Has anyone added Bluetooth to their car?

[yhelothar]

Bluetooth music in cars sucks. When it works, it works okay. But, it really isn't convenient to control music on a phone when driving. Bluetooth loses connections as well (especially if you like to use your phone with multiple Bluetooth devices such as a car and headset). And worst of all, if you are near your running car, all calls go to the car whether you want to or not.

USB music is far superior. You lose calling through your car's speakers, but that isn't what you were interested in. Put all of your music on a tiny-sized but large-capacity $10 USB drive and control it all from your head unit (you'll probably need a new head unit to be as good as it can be, but there are USB to AUX adapters).

Mine is very convenient, although the connection gets spotty at times. It's not a big deal since it works 95% of the time.

With my headunit (Kenwood DPX-500BT), I can control the audio through the controls on the stereo. I can scroll through the songs with the forward and back buttons, and I can make calls. It also automatically resumes my music when it connects with no action required on my part. I like the thing overall.

With 'ok google' voice activated assistant, it's very easy to tell my phone what artist/album to play from my library of music or from spotify without needing to look at my phone or press any buttons aside from the power button.

 

[Kelemvor]

I would mostly be using this with Free Pandora (I set it to the 80's station and just let it ride) or sometimes with Free Google Play Music if I want to listen to specific things. I rarely have to skip songs or do any music navigation while it's playing so that's not really important to me.

I don't like having to constantly plug in the aux cable every time I get into my car. I could automate everything with Tasker so that once the BY device goes active, my phone will pair. Once I pair it can launch Pandora which plays automatically and launch Waze and I wouldn't have to do much of anything.

 

[nerp]

Bluetooth music in cars sucks. When it works, it works okay. But, it really isn't convenient to control music on a phone when driving. Bluetooth loses connections as well (especially if you like to use your phone with multiple Bluetooth devices such as a car and headset). And worst of all, if you are near your running car, all calls go to the car whether you want to or not.

USB music is far superior. You lose calling through your car's speakers, but that isn't what you were interested in. Put all of your music on a tiny-sized but large-capacity $10 USB drive and control it all from your head unit (you'll probably need a new head unit to be as good as it can be, but there are USB to AUX adapters).

Sure and all but some of us have integrated factory units and I can use the touchscreen or my steering wheel to control bluetooth. The audio quality isn't as good as AUX, but it's decent enough especially for podcasts and stuff.

What I love about my car is not only does it have bluetooth. I also have a USB stick, an SD card slot and I can play directly from my iphone with a connector into the USB slot. I throw most of my tunes on the SD card slot, my iphone connects via USB and charges up that way/plays audio. Bluetooth is for calls. The UConnect system is bulletproof and fast.

Yes, this is a factory setup so I know I am not helping the OP, sorry. But I wanted to reply to the above post to indicate that many of his concerns are no longer an issue for newer systems.

 

[SAWYER]

Bluetooth works fine in my car

 

[Occ]

I used this to great success: http://www.amazon.com/Miccus-Mini-jack-Bluetooth-Transmitter-headphone/dp/B002HHLOWC

It plugs into the Aux, and if you have a usb charger you can plug it into that, too. It turns on when the car starts up and will pair with your devices. Never had an issue with mine: once I plugged everything in and routed the cables I basically forgot about it.

 

[tortillasoup]

I used this to great success: http://www.amazon.com/Miccus-Mini-jack-Bluetooth-Transmitter-headphone/dp/B002HHLOWC

It plugs into the Aux, and if you have a usb charger you can plug it into that, too. It turns on when the car starts up and will pair with your devices. Never had an issue with mine: once I plugged everything in and routed the cables I basically forgot about it.

no aptx. constantly have to recharge.

 

[Kelemvor]

Yeah, I'd prefer something that plugs into the cigarette lighter adapter so it doesn't have to be recharged all the time.

 

[Occ]

Yeah, in my case the head unit had a usb connection available. You could get a usb plug for a cigarette lighter though, and in addition gain the ability to charge your phone.

 

[CZroe]

Yeah, I'd prefer something that plugs into the cigarette lighter adapter so it doesn't have to be recharged all the time.

Then you will not be disappointed by the BTC450 or 455 from Kinivo. I have used enough in-car Bluetooth kits (and conversions) to firmly recommend this one so I hope you seriously consider my suggestion.

 

[Kaido]

There's a review up on Tested:

http://www.tested.com/tech/524473-best-bluetooth-car-stereo-today/

 

[Kelemvor]

I'm not interested in replacing the whole head unit just to add bluetooth but nice article.