Pioneer AVIC F700BT / Anyone know of this unit? Worth the $$

[Joe Deb Vette]

Anyone used this unit, or hear of any feedback?  I was just quoted $800 installed at a shop here in Central NJ.  Also need to buy the wiring harness to hook up the XM radio + $200 for the camera, so I'm looking at about $1K for everything installed.

Is that a good deal? 

Thanks!

[sonoma]

Hope you don't want to watch dvd's. That model doesn't play them

[07AvySS]

Jump up a little and get the F900BT or the F90BT

The modules are all available on Ebay.
Backup cameras are too...way cheaper than that.

If you can get away with doing most of the install youself, you can save a couple hundred bucks too.

I have the F90BT and LOVE IT!!!

I have a few threads here about the install and opinion. Here's my thread

[woof]

I just bought the 700, it was $400 on ebay.  The $200 price diff between the 700 and 900 series didn't seem worth it to me for just the DVD, since I don't watch them while driving.

I've read a lot about this unit and I was aware of some flaws before I bought.  The worst flaw is that it might take quite a while to boot, but most folks say it is around the 20 second time range (the 2.0 patch helps with this).  I also chose not to do the ipod integration as the iphone has to stop being a phone when it connects (at least that is what I heard).  I bought a headphone cable to connect via the aux jack in front of the unit.  Another thought is that I will probably use the radio feature on the iphone to tune stations in other parts of the country and locally when driving through the mountains, where I loose radio signal, but not cell.  Selecting which harness is also challenging....

With all this said, I can't wait to get the unit installed.  It's a bargain compared to other brands, like the kenwood 5120 (which doesn't come with bluetooth, another $150 or so to me).  I am still waiting for parts to come in to do the install, but I'm debating hiring it out, the local best buy would do it for $130 (without the back up camera install, I'm going to do that myself).  Not too bad after reading all the threads here.

[07AvySS]

Just make sure you buy an SD card (at least 2GB), and go on www.avic411.com to get instructions on how to boot up in WinCE and backup the unit. I bricked mine 2 weeks after install, and no one knows how it did that. Restored it from a backup, and it worked great. I now have that backed up in 3 different locations...just in case.
Also...it takes about 2 minutes to fully boot up...with Bluetooth enabled. A little frustrating at first, but you get used to it.
Currently having iPod connection issues, but Pioneer is releasing an update in a few months and they claim this will fix it.

[woof]

Thanks, I do plan to do that.  I'll probably place the GPS in the center of the dash (on top), there is a free spot a couple of inches away from the light sensor.  I'm pretty sure it will look stock, but I'm planning on removing the unit before I sell anyhow.

[07AvySS]

I mounted my sensor (upside down) about my rear view mirror...even though people say not to, I used the sitcky backed, metallic pad on the glass, and the sensor is magnetic, and it just sticks to it. People said not to, cuz it wouldn't get a signal, but I get between 3-4 bars, and I tried outer places, even plain sight, and it only got 4 bars. So I like the "out of the way" look.

[Ian Dozier]

Anyone know of any good online car audio and video websites that I can price compare against Best Buy and Crutchfield?

[07AvySS]

Here's where I got mine. Great customer service, fast shipping, lowest prices I could find...especially if you read all the fine print on the other site.

CarTronixPlus

[midwest kid]

got mine from a place in NY. I payed $379 for it shipped Brand new, not refurbished. Its actually not for me, but for a friend. I played with it last night and applied some of the hacks i thought she would want. Its a great unit for the average person just wanting to keep it simple. If your looking to make a complete custom install out of your truck, i wouldn't recommend it.

I edited this... i didnt mean to say i would recommend for a custom install.

[07AvySS]

got mine from a place in NY. I payed $379 for it shipped Brand new, not refurbished. Its actually not for me, but for a friend. I played with it last night and applied some of the hacks i thought she would want. Its a great unit for the average person just wanting to keep it simple. If your looking to make a complete custom install out of your truck, i would recommend it.

