DAB radio & Sat Nav combined unit

[Pipkim]

We have a bog standard Kenwood radio fitted to our Fiat based motorhome [2015 Adria Coral Plus 670SLT] and the reception is pretty atrocious at times [mainly Radio 5 Live] so I am thinking of installing a DAB radio & Sat Nav combined unit.

 

Any recommendations as to the best unit to be looking at?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

PilgrimPhil

 

 

[the fat controller]

I would check the aerial connections and even look at a better aerial first. DAB can be patchy and combined with a satnav they are expensive.

[euroserv]

DAB used to be a very patchy affair (i bought one in 2001) but now it is really good (at least in the UK) as long as you have a good antenna. I use a Kenwood DAB with windscreen antenna in both my work van and Vauxhall Frontera with no problems at all. The coverage is as good as mobile phones these days or better.

 

In addition we have been buying new Fiat vans and chassis (to become Luton's) and they have DAB but we have specified an antenna in the nearside mirror, which is an option instead of on the roof. These also work brilliantly.

 

I can only recommend the Kenwood units with windscreen antennae (which come in the box) but if you ever have the windscreen changed you will need a new antenna for about £50.

 

If you are having problems with FM; you really should get the aerial looked at or the connection into the radio first before spending a load of money.

[david lloyd]

Hi Phil, the latest (July) issue of MMM has a round up of some multimedia players which includes a Kenwood DNX525DAB (double din) at £734, a Pioneer Avicenna model, Alpine and Clarion. It also covers a non satnav DAB radio from JVC which does have Bluetooth streaming and hands free callin - we had one of these in a previous van particularly for the telephone function. The thing that caught my attention was a Pure Highway 400 which is a 'small, easy to install adaptor that site on your dashboard and turns your current stereo into digital radio'

It also has built in Bluetooth and switches between broadcast stations whilst travelling - even has voice activation to give access to Siri or OK Google - priced at £129 from Halfords.com

Good luck with the search.

David

[Derek Uzzell]

I’m going to question the wisdom of deliberately choosing a combined autoradio and sat-nav.

 

Overlooking the extra cost of a combined unit compared with an autoradio and separate sat-nav, and ignoring the dubious ergonomics of having a sat-nav display in the centre console of a Ducato where it will not be easily and immediately visible to, or operable by, the driver, there’s the matter of keeping the sat-nav’s mapping and software up to date, adding POIs, etc.

 

Stand-alone sat-nav devices are relatively cheap and the procedures involved in maintaining their software/mapping well established and (reasonably) well understood by Joe Public. Free ‘life time’ updating is now the norm and, if a stand-alone sat-nav goes belly-up, replacement won’t cost an arm and a leg. Updating a combination device is likely to be trickier and, before committing to buying one, it would be wise to fully explore the procedure and potential cost of keeping the sat-nav side of the unit current.

 

By all means opt for a DAB autoradio unit with lots of bells and whistles, but there’s much to be said for not integrating the sat-nav into it.

[StuartO]

The advantages of a combined satnav and DAB radio in the dashboard are that you don't have to stick anything extra on the dash or windscreen so for a price (a relatively high price) you end up with less clutter and potentially better integration.  Our recent new car has an integrated satnav and DAB setup and it works farly well, also incorporating a reversing camera and automatic linking of my mobile phone as soon as I sit in the vehicle and switch on.  I'm still learning how to operate it all and as soon as I learn one thing I seem to forget another.

 

Problems arose soon after delivery because the DAB reception was very poor.  No cause could be found and there was consideration of replacing the radio/satnav unit, which was priced at over £6,000!  In the end it was discovered that the dashcam I had fitted was causing electronic interference, which was cured by fitting a couple of ferrite core suppressors, costing less than £1.  Updating the satnav maps can be done annually but this means buying a special DVD, available only from the car manufacturer, costing lots of money.

 

In contrast I bought a single DIN replacement radio for £99 for the MH, which happened to be a DAB radio, so I also had to fit an extra DAB aerial, costing an extra £20 or so.  I then got pretty good DAB reception until I fitted a dashcam, which interfered with DAB reception until I fitted ferrite core suppressors to the latter's power lead, which fixed it.  I'm still using a ten year old Garmin Street Pilot satnav with updated maps in the MH because it allows me to plan routes on the laptop and then download them.  I get reliable results, although the Garmin froze up a while ago and required a factory reset to get it going again, but no problems since.  (I was convince it was deliberate time-triggered obsolencence built-in by Garmin but not so, the factory reset did restore full function.)

 

All my experience so far suggests that you should avoid chosing integrated after-market electronics for MHs and keep things simple by using separate bits of kit, even if this does potentially clutter up the cab up a bit more.  It's both easier to fix if something fails and it's much cheaper too.

 

A good modern satnav with lifetime free maps for Europe can be had for under £100 these days, a single DIN DAB radio for about the same and likewise a decent dashcam, so £300 will cover the lot.  If any of these units fail you replace it individually, relatively cheaply.

 

I don't bother with integrating my mobile phone, although I believe my Garmin can do it using Bluetooth if I wanted it to - if the phine rings while we are driving, I get the OH to take the phone and answer it for me!

 

[david lloyd]

.......satnav/radio........£6000.......I must be dreaming!

[RogerThat]

You can literally buy a brand new car for under six grand 8-)