When you stop to consider how complex the task of driving a vehicle actually is, it’s rather surprising that there aren’t a lot more accidents and fatalities than we already have. Despite this, we keep adding more things for the driver to do on the road and designers have struggled to find a way to integrate everything into the human machine interface (HMI). Having watched the struggles of automotive designers to develop a usable in-vehicle HMI, technology giants Apple and Google have now stepped into the breach with their own solutions to the problem in the form of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
In the past few months a handful of vehicles from General Motors, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Honda have begun including support for these smartphone interfaces and most most new vehicles are expected to get this capability within the next couple of years. At the 2015 CES, Pioneer Electronics was one of the several car audio vendors to announce aftermarket head units with support Carplay and Android support. Pioneer loaned me their most affordable version, the $700 AVH-4100NEX and I installed it for a tryout in a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sportwagen and a 2005 Ford Mustang.
The stock touchscreen radio that debuted in the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta and Golf
Installation – DIY or Best Buy?
When the time comes to replace the audio system that the factory deemed fit to install in your ride, the first question that comes to mind after selecting your hardware is whether to crack open the toolbox or pay someone else to do it. Having swapped many car stereos over the past 35 years including the factory unit in my Mustang, I of course opted for the do-it-yourself approach just to learn what it would take to bring my these cars up to 2015 mobile technology standards.
Depending on what vehicle you have and your comfort level with a screwdriver and soldering iron, installing a car audio system can range from pretty straightforward to tear-your-hair-out difficult.
Depending on what vehicle you have and your comfort level with a screwdriver and soldering iron, installing a car audio system can range from pretty straightforward to tear-your-hair-out difficult. Many new vehicles have systems that are so tightly integrated into the design of the dashboard that any non-factory style installation would require a significant amount of hand craftsmanship in order to achieve a professional looking installation.
If you are considering going DIY, the first thing to do is grab a shop manual for your car which you can find at most auto parts stores for under $20 or at your local public library gratis. Take a look at the section on removal and installation of the radio and if that doesn’t scare immediately scare some sense into you, then we can proceed. If on the other hand, the prospect of tearing your pristine dashboard apart seems to daunting, just go ahead and make an appointment to have the work done at your local car audio shop or big box electronics store.
Fortunately, the Jetta SportWagen got an updated interior for 2010 in parallel with the launch of the MK VI Golf. The construction of the center stack in the dashboard was significantly simplified compared to the 2005-09 models. All it took to remove the factory touchscreen radio was a plastic putty knife and a T20 Torx driver. After prying off the plastic bezel around the radio and removing four screws, the whole unit slides out. If you are removing snap-on plastic trim, it’s always a good idea to use a plastic tool to help avoid damaging the parts and spending still more money on replacements. Installation in the Mustang was nearly as straightforward with only three extra pieces and some screws needing to be removed for access to the audio system.
When considering whether to replace your car stereo, if budget is a concern, keep in mind that in addition to the cost of the head unit you will have spend another $50 to $100 on connection and mounting hardware. Unfortunately, every automaker and manufacturer of aftermarket audio equipment uses completely unique and non-standard connectors so you’ll need to prepare an interface harness between the car and radio. Companies like Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood all ship head units with the half of that harness that plugs into their hardware. You’ll need to purchase the other half with the correct connector to fit your car.
make sure to shrink-wrap all solder connections to avoid shorts
While the connectors vary from car to car, thankfully most of the wiring colors for the speakers, power, ground, etc are standardized so matching the correct wires usually isn’t a problem. However, to save yourself some grief later on, it’s a good idea to consult the wiring diagram in the back of that shop manual just to be on the safe side. Although you can use crimp-on connectors to join the wires, soldering is generally the most reliable way of ensure you have a secure connection. Just make sure you use some heat shrink tubing to wrap all of those connections. Bare wires can easily short out against the metal structure in the dashboard leading to blown fuses or worse.
Once the wire connections are done and checked, it’s time to test your handiwork. After plugging in the vehicle and head unit sides of the harness, slide the new head unit into the space in your dashboard but don’t fasten it all down just yet. If you do still like to listen to terrestrial radio, make sure the antenna cable will reach the plug in the head unit. Automakers typically don’t make the cable any longer than necessary and if the socket on the new head unit isn’t in the same position as the factory unit it might not reach. Fortunately, extensions are also available for these.
The 4100NEX has two USB ports on the back and oddly, they are dedicated, with one being reserved for Carplay and the other for Android. The head unit comes with two USB extension cables that you can route to somewhere accessible like the glovebox or some other storage bin where you keep your phone. If you live in a mixed household with both iOS and Android devices, you’ll want to make sure connect both ports and run the cables. When switching, you need to go into the settings screen and select the device you want to use. The OEM systems I’ve seen so far from Hyundai and Honda automatically detect the phone type and launch the appropriate interface.
