Styling Interior upgrades all complete

[euroben]

All interior upgrades now complete. The only difficult one was the steering wheel because I struggled getting the old air bag off.
Jobs done:
New leather steering wheel
New leather gear knob
Install of Uconnect 7 inch OEM

It feels like a totally different car!

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Curiously, both my 2012 and 2018 4x4s came with leather trimmed wheel and gearbox as standard… in fact I thought they all did. But I assume not?
Does the CarPlay unit connect wirelessly to the iPhone?

 

[euroben]

Curiously, both my 2012 and 2018 4x4s came with leather trimmed wheel and gearbox as standard… in fact I thought they all did. But I assume not?
Dies the CarPlay unit connect wirelessly to the iPhone?

Mine had horrid plastic ones although I did have steering wheel controls so not completely basic. However, I have got the winter pack with the heated windscreen, mirrors and seats so I guess it depends which packs you select.

The car play is an OEM unit and only has wired CarPlay but I’m happy with that because it charges my phone at the same time

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

For now I think I'll just stick with my iPhone in the Fiat holder, as its in reach there and has charge socket right by it. In my 2013 Defender the phone sits in a MagSafe holder by the clock, again in reach, and in both cases fully Bluetoothed to the car radio with (in the Panda) full steering wheel contols. In our Skoda, wireless CarPlay works well but mainly as no where to put phone otherwise so just being able to have it 'somewhere in theh car' and for it work is neat. But it doesn't really offer me much over the other two arrangements, unless I'm missing something?

 

[Big gerry]

The car interior looks fantastic can I ask was the stereo plug and play or was it coded were all the plugs the same even the Ariel

 

[euroben]

The car interior looks fantastic can I ask was the stereo plug and play or was it coded were all the plugs the same even the Ariel

The stereo was completely plug and play and the connectors were exactly the same as the original. I purchased an additional DAB Ariel and GPS antenna (both had plug sockets on the back of the new stereo) and they were self adhesive and I just stuck them inside the dash. They were just off Amazon. The original Ariel plugged into the new stereo as well and gives me the FM signal, although I find with the luxury of DAB that is all I’m using and considering I stuck it inside the dashboard the signal is perfect. Not dropped out once.

Nothing needed to be coded. The new stereo did come with a code but it never asked me to enter it when I installed it. And no flashing odometer which I was expecting.

The only bit I haven't yet done is the microphone. The 7inch uconnect does not come with an integrated microphone. You can buy one with the stereo as an extra but I want to use the original integrated microphone that is in my light cluster. I need to unplug it from my old blue and me module and pull the wires back up to the dash and connect to the new stereo. I do have a diagram of where it needs to be connected and it’s just two wires so should be pretty simple. I’m going to save that for a rainy day because I rarely take calls in the car anyway.

If you are not fussed about a microphone then the rest of the job is 100% plug and play. No adaptions needed, no wiring stuff. Literally unplugged the old one and plugged in the new one and it just worked. It took me about 3 minutes. I don’t think you can beat this unit. It has no lag, it’s responsive, everything works and it’s genuine fiat. Apple car play is seamless as soon as you plug your phone in, it just works.

 

[Big gerry]

That is just outstanding work did you buy the stereo off eBay by chance plus I was thinking of changing my rear lights to the fresher ones with the black surrounding it’s just they are a lot more expensive than the original even second hand

 

[euroben]

That is just outstanding work did you buy the stereo off eBay by chance plus I was thinking of changing my rear lights to the fresher ones with the black surrounding it’s just they are a lot more expensive than the original even second hand

No I bought it off Facebook direct from Italy. Here is my other post with the Facebook link https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/new-head-unit-on-2013.510574/#post-4764001

I would like to replace my rear lights with those as well. You can buy them direct from Italy too on the same Facebook page. I got everything off there. Pays to try a few different sellers as they sometimes vary in price

 

[SB1500]

That's brilliant. What year / spec is yours? I see it has the nicer pre-2016 coloured interior. That colour was always my favourite of them all, followed by blue.

Cool to know the new touch screen integrates in so well with the old unit.

Heated seats and CarPlay, what more could you want!

I looked at one of the last 'Lounge' spec models in January but it was missing the mouse puck handbrake and had no leather steering wheel / gearstick. The dealer wasn't able to even tell me if it had the 2 or 4 speaker setup either so I ultimately gave up on it as I thought if I go back to a Panda it'd need to be a high spec one.

 

[Marcus Daly]

I looked at one of the last 'Lounge' spec models in January but it was missing the mouse puck handbrake and had no leather steering wheel / gearstick. The dealer wasn't able to even tell me if it had the 2 or 4 speaker setup either so I ultimately gave up on it as I thought if I go back to a Panda it'd need to be a high spec one.

The "mouse" handbrake was discontinued years ago—only persisted on models with a raised central console (eg 4x4s).

 

[SB1500]

The "mouse" handbrake was discontinued years ago—only persisted on models with a raised central console (eg 4x4s).

That's sad. After 2016 they seemed to discontinue most of what made the Panda unique / stand out in its class.

 

[euroben]

That's brilliant. What year / spec is yours? I see it has the nicer pre-2016 coloured interior. That colour was always my favourite of them all, followed by blue.

Cool to know the new touch screen integrates in so well with the old unit.

Heated seats and CarPlay, what more could you want!

I looked at one of the last 'Lounge' spec models in January but it was missing the mouse puck handbrake and had no leather steering wheel / gearstick. The dealer wasn't able to even tell me if it had the 2 or 4 speaker setup either so I ultimately gave up on it as I thought if I go back to a Panda it'd need to be a high spec one.

Mine is 2013 4x4 Twinair 0.9. I’m very pleased with it now I have done my upgrades. Just a few of the creature comforts make all the difference if it’s your daily driver like mine.

 

[Agopoli]

Nice job...