GSV50 Headunit Changes

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Sebastian Woodhouse (yes that’s my Aurions name not mine) has the standard Prodigy 2011-2014 headunit with reverse cam, 6 speakers and all the limitations that go along with that.

As he’s a new acquisition I’m planning to address all the service/reliability and driveability things first, but there will be a time when I quite simply will have to knuckle down and put a modern headunit with AndroidAuto/Carplay support.

I’ve got no problem executing the swap, but what I am looking for is input on the hardware choices.

Do I:

Stick with a pretty standard Aerpro Fascia, interface pack and DoubleDin unit?  That’s about $250 worth of adapters plus the $500-$1000 that brand name double units cost.

Or

Grab a Fascia and use a “200mm” Kenwood DMX820WS which has almost complete plug and play compatibility with the factory loom (I think I’d need to tweak the steering wheel control plug?)  That’s a $799 headunit at RRP, and if I don’t need all the Aerpro adