Hey everyone,
For a while now I’ve used an FM Transmitter to connect my phone to the car stereo with Bluetooth but that’s a janky solution, I prefer something cleaner like a head unit with Apple CarPlay.
I’ve been browsing AliExpress (I know what some of you are going to say, but there’s no way I’m spending more than 100 € on a head unit for a car that I’m driving temporarily, as in 9 months I’ll be moving to another country and will leave this car behind as a backup car for my parents who already have a nice modern SUV) and there are quite a few different models of double din head units. The main ones I could find being RK-A175 (listed as “for Panda” on some places), RK-7157B, 7018C, 7023C (CML-Play) and others.
What worries me is that the RK-A175 looks a bit different than the others from behind (even tho they’re all supposed to be “universal” double din), also some sellers of the “for Panda” one make you choose which radio type you originally had (either the Blaupunkt single din with a little storage compartment above it or in my case - the double din one that perfectly blends with the Panda interior) but they never show the difference between the two, they are advertised as the same aftermarket head unit (except the price goes up if you select you had double din initially). Is there really a difference? I thought double din was a standard and the connectors were standard as well. Would any of them fit in my Panda?
I did find the fascia separately, so that should mean I could in theory pick any of the “universal” models I listed above and install it.
Also a lot of them have a reversing camera - how does one install that in the Panda? Is there a convenient place for the cables to run? It’s not like I can’t live without a reversing camera but for the tiny difference in price it could be convenient whenever there are tall passengers in the back.
Another question I have is if the new head unit would interfere with my parking sensors in any way - they are factory fit from Fiat, I believe. How do they connect to the speakers to play the beeps?
Sorry if my questions are stupid, I did try to find more information about this online but I’m still not too confident about it.
Thanks in advance!
For a while now I’ve used an FM Transmitter to connect my phone to the car stereo with Bluetooth but that’s a janky solution, I prefer something cleaner like a head unit with Apple CarPlay.
I’ve been browsing AliExpress (I know what some of you are going to say, but there’s no way I’m spending more than 100 € on a head unit for a car that I’m driving temporarily, as in 9 months I’ll be moving to another country and will leave this car behind as a backup car for my parents who already have a nice modern SUV) and there are quite a few different models of double din head units. The main ones I could find being RK-A175 (listed as “for Panda” on some places), RK-7157B, 7018C, 7023C (CML-Play) and others.
What worries me is that the RK-A175 looks a bit different than the others from behind (even tho they’re all supposed to be “universal” double din), also some sellers of the “for Panda” one make you choose which radio type you originally had (either the Blaupunkt single din with a little storage compartment above it or in my case - the double din one that perfectly blends with the Panda interior) but they never show the difference between the two, they are advertised as the same aftermarket head unit (except the price goes up if you select you had double din initially). Is there really a difference? I thought double din was a standard and the connectors were standard as well. Would any of them fit in my Panda?
I did find the fascia separately, so that should mean I could in theory pick any of the “universal” models I listed above and install it.
Also a lot of them have a reversing camera - how does one install that in the Panda? Is there a convenient place for the cables to run? It’s not like I can’t live without a reversing camera but for the tiny difference in price it could be convenient whenever there are tall passengers in the back.
Another question I have is if the new head unit would interfere with my parking sensors in any way - they are factory fit from Fiat, I believe. How do they connect to the speakers to play the beeps?
Sorry if my questions are stupid, I did try to find more information about this online but I’m still not too confident about it.
Thanks in advance!