopefully you can get them all ironed out soon as. I would be like you very very pi$$ed off with the time and trouble its causing you at the moment !!
As for your HBA seems strange yours is behaving that way, worth some investigation i think.

Cheers @StudleyGlass I hope so too as I'm sure I will really enjoy being a van owner once it stops playing up.
The good thing is we have somewhere like this great forum to share our problems and lots of great helpful people like yourself. I suppose it's like some form of counselling where you vent your frustration at times.

 

[ehuplad]

@Twoguns Thanks for your comments on the Kenwood unit.
I assume it is the new unit VW dealer is offering, it was only resently installed in the showroom.
My mistake I took the model number from the Kenwood website / VW pages.
Also read your post-thread, not good as you and there is not a lot of Kenwoood love amoung the members.

@karl brierley Regarding the discover media unit, guess it hurts to pay 1k ish for a head unit that does support car play.

'All' I want is a CarPlay enable head, Sat Nav unit that works with the MFSW completely, integrates with a rear camera and if possible the front + rear sensors and possibly changes display when the Aircon is adjusted. I wrongly assumed as the Kenwood was 'approved' by VW that would be faultless.

What the thoughts out there on the Pioneer AVIC F88DAB, how does that match my 'all I want' criteria?

 

[StudleyGlass]

I would say the discover media nav. system with media control and app connect + wifi sounds like it will do every think you as need @karl brierley says ,but the air con does not show on the screen. Parking sensors with camera are all integrated on the screen. I have all this on mine and it all works great no problems with loss of signal on the sat nav, boots up quick and has never lost signal .

 

[ehuplad]

Hi @karl brierley how well does the discover media play with Apple CarPlay?

 

[carlg]

It is only some top vw models that have climatronic air conditioning ,that shows and can be adjusted on the radio display

 

[Loz]

Hi @karl brierley how well does the discover media play with Apple CarPlay?

We have CarPlay on the Composition media unit and it works a treat.

 

[ehuplad]

Ok so what did I decide, just incase it helps someone else.
I am well aware my decisions were based on others recommendations, comments, not first hand experience and added to my preferences.

Head Unit - After reading the forum posts and speaking to a couple of installers I have decide to go with the Discover Media Sat Nav together with the App Connect & Media Control option. Both the Kenwood 516 & the Pioneer AVIC will mostly be compatible with the Multi Function Steering Wheel (MFSW) and the Multi Function Display (MFD).
However for me I will only get annoyed with functions that are not 100%

I was told that the Pioneer & the correct interface modules would work with the MFSW but not work with voice control (wouldn't use that anyway) and that the MFD would work mostly but tends to not always update. The pioneer also would not be able to display the parking sensors and the rear view camera on the same screen, just choose one or the other in the setup. Not really big deals but for me it would be a long term niggle. On the plus side a very well respected unit, good interface and sound. It will be easier to improve speakers and amps etc.

The Kenwood's of the past seem to get little love both here and with the installers I talked to. One installer said they installed 10 Pioneers to every 1 Kenwood unit.
However another installer said that the 516 unit was very different from the previous units and he is recommending them over Alpine, his previous 'go to'.
I have to say though I decided to remove this from my order as I was not prepared to take the risk and can't say I like the user interface.

Summary - For me a well integrated system was the priority and so the VW option won with the Pioneer being a very close second.

4Motion - Have decide to add this, I live in Scotland and often drive home 2-3 hours late at night / early morning and during the winter the 4x4 will make me feel safer.
My current vehicle is 4x4 so kind of want to keep the status quo. BTW I had to move from the T30 to the T32, VW don't allow the combo to have 6 seats & 4 motion on the T30. Something to do with vehicle wait vs load capacity.

Last decisions to be made is 30mm Eibach vs H&R 40mm and wheel size and type.
I will borrow a friends T5 Sportline for a drive tomorrow and see what I think of the Eibach's.

 

[a5cyt]

Good choice of head unit, that's what I went for in the end . Just that it's meant for Vw , means all the buttons should work and mfd too. Also my sportline I have now has eibachs and I think you will find them ok. I will order them for my new kombi

 

[Twoguns]

Ok so what did I decide, just incase it helps someone else.
I am well aware my decisions were based on others recommendations, comments, not first hand experience and added to my preferences.

Head Unit - After reading the forum posts and speaking to a couple of installers I have decide to go with the Discover Media Sat Nav together with the App Connect & Media Control option. Both the Kenwood 516 & the Pioneer AVIC will mostly be compatible with the Multi Function Steering Wheel (MFSW) and the Multi Function Display (MFD).
However for me I will only get annoyed with functions that are not 100%

I was told that the Pioneer & the correct interface modules would work with the MFSW but not work with voice control (wouldn't use that anyway) and that the MFD would work mostly but tends to not always update. The pioneer also would not be able to display the parking sensors and the rear view camera on the same screen, just choose one or the other in the setup. Not really big deals but for me it would be a long term niggle. On the plus side a very well respected unit, good interface and sound. It will be easier to improve speakers and amps etc.

The Kenwood's of the past seem to get little love both here and with the installers I talked to. One installer said they installed 10 Pioneers to every 1 Kenwood unit.
However another installer said that the 516 unit was very different from the previous units and he is recommending them over Alpine, his previous 'go to'.
I have to say though I decided to remove this from my order as I was not prepared to take the risk and can't say I like the user interface.

Summary - For me a well integrated system was the priority and so the VW option won with the Pioneer being a very close second.

4Motion - Have decide to add this, I live in Scotland and often drive home 2-3 hours late at night / early morning and during the winter the 4x4 will make me feel safer.
My current vehicle is 4x4 so kind of want to keep the status quo. BTW I had to move from the T30 to the T32, VW don't allow the combo to have 6 seats & 4 motion on the T30. Something to do with vehicle wait vs load capacity.

Last decisions to be made is 30mm Eibach vs H&R 40mm and wheel size and type.
I will borrow a friends T5 Sportline for a drive tomorrow and see what I think of the Eibach's.

I think you've made the correct choice's. I've got the Discovery in the rental that I have now while the AdBlue Injector is replaced in my T6 which has the Kenwood 516 and apart from it seemingly having a slightly smaller screen it does seem very nice and easy to use along with 100% compatibility with the MFSW and MFD. I wish I had now gone with the Discovery but you learn from your mistakes.

 

[DaveyB]

Sounds like you've made the right choices there.

 

[karl brierley]

Hi @karl brierley how well does the discover media play with Apple CarPlay?

It works great pal. To be honest it's the best head unit I have used. As a dealer upgrade. You have made the best choice