General Upgrading head unit on 2017 fiat 500 with a newer genuine fiat unit

[Mgabriella]

Hi all,
I’ve recently purchased a 2017 Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge petrol, which currently has the Uconnect unit with physical buttons (photo attached). The unit only has the ‘Trip’ button and no ‘Nav’.
I’m looking to upgrade this head unit to one with ‘NAV’ and preferably the newer 7” fully touch screen unit that supports Apple CarPlay, which to my understanding is as follows- CONTINENTAL Fiat 312 7” VP2 EMEA DAB NAV.

From my understanding:

• This upgrade is possible, but I’d need to replace the current antenna with a GPS antenna for the ‘NAV’ function
• I would also need to code the new unit to my car (possibly with a proxy alignment using MultiECUScan?)

What I’d really like to confirm:

1. Is this upgrade definitely compatible with my 2017 Fiat 500?
2. Can I just swap the units and add a GPS antenna, or are there further changes needed
3. Any recommendations for a GPS antenna that works well with this unit?
4. What’s involved in the coding process?

If anyone has done this upgrade and could share your experience, or offer guidance, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Liz2000]

I would be very interested in this. I'm currently looking at Fiat 500s 2016 to 2019, and whilst the odd one has the nice 7" infotainment screen, only one of them (beyond my budget) has navigation optioned. I was thinking of buying my desired car and then finding a pre-owned 7" unit with navigation and fitting it. No doubt extra parts would be needed such as a new fascia.