My AVIC-F500BT install MAZDA 3 and Impressions

[wyatterp777]

Just wanted to post pictures of my installation. I think it's pretty nice. Considering how much cash I dumped for the custom dash kit, well, it better be nice!

 

I also hacked my unit with Vorian's new DATA.ZIP plus parking brake mod (with grounded p-brake wire). Works fantastic!

 

As for the F500BT, well, a review is forthcoming. Feel free to ask any questions you want. I've had the unit for a few weeks, and have used both on short trips, and a road trip. I think one advantage to call out on the F500BT is that is has a battery, so it doesn't shut-down all the way when you shut the engine off. Takes only a few seconds to boot back up, and maybe 10-20s to reengage the iPod wherever you were last playing.

[nopwrx]

Awesome. How's the sound quality? Did you use an auxiliary to play in your oem radio?

[wyatterp777]

Ok, so this was a much aniticipated buy for me. When I read/saw/heard about the AVIC F series units, things looked very exciting. At first, I was gunning for a full replacement of my Mazda 3 stock unit with a F900BT model, but after research, I found out that replacing the OEM in a 3 isn't exactly an enticing proposition. To make this story short, I found a nice dash kit and bought the "stand alone" F500BT model instead.

 

This could be a long review considering the complexity of the unit, so I'll try to keep it short. I know some horror stories have been spread about the F series, however, I don't have any to tell in regards to my F500BT. I think it's a pretty solid unit, but one that has plenty of room for improvement, and for the expense, is a bit of questionable value.

 

DESIGN: This unit has a nice bezel, and a beautiful high resolution screen, with great visibility across the board. I am not a huge fan of the multi-way jog dial - this is a silly design - there should at the very least be a dedicated button for voice control. Also, for this amount of money, there should have been a remote included (if for nothing else but to activate the voice control!). I would not really consider this unit highly portable. It's just an enormous nav device, and when you start plugging in wires, things start to get messy, which moves me on to my next category.

 

INSTALLATION: I didn't buy this unit to be a portable device that I could move from car to car (I would not recommend this anyways), but rather to embed. If there was anything close to a horror story, it was the install. I bought the iPod cable, so if you are simply using the suction cup mount, you are going to have a tangle of wires to route. There is this huge wire harness that you can use to embed the unit into the dock connection, or you can just use the outputs on the side of the device itself. I chose to use the harness, BUT no install instructions were provided. You have to use the wire harness if you want to use MSN direct (which isn't mentioned anywhere in the instructions either), but when you use the wire harness, it also enables the "moving lockout" on GPS/Video/etc functions that Pioneer considers unsafe to use if you are driving. You are supposed to hook up a wire to your parking break to allow entering of addresses, POI search, changing settings, watching video, etc. I could not figure out what several other wires included were supposed to be used for; that's always great, right? I've had worse experience on installs, but it was somewhat complicated to deal with.

 

NAVIGATION: Not a whole lot of comments here. It's not the best out there as far as human interface is concerned, but it gets the job done, and the display of map data and turn-by-turn instructions is clear and detailed and easy to follow. Route recalculations are near instantaneous if you get off-route. On daily use, the navigation is quick to regain satellite lock at start up, which I think is probably helped out by the #1 nice feature for choosing the F500BT over the F700 or F900 or even F90 models (my next point)

 

BATTERY: The F500BT has a battery, and when installed with the wire harness, it makes for a nice daily use quick on, quick off unit (just like an aftermarket DIN install). When you shut off your car, the F500BT powers down into a standby state, but does not completely shutoff. When you start your car the next time, it only takes a second to power on to your last viewed screen, and takes perhaps 10-15 seconds to resume playing music from a connected iPod. My understanding of the other models in the F-series is that you must wait for a lengthy boot cycle of over 60 seconds to start using the device. If I had to deal with that, I would return my unit, because that is just impractical for city driving!

 

VOICE CONTROL: This is my number one feature that I bought the unit for - iPod VOICE CONTROL! This is a feature that actually works very well, as long as you learn the handful of "pre-phrase" words (which is pretty easy). I love this feature, and it brings a smile to my face. I also find it a much safer way to navigate a large library when driving. Pretty solid effort here.

 

BLUETOOTH: I have an iPhone, and while my contacts transferred fine, I haven't been able to sucessfully voice dial a contact, so something is broken here. I can however say "make a phone call" and then spit out an actual numeric 10 digit number, and that works well (but I cannot say "call Mike" and actually get it to work). Bluetooth call quality however is great. I havent' heard any complaints from folks I have called, and because you can send the audio over your car speakers, phone calls come in nice and loud.