With everything plugged in, turn the key (since you’re considering this type of upgrade, chances are you still have a car with a key) to the accessory position and verify that the various audio functions are working. With the connections verified, shut everything off and spend a few minutes tucking the new wiring away and tying it off with some zip ties. Finally, use the mounting bracket kit that you’ve also purchased separately to secure the head unit and put the trim back in place. The final installation step is to check the Pioneer support website for firmware updates which you can download to an SD card. After inserting the card into the slot behind the screen, you can run the update.
Before you bolt everything back in, turn on the system to check that everything works
What’s it like to live with?
The review portion of the Pioneer 4100NEX is split into three segments; actually living with and using this particular head unit, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Over the course of the last 30 years or so, I’ve purchased and used quite a bit of Pioneer car and home audio equipment starting with the AM/FM/cassette head unit I installed into my stripper 1984 GMC S15 when I was in college. After graduation, I bought myself a brand-new 1991 Mustang and installed one of Pioneer’s then-new six-disc, trunk-mounted CD changers at a time when car CD players were still a relative rarity.
I’ve always been happy with the performance and affordability of the Pioneer gear I’ve spent my money on. Thankfully, the 4100NEX was loaned to me by Pioneer for this review and I’ll be sending it back now. Sadly, this is the first piece of Pioneer hardware that I’d recommend people avoid and unfortunately, it’s not because of the still relatively immature smartphone interfaces.Pioneer is currently offering three AA/CarPlay capable head units, the entry-level 4100 plus the navigation-equipped 7100 and 8100 models. Each has a similar industrial design with a motorized seven-inch LCD display that slides out and down to provide access to the CD/DVD player slot and SD-card port, but I’ll focus here on the 4100NEX.
The first and most critical problem is the screen which seems to lack any kind of oleophobic coating, making this one of the most aggressive fingerprint magnets I’ve seen in many years. Sadly, even most factory touchscreens fail on this count which is one of the many reasons I’m increasingly of the opinion that touch interfaces don’t belong in the dashboard.
The Pioneer screen is low on contrast and collects fingerprints like mad
On this particular system that collection of fingerprints exacerbates the more fundamental problem with the display itself which lacks contrast or any sort of dynamic ambient brightness control. As a result, it is often either too dim or too bright. On sunny days, the display is frequently washed out by light coming in from the side windows or even the windshield. This was particularly problematic when I installed the system in my Mustang where the center stack slopes away and is readily exposed to light coming through the windshield. Many factory screens have some sort of hood to block direct light and while you could fabricate something like this for your car, you shouldn’t need to.
There is a dimmer system in the settings that will switch the display to a nighttime dark theme if your wiring harness has a suitable connection to indicate that the headlights are on. Alternatively, you toggle the light and dark themes manually or set a time for it to switch based on the system clock.
The base Pioneer user interface also leaves a lot to desired. Like many automaker’s UI designs, this one is cluttered and offers too many features to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. Finding the right touch targets while driving is problematic and the menu structure is not particularly intuitive.
The more I use touchscreens in cars, the more convinced I am that they don’t belong there
Frankly, I’m increasingly starting to think that BMW was right all along in adopting iDrive rather than a touch screen. Tapping a touchscreen while holding a tablet or phone is one thing because you are typically holding it closer to you and the display is more stable. Doing the same thing while reaching out with your arm as the vehicle moves down the road is actually far more difficult, making Google and Apple’s approach to UI design more important but I’ll come back to that. I frequently find the tip of my finger moving around too much to reliably hit touch targets on the road with both this and factory systems. A reliable voice control system is actually more useful in this context, although that is often still problematic on many systems.
Another downside of a seven-inch display in a double-DIN head unit is that it leaves little room for physical controls. Automakers don’t really have a problem because they can locate these controls separately below the screen. On this unit the controls are restricted to a narrow strip along the bottom of the unit, with only tiny volume, FF/RWD/tuning and mode switches.
Fortunately, Pioneer has included support for steering wheel controls if you install an appropriate adapter in the interface harness and those worked reliably. One other quibble I had is with the micro-USB cable provided in the box for connecting Android phones. The connector refused to stay properly seated in the phone socket, repeatedly disconnecting and sending the head unit back to the default Pioneer UI. I swapped the cable with one of the Monoprice units from my cable drawer and had no additional problems.
The DVD drive and SD card slot are behind the touchscreen
While I was an early adopter of CD technology in my car nearly 25 years ago, I haven’t used disks on the road with any regularity for the past decade. Starting with iPods and now smartphones, the media I listen to goes with me wherever I go and I have no use for an optical disc drive in the car and didn’t even bother with this one. I’d prefer to see Pioneer offer a more affordable entry-level unit that dispenses completely moving screen. Just give me a unit with a fixed display that supports with Android Auto, CarPlay, MirrorLink and any other mobile interface systems companies develop. This could be significantly cheaper and potentially more reliable and useful to smartphone-toting drivers in older cars.
In Part 2 I look at Android Auto and Apple Carplay
