Factory look gps on ebay

I asked the seller about the manufacturer and so far have not had a reply. As you mention, the price (and apparent features) make this unit attractive.. Is it worth the risk?....at this price point....don't know. I am not knowledgeable enough on DVD/GPS head units to make an educated decision on the risk. I don't know what I don't know. Perhaps folks who have interest and have the knowledge can ask questions and hopefully get the answers from the seller. I sent the seller this link so perhaps he can monitor and respond.

 

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Seller just updated his post. Right hand drive only. Guess us guys in the US are SOL

 

I'm going to risk getting one of these to see what it's like. I've experience of another Chinese Toyota size "double DIN" HU and that wasn't too bad - I would have kept it had the radio RDS worked properly (I listen to FM radio a lot and live in area where three transmitters overlap, so the radio AF function needs to work seamlessly).

The seller seems fairly genuine, the unit fits the right hand drive dash and the functionality looks to be slightly better than that of the last Chinese HU I had. It's a risk being a guinea pig with a low feedback seller, but I'll report back on this thread to let folks know how I get on. If this turns out to be a reasonable unit then it offers a solution for those of us in RHD land, as Rosen/FlyAudio etc aren't likely to sell an RHD unit, as far as I've been able to determine.

 

I've double checked with the seller and he confirms it is for right hand drive - I made sure by quoting my country and some examples of other countries that are RHD (like Hong Kong, but not mainland China). The seller is in Hong Kong, so I guess RHD makes sense.

The bizarre thing is that this seller only ships to the US as things stand - I've asked him to provide a UK shipping option - he's quoted $49 DHL to the UK but needs to add that option to his ebay ad. Why anyone in the US would want a RHD fit unit is a bit of a mystery, so I'm guessing the seller just may not be that familiar with the way ebay works and has made an error in setting up his ad.

It's certainly a risk buying an unknown like this, but one that I hope will turn out OK. You'll all get to hear about it if it turns out I've bought a lemon............

 

Jeremy, if I understand well, you ordered RHD unit. I'm looking forward for your report about the overall functionality, especially RDS.

 

So far the seller has been very helpful and honest. He explained before I paid for the unit that it would fit RHD but that he couldn't supply maps of the UK and Europe. This isn't a problem, as I have an SD card with iGO8 on it and all the maps I need. The seller has probably sent me half a dozen (real, not automated) emails, keeping me informed and sorted out a slight payment problem on his ebay advert quickly. So far I'd say he's genuine, I've dealt with a few dodgy people on ebay and this seller seems to be fair, helpful and honest, based on my experience so far.

Looking at the screen shots and reading the manual it seems to be a fair bit better than the last Chinese HU I bought so I'm hopeful that RDS will work a bit better. Time will tell, it should be here in a couple of weeks time. To be honest, I will be glad to get rid of the Kenwood, as the excruciatingly poor Garmin nav system it runs is beginning to drive me nuts (I know Garmin is OK in the US, but here it is simply dire when compared to something like TomTom or iGO).

 

Jeremy, good to know about communicative seller experience. DHL should be much more faster, you will have a unit in a week (depends how fast is their tax&duty service), I hope. Did you find/got an info who is the original manufacturer of the HU?

 

OP, I am very interested. Are you referring this on ebay item # 260793562557

 

That's the unit I've just bought, but be aware that it is for right hand drive only. The dash is different between right and left hand drive models, as the radio panel is slightly asymmetric; it's a different shape at either side and the lower edge between LHD and RHD. As you're in the US you most probably need a left hand drive unit, like the Rosen or Fly Audio ones.

 

I haven't found out who the original manufacturer is, but suspect it may be Soling. Hopefully I may get some more information once I get the unit.

 

Keeping an eye on this one, be good if we get a RHD unit that looks nice and works well!

 

I wasn't terribly pleased with the menu and applications. I'm about to pull the trigger on a Rosen unit, but it would have been nice to spend a few dollars less.