 

To summarize, overall the unit is solid, if not a bit buggy. The interface need improvement. The brightness of the screen should be adjusted with a light sensor at this price! A clean install is a pain, but I managed a very nice one, and instructions are ambiguous or missing entirely. Also, the wire harness forces you to use a very low-quality stereo out cable, in fact, all the harness wires are very thin and very fragile (22 gauge wire?). Also, there is no line-level pre-out, so I find that volume management isn't great. I have to turn my OEM radio's volume up 10 extra clicks to get the same sound output as the CD or Radio. I also bought a good ground-loop isolator to cut out all the buzz I was experiencing. I know for certain the cheap wire harness contributes, because using a premium stereo cable from the regular output provided far cleaner sound (but also still required a ground loop isolator).

 

I am definitely keeping the unit, probably for lack of better alternatives with voice control - which may not be an overwhelming recommendation, but I believe this device has it's purpose as a better alternative to paying 2 grand for a factory installed nav unit, and most likely surpasses the feature set of most factory nav installs as well.

 

Feel free to fire away any questions.

[nopwrx]

Cool, good review. Have you thought about getting the PAC Turbo-1? I think that should help with the low level sound.

[Big_D]

Excellent review. I have been looking at the F500BT now for a long time for many of the reasons you mentioned. I have an 08 Saturn Vue Redline and I am very curious to know where you got your custom dash kit for the unit for as this is my primary concern.

 

You look to have a very beautiful setup with the unit tucked away when not in use. Can you please share where you got the custom dash kit and any other info on installing the device you might have to offer?

 

Also, did you use the integration amplifier that Pioneer sells? How is this attached to your speakers/head unit?

 

Thanks in advance and enjoy your unit.

 

BigD

[wyatterp777]

I got the dash kit from japanparts.com, which sells OEM parts for japanese made/designed vehicles. I doubt they have Saturn parts considering GM is american (GM owns Saturn right?). Whoever made my kit actually makes the dash parts for stock Mazda, so it's pretty high quality, but also VERY expensive (custom parts). It costs me like $350 bucks shipped from Japan. I love the integration, and still the F500BT + custom dash kit costs less than the $1800 Nav option on a Mazda 3 from the factory. The nice motorized mount on the stock option is nice, but the feature set of the F500BT is better!

 

Plus, I didn't want to spend 1800 bucks to get a crap Bose system.

[mazda_3]

oh man you are gonna have to tell me how you got the 500 to fit in that pocket i to drive a mz3 and if i could put my 900 up there that would be friggen sweet

[Big_D]

Bummer on the Mazda specific customization - but thanks for answering the question. That's a sweet setup you've got there.

 

Have you figured out how to get around the lock-out when you are in motion on the F500BT?

 

I got the dash kit from japanparts.com, which sells OEM parts for japanese made/designed vehicles. I doubt they have Saturn parts considering GM is american (GM owns Saturn right?). Whoever made my kit actually makes the dash parts for stock Mazda, so it's pretty high quality, but also VERY expensive (custom parts). It costs me like $350 bucks shipped from Japan. I love the integration, and still the F500BT + custom dash kit costs less than the $1800 Nav option on a Mazda 3 from the factory. The nice motorized mount on the stock option is nice, but the feature set of the F500BT is better!

 

Plus, I didn't want to spend 1800 bucks to get a crap Bose system.

[nopwrx]

Someone with a 500 did the software and grounding mod...

[pancho_pantera]

I did the bypass on my 500bt unit. Just do the software mod and ground your parking brake wire, it will work!

[xiaorabbitzhou]

Hi pancho_pantera,

 

How did you ground your F500BT? Where did you connect the parking brake wire

 

Thanks

[pancho_pantera]

I grounded it to a bolt. Any metal bolt/screw will work. Or hook it up to a wire in your car that is grounded.

[speedfreak72]

Great looking install. I'm installing the same equipment in my 2008.5 MZSP3 GT and have a couple questions: Looking at pictures, looks like you connected F500 to Bose Head Unit through Aux port. Did you use port at back of head unit or center consol? What hardware (Aux in adapter) did you use to make connection? I'm assuming you did not use ND-G500 amp with the F500 but, if you did, how did you install the amp?