Holy crap!! That's way cheap. Must not be authorized Pioneer dealer. I got extended warranty with mine also though. I got the F90BT, which came with the iPod cable, and was slightly more $$ due to the 4.0v vs. the 2.2v.

[midwest kid]

Actually the place is authorized. They offered the extended warranty but i was buying on behalf of someone else who's truck im going to install this in and she didnt want to spend the extra money. I tried talking her into the 900 or 90BT but she didnt have a need to watch DVD's. I was hopeful though. lol

[woof]

Ok, she's installed.  The 2.0 upgrade did make a big difference for me and the unit doesn't have to fully boot to show the back up camera view when you shift into reverse, solving the boot time issue for me.  Putting the parking break on to enter addresses or do any setup is annoying.

So far, so go, but that's what I said about the VR3, lol.  I didn't get the best camera, my picture is fairly grainy, but I can still see.

The front jack on the 700BT is AV2, which has to be set to video to work.  My standard cable is working fine on it to my iphone.  Pretty cool combo showing the map on the 700 and the radio station/artist/cover art info on the iphone...

[07AvySS]

Plus you can do this....

[KevMack]

Anyone used this unit, or hear of any feedback?  I was just quoted $800 installed at a shop here in Central NJ.  Also need to buy the wiring harness to hook up the XM radio + $200 for the camera, so I'm looking at about $1K for everything installed.

Is that a good deal? 

Thanks!

Bad deal....You can get that for around $440, online carstereo has it for $429 right now. So it is going to cost over $350 to install a headunit??? Crazy. Best Buy installs them for like $100. Do you got something custom your not telling us? How much are they charging you for the headunit??? Here check out online carstereo.......

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=19842

[woof]

My total cost was:
425 - unit
44 - Bose and Onstar Harness
6 - GM antena adapter
16 - Dash Install Kit
100 - backup camera
180 - Professional Installation

$1K with XM seems like an OK price from the above...

The install took just over 6 hours, seems like my origonal camera was defective and threw the installer a wrench.  Having seen what he went through, I know I could not have done this.

The SD slot is working great, it can hold up to 8gb of music, but some claim to have the unit working with 16gb.  I'll wait to pass judgement on this one until I see how it does after time and the SD card weathers the heat in the summer....

My USB connection causes the unit to hang though when I try to connect a USB stick, but I have no need for it.

Thanks for the graphic, lol, I'm so impressed with my AVY....

[TCR1]

My total cost was:
425 - unit
44 - Bose and Onstar Harness
6 - GM antena adapter
16 - Dash Install Kit
100 - backup camera
180 - Professional Installation

$1K with XM seems like an OK price from the above...

The install took just over 6 hours, seems like my origonal camera was defective and threw the installer a wrench.  Having seen what he went through, I know I could not have done this.

The SD slot is working great, it can hold up to 8gb of music, but some claim to have the unit working with 16gb.  I'll wait to pass judgement on this one until I see how it does after time and the SD card weathers the heat in the summer....

My USB connection causes the unit to hang though when I try to connect a USB stick, but I have no need for it.

Thanks for the graphic, lol, I'm so impressed with my AVY....

woof,
where did you get your unit installed and the modules for that price?  A freind is going to give me his head unit, but crutchfield is looking for about 200.00 for the parts to put it together.  The breakdown is like this (my notes are in red):
003GMK422    GM Kit 01-up, DD
(15.00-pieces to create factory look to head unit install)

120GMOS04    Metra VT-GMOS-04 GM Class II Data bus Interface
(89.00 – maintains onstar and Bose system functionality as well as warning chimes and maintains feature to turn off stereo when door is opened)

12040GM10    GM Antenna Adapter Motorola M to OEM antenna F (9.99 – connects new head unit to antenna since they are different jack types)

127SWIPS     PAC SWI-PS - Pioneer and Sony Steering Wheel Radio Control Interface (74.99 – maintains steering wheel controls on the vehicle to control stereo)

Did you maintain steering wheel controls?  What Bose module did you use?  The metra did not get very good reviews on crutchfield.