 

An update. I can report that this seller seems pretty good. He shipped the unit DHL and it arrived this afternoon. It was well packaged, with an outer box tightly fitted around the inner box and the unit itself well packed in foam:



I can confirm that it is definitely a RHD unit and that it comes with the special aerial adapter needed for European models (the EU Prius comes with a rectangular plastic aerial connector). Overall the finish looks OK, the texture is slightly coarser than the original head unit, but the colour looks pretty close. The quality of finish looks good, better than the last Chinese head unit I bought. I can confirm that it is made by Shenzen Soling Industrial Co, in fact that's who this ebay seller seems to be according to the shipping paperwork. Here's a front view:



Just to confirm that this is a right hand drive only unit, here is a view of the underside that shows the asymmetry in the shape of the front panel:



Here's a rear view, with a plethora of connectors. It looks to be plug and play as far as I can see, all the connectors seem to match those on the car, so no adapters will be needed. it even has the power feed for the built in antenna amp already wired up.



Finally, a photo of all the connectors etc.



I should get time tomorrow to program up the nav system and maybe get it installed. If so I'll report back on how well it works. Based on my experience so far it looks pretty good, I'd certainly have no worries about dealing with this seller, he's been very helpful right from the time of my first enquiry.

Jeremy

 

any idea whether it will work to control the HUD for nav prompts? seems a long shot but i'd really like that feature...

I also like the TV connector. kind of redundant now since there's not many analogue broadcast areas left!

 

AFAIK none of the after market units will drive the HUD, plus the non-nav cars don't have the nav symbols in the HUD to drive, I believe. I'm not sure how the HUD is driven, but would guess that it needs a CANBUS connection.

It may be possible to fit a DTV adapter to this unit, although I don't have any details, as there is DTV connector space on the rear panel. It does come with a TV antenna that looks like it's intended to fit inside a window. I won't be fitting it, as I don't really need TV in the car.

I managed to get it fitted this afternoon, but still need to sort out the nav software.



Overall it is a much better match to the dash than I thought it might have been, it pretty much looks like an OEM bit of kit. Fitting was very easy, just plug and play. It even has the right wiring to power up the JBL amp, so all the speakers worked with no need for any mods or widgets. Biggest job was fitting the GPS antenna up near the windscreen base, something I hadn't bothered to do with the last two installs but thought I would with this one (up till now I've just run units with the antenna stuck on the top of the unit, inside the dash). Basic fitting time, bearing in mind that I know how to take the dash apart, was probably ten minutes, plus another 15 minutes spent fitting the GPS antenna.

Menus etc seem self-explanatory and it's got a much better user interface than either my Kenwood or the other Chinese HU I tried. The radio seems to work OK, probably about the same as the Kenwood and slightly better than the stock unit. As far as I can tell AF works OK, it retuned OK on a brief drive around the block. Station data display seems a bit hit and miss, sometimes it shows the station name, sometimes it doesn't, but that's not really a problem.

Overall I think this unit offers exceptional value for those of us in the UK. For just under £281 I have a unit that seems to compare well with units costing more than double, and it looks as if it was made to fit the car.

Based on my limited testing I'd recommend it, with the proviso that there is bound to be some work needed to get the nav side working as I'd like it.

Jeremy

Edited again to add that I plugged an iGO8 micro SD card in and it all worked first time, no fiddling at all except for getting iGO to autodetect the GPS. All told I'm impressed, this unit really is plug and play, with none of the fiddling about that I needed to do to get the other Chinese head unit working. I can also report that picture-in-picture works well and pretty seamlessly too. I've now loaded an 8Gb micro SD card with MP3 files and the MP3 player works well, too, displaying folders, track titles etc. Track selection is the same as the Kenwood, scroll through each track in an album then hit OK to play it, but whilst not as easy to use as the iPod interface it is certainly a lot better than the standard Prius MP3 player (which frankly is a joke).

Next challenge is to try and see if I can get the GPS to run Memory Map, so when I don't need route instructions I'll be able to have a high quality moving map on the dash, showing real raster maps with fine detail.

 

What does the map card button do vs the SD card button? Just to switch between cards?

 

They're not really buttons, just little covers over the micro SD card slots, the aux in connector and the front micro USB connector. They lift up to reveal the slots and connectors underneath, and just click into place to keep things looking neat and tidy

Switching between radio, nav, DVD etc is either from the steering wheel controls or the buttons down the side, or you can pull up the whole system menu on the touch screen and select pretty much anything you want, including reading ebooks............. (not recommended whilst driving!). The thing is like all these units, it runs WinCE 6.0, so pretty much any WinCE app will run on it.

Jeremy

 

Jeremy, please describe and/or post some pictures on how you routed the GPS antenna cable to the dash top. I will be installing my Rosen setup this week and would like to put the GPS antenna on top of the dash and forward where it sees the maximum amount of sky.