Toyota Avensis estate 2.2 D - Hands free phone kit

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
View Threaded
Mon 30 Jan 2012 11:50
Toyota Avensis estate 2.2 D - Hands free phone kit - Robin the Technician

Looking to fit a hands free phone kit to SWMBO's Toyota. She's using it more for work now and needs to be contactable whilst on the move. Can anyone recommend an easy plug in unit that does not require a second mortgage to pay for it.

Your advice and guidance is as always,appreciated.

Robin the Technician - I fix, therefore I am

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 30 Jan 2012 12:19
Toyota Avensis estate 2.2 D - Hands free phone kit - TeeCee

No brainer. Whichever of the Parrot units suits your requirements / budget.

I have a Parrot 3200LS unit fitted to my Zafira. It was a doddle to do, and the aftermarket adapter loom to integrate the beast into the existing ICE setup didn't cost much either. Does everything and works with every handset I have tried it with. Ludicrously simple to use too. Handles multiple devices configured at once, automatically attaching to the highest priority one it finds within range. Downloads the phonebook from the attached device automatically. Supports voice dialling in itself or will use the service on the attached device if it has it.

They seem to make just about every possible solution, from standalone sun visor/fag lighter plugins right through to complete ICE replacement head units[1].

Can't recommend 'em highly enough. Personally I reckon that every car manufacturer should go out and buy one to find out how a Bluetooth system should work. Count yourself lucky that you didn't get the factory fitted version in your Avensis, Toyota's offering in this area is truly ruddy awful. My fleet car's a Prius and the one thing I really curse about it is the phone system.

[1] Although early models of the head unit they make had reliability problems. I believe they too are sorted now.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Sep 2012 00:53
Toyota Avensis estate 2.2 D - Hands free phone kit - Bilboman

(Sorry for posting so late!) Strongly agree with TeeCee; the Toyota standard factory fit Bluetooth setup is atrocious: another example of penny pinching. It did at least load up my phone's memory, but compared to the V2C Ford unit I had on my previous car it is pathetic - no fingertip control of anything from the steering wheel buttons (I have the (Spanish market) base model as a company car; a superb car overall but there's no touch screen; penny pinching also extends to manual rear windows, manual aircon, manual lights and wipers...), and worse still no voice control: to answer or end a call I either have to press the answer button on the radio panel or else set my BlackBerry to answer automatically (also a pain, as there are some clients I do NOT want to talk to while driving.)
Not much point installing a Parrot kit on top so I'll have to put up with things for the next four years!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Sep 2012 07:39
Toyota Avensis estate 2.2 D - Hands free phone kit - Collos25

Forget Parrot get a Motorola TK30 extremely good and all the falicities you would ever need including two phones can be logged on at the same time also if you hunt around ebay they can be had for under 70ukp-

Reply | Report as offensive | Link