Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The list of Pioneer HUs that will theoretically be updated this summer with CarPlay is short and pricey. The AVH-4000NEX is the least expensive, listing for $700 (whatever Amazon may claim) and it doesn’t come with navigation (you can add it on for another $250 or so). It’s what Pioneer identifies as their “flagship multimedia DVD receiver”, with a 7″ touchscreen, one HDMI port, two USB ports, a rear aux input, an SD slot and maybe some other random ports. The next one up the line – the AVIC-5000NEX – is only $50 more and it does have navigation, but the screen is smaller because the disc slot is exposed (it’s hidden behind the motorized screen on the 4000), it doesn’t have an HDMI connection and the face isn’t removable. Probably there are other differences that didn’t matter to me as much. After some internal debate I decided that with CarPlay I wouldn’t need the built-in nav – I would just use Maps – so the 4000 was my choice. I found what is apparently referred to as a “grey market” unit on Amazon for $550 and ordered it. It’s important to note that because the seller isn’t an authorized Pioneer dealer, it basically has no warranty. Of course you can always get a Squaretrade warranty (I think for around $85, but don’t hold me to that) and if memory serves, they’re good for three years, so if you like paying for peace of mind, you can go that route, save a good chunk off retail and add a couple of years to your protection. I spent about $300 on installation parts and accessories, then a weekend digging around in the guts of my dashboard and googling things like “stereo ignition wire location”, and by Monday I had a fully functioning “flagship multimedia DVD receiver”. I’ve been living and driving with the new stereo for a couple of weeks now, and this is what I found out: 1. It’s awesome. I have virtually no basis for comparison, so my evaluation is possibly meaningless, but I’ve had no buyer’s remorse and no negative experiences. Nothing has made me feel like an idiot for spending $900 on an 8″ cube of electronics and I’ve had a steady stream of “how cool is this” moments. 2. It takes about thirteen seconds to boot up. This is not very long at all (or anyway it doesn’t feel like very long to me), and the back-up camera will kick in before it’s completed the process if I throw it in reverse right away. The only time the thirteen seconds feel too long is when I’ve forgotten to remove the faceplate and and need to turn it back on solely for this purpose. You remove the face by pushing the eject button, which brings up a menu of options for controlling the motor. In this menu you can adjust the horizontal angle of the screen in small increments (to reduce glare – it’s very handy), insert a disc or SD card, or push the button to remove the face. The screen rotates to an angle that provides access to a mechanical switch on the bottom that physically separates it. This is the only way to remove the face, and the unit has to be powered on in order to accomplish it. So if you turn off your car and realize you forgot to remove the face, you have to turn it back on and wait for it to boot up before you can access what I think of as the “eject menu”, effectively sacrificing approximately seventeen seconds of your life. I only had to make this mistake a couple of times before I started consistently remembering to take it off before I turned off the car, but I’m easily conditioned through negative reinforcement – it might take some people a little longer. 3. The HDMI cable – and necessary HDMI/lightning iPod adapter – are useless. When (if?) CarPlay is released, I believe these will become necessary, but until then, as far as I can tell, they are only good for mirroring my screen, and this isn’t useful. If I was using navigation on my phone, and really wanted to see the map on my HU instead of just hearing the directions through the speakers and glancing at my phone screen now and then, mirroring would be the way to go. I’ve not yet been that lost, but I guess it’s nice to know I have the option. For what it’s worth, the resolution on the mirroring isn’t that great, either – it looks a little fuzzy to me – but it does get the point across. 4. In terms of connecting your iPhone/iPod, USB is the way to go. Bluetooth works well enough if for some reason you don’t feel like plugging your phone in, but the menu for navigating your music is far more efficient with the USB connection. The main menu offers folders for artists, albums, podcasts, and a bunch of other stuff, and it has alphabetical scrolling to the side, whereas the bluetooth menu opens to a single folder labeled “music” and the scrollbar doesn’t indicate where you are in whatever list you’re navigating. It’s much easier to use your device to choose your music when connecting via bluetooth. (It’s actually easier in both cases, objectively, but for me the USB interface is good enough that, when coupled with the convenience offered by the proximity of the HU screen, it becomes preferable to screwing around with my phone while I’m driving.) Also, if you’re using the bluetooth audio and then you plug your phone in, the music stops and you get a message that basically says you have to choose – you can’t listen to music over bluetooth while your phone is physically connected. I didn’t hook up the aux plug, so there might be something magical there that I just don’t know about, but