Mike_TX

My wife's car didn't come with BT, and I'm thinking about adding an aftermarket unit. After seeing how good they can be with my TL and RL, I think she could benefit from it.

There are all kinds of aftermarket units out there - from units that are self-contained to kits that have to be professionally installed. Since her car is leased, I'd rather not have someone do surgery on it, but if the installed kind are the only ones worth having, I'll consider it.

Motorola makes several of them I'm looking at, ranging from the HF820 (plug & play) to the HF850 (installed). And of course there are others.

So does anyone have any experience - good or bad - with any of these kits? Advice?
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GoHawks

Quite honestly it may be easier to just use a BT earpiece instead. Cheaper and you can use it outside of the car.

jftjr

Truth. The aftermarket speaker connections are clunky. Get a Motorola BT earpiece, they're cheap and work great.

Mike_TX

I appreciate the replies. I guess I figured it would be more seamless and hassle-free to be able to just get in the car and be connected, similar to our RL's. A BT earpiece would be something else for my wife to have to deal with ... and to break or lose.

I've seen some good comments. too, about kits like the Parrot and Moto, which route the sound through your stereo, etc., just like the OEM units. I'm still looking into those.
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Benush

I have a Logitech earpiece and its "okay" for around town but really uncomfortable for any long distance driving in the Tahoe or pickup, and it seems to run out of power at the most inconvenient moments.

Ended up putting the Motorola HF1000 in both vehicles. Sound is not nearly as nice as in the RL, but good enough with the windows up and the stereo low (sometimes I miss a call because of the stereo being too loud. I have an E815 so I use the automated dialing feature and it works okay. I get more complaints about voice quality using the HF unit than when in the RL.

Caveat - the add-in system is about a 4 or 5 compared to the RL (and the earpiece is about a 2) and if your wife has used the system in your RL she probably won't like the HF1000.

2nd piece of info - I noticed your post about the battery running low using the bluetooth. Have you considered using the small hole in the console to run a full time power cable for your cell? My phone is bigger and clumsier than your RAZR so I just keep it in the console for convenience, but since it's always hooked up to power when I'm diving I never worry about the battery.

dwest1023

I have the 820 and it is superior to the the Acura. Plays your ring tones, annouces when you get text message, and downloads your phonebook. it even voice dials the numbers in your phone. No pushing buttons to speak to the system as the acura.

Mike_TX

Thanks for the info. I expected more out of the Moto HF1000, so that's good to know.

I really don't like to keep my phone on the charger ... I've had too much trouble in the past with shortened battery life doing that. And I seldom go dead while on the go ... and if I do I have a car charger. But thanks for the ideas.
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Mike_TX

That's very interesting about the 820. I've seen reviews ranging from fabulous to crappy, so it's hard to know.

And of course the two best things about it are the price and the fact it's P&P.

Thanks!
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kgd

I have tried both the 850 and 1000. I did not like the 850 at all. The voice recognition on the 1000 is very similar to the Acura. If your factory radio has a phone input, you can run the sound through the speakers and it will mute the radio. The speaker that comes with the 1000 is OK, but not as good as through the radio speakers. I like the 1000 better than an ear piece as I like to listen to music while driving and would constantly miss calls with the ear piece as I do not like to keep it in my ear while listening to music. I have the 1000 in two cars and am very happy with it.

Mike_TX

Well, an HF820 is sitting on my desk right now, awaiting my wife's birthday in a couple of weeks.

Ordered it from Buy.com and it got here in 2 days! Since it was only $72, it won't be a huge loss if she doesn't like it. But I set the stage by showing her the voice dialing on her RAZR and getting her to add voice tags for the people she calls the most. The 820 will supposedly let her voice dial if the phone has tags recorded.
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ralteredstates

I have a Parrot in my truck. Just as good if not better than the one in the RL except no steering wheel controls. It downloads the entire phonebook, lets you program voice command and is easy to scroll through phonebook manually. Mutes radio and sounds great. Bonus...it shows both signal and battery strength on Parrot while RL only shows signal strength with my phone.

Benush

As I read the various opinions, something struck me as a possibility. Could the difference in preceived quality be attributed more to the phone and its software rather than the Moto HF unit?

A friend has the RAZR and when making regular calls seems to get better voice dialing recognition than when I use my E815 and the actual voice quality seems better. When he says CALL HOME it goes right through and yet when I try on mine I still get the prompt back that it can't understand who I'm calling and I've played with every adsutment I can find on the phone. My phone is only 1 1/2 years old with all updates, but maybe the voice recognition software is not as good as newer generations of phones and therefore doesn't perform as well with the HF1000.

Just a thought.

Anyway Mike I hope your wife enjoys her Birthday gift.

Mike_TX

I think you may be onto something, since people with certain phones seem to report more success than others with different phones.

As for the HF I got - maybe since we're running Moto phones and the HF820 is a Moto product, too, they will work well together.

And thanks, Benush - to be honest, the reason I'm getting this for her (in addition to convenience, of course) is safety. She is on her phone a lot, and I'd rather she keep her hands on the wheel.
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Mike_TX

For anyone who cares, I got the Motorola HF820 for my wife's car and it seems to work quite well.

The 820 is a small, battery-powered BT hands-free unit that clips to the car's sun visor (or wherever you want to place it). It requires you to recharge it periodically ... I think it's good for 21 hours of standby or 5 hours of talk. There is an included car charger for it when power runs down.

It paired quickly and easily with her Moto RAZR, and it seems to have very good transmit voice quality and good reception voice quality, considering its small built-in speaker. It's no equal to our RL's built-in BT, but it is more than up to the task of providing safe phone operation while driving.

The RAZR, like a lot of other phones, allows voice tags to be assigned to phone numbers for voice dialing, and the HF820 lets you access those tags. My wife can, for instance, push the button on the 820, say "Mother", and it will dial her mother's phone number. She has programmed tags for the phone numbers she uses most, and while this isn't near as good as the voice recognition in our cars, it beats the heck out of fumbling with the phone handset everytime she wants to make a call.

BTW, you can clip it to your lapel and use it as a portable speakerphone, too, if you want to, or put it on a desk or table and talk while you work.

I ordered the 820 from Buy.com and paid something like $72 for it ... a bargain, I think. I could have gotten a BT headset for less, but neither she nor I like those things. This will fit her needs better.
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guest

I also recommend the Parrot Bluetooth kits - especially since there are now plug and play harnesses so you don't have to cut any wires. It is completely plug and play if you get the matching Acura harness - either the QCHon-1 if you don't have an amp or the QCHBB-HA if you do have the amp - see www.quickconnectproducts.com

neuronbob

I just bought the Moto IHF1000 for the wife's new Pilot. We are having it installed this week. My wife keeps her phone in her purse and when driving around, she sometimes tries to dig in the purse. BAD, BAD, BAD! So this was a necessary safety feature. Will post more when it's installed.

webhead

I installed the motorola HF1000 on my CL-S. It was an easy install with dedicated speaker. The system was intuitive to use, similar to the RL except that when it asked a question, the unit would prompt you for an answer and wait, unlike the RL where a button has to be pushed to answer the question. I think that it is one of the best aftermarket systems out there.