I doubt it. 5. The bluetooth phone menu, on the other hand, is outstanding, and the same regardless of your method of connection. You can access your contacts, recent calls, dial pad, etc. (not your voicemail except by calling in), and there’s a little Siri button in the lower left corner of the screen which works fairly well as long as your microphone is well-placed. Mine is not, so it only works reliably for very simple, clearly enunciated commands, but still I’ve been able to send basic text messages and request music by unambiguously named artists. You have to program your “favorite contacts” on the HU itself – for some reason it doesn’t gather them from your phone – but it’s very easy. 6. I put my microphone in the overhead compartment where the stock microphone would have been if Saab/GM weren’t a bunch of freaks who installed all the components of bluetooth connectivity without actually installing bluetooth connectivity. I have phone buttons on my steering wheel that do nothing and two empty microphone slots next to my map lights that have nothing in them. I didn’t want to have to look at the microphone, so I hid it in there, but I’m told I sound like I’m hiding in an oil drum if I’m driving while talking. (I presume this is the problem with Siri understanding my requests.) Without the background noise of a running engine, vibrating car, wind and traffic, callers can hear me just fine. I might move the microphone eventually, but it gets the job done and I really don’t want to look at it, so I haven’t emotionally committed one way or the other. 7. When they made it illegal (in New York State anyway) to play DVDs on a dashboard monitor, they seriously knew what they were doing. I installed a parking brake bypass because I like to keep my options open, but ten minutes of driving with a movie playing told me all I needed to know about just how absorbing cinematic entertainment really is. I’m glad I set it up the way I did, because I know there are several menus that you can’t otherwise access while driving (I don’t know what they are, but I suspect I use them regularly), but I’ve definitely not been playing movies – there’s nothing I need to see that badly. And if you’re like me, you might think you’ll “just listen”, but trust me, you will not. A moving picture is a powerful seductress, and I for one don’t want to have to worry about whether anyone noticed that I was watching Fight Club on my stereo when I rear-ended someone at a stoplight. 8. It’s relatively simple to customize your background screen, but there are a couple of things to note. First, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to store images on the unit itself, so you have to insert a storage device every time you want to make a change (assuming you’re switching to something of your own and not the stock images). Second, the pixel ratio you want is 800:480. The unit doesn’t adjust the image to fit the screen at all, so if you want it to fit properly you have to do it yourself. Third, there are two separate background settings. One is labeled “Home” and the other “AV”. Before I realized this, I couldn’t figure out why the picture was changing some times but not other times, and on some screens but not other screens… it was a confusing time in my life and I feel a lot more centered having sorted it all out. 9. I’m not a big Pandora user, but I do turn it on occasionally, and it works well through the stereo. It accesses all your stations without new programming and the menu is simple and effective. I do find it annoying that when you activate Pandora on the HU, you’re immediately prompted to open the app on your phone, even if it’s already on in the background (this prompt shows up both on your phone as well as the stereo itself). There is also something called “Aha Radio”, but I’m not familiar with it. There are a lot of features available that I don’t use. Frankly I still don’t even understand what “AppRadio” is, and I’ve heard nothing but bad things about it. Maybe one day I’ll sit down with the manual and dig into that whole mess, but I really sort of doubt it. “Mirrorlink” sounds to me like CarPlay for Android devices, but I don’t have an Android device so I can’t speak to anything about it. I’m tempted to try out Mixtrax, which appears to be something akin to funky filters for your music, but I haven’t yet and strongly suspect that the novelty would be short-lived. Also, I don’t subscribe to XM radio, so that whole world is lost on me. I don’t have children and my dogs lack the attention span for video entertainment, which means that I don’t have monitors in the back seat, but I suspect that setting up dual zones would be a piece of cake and work more or less flawlessly. In short, I’m pleased. It does everything I wanted it to and it does it well. It sounds pretty good, too, but I confess I’m not really into the whole sound thing. My car came with factory amps and thirteen speakers (which seems like more speakers than you’d really need in a such a very small space, but what do I know), so although I recognize that there are a lot of stereophiles out there who would be horrified by the inadequacy of my sound system, it’s completely sufficient to meet my pedestrian standards. What the new radio gave me was a host of technological conveniences and a penetrating sense of smug satisfaction at having successfully installed it all on my ignorant own, so I’m checking this one off in the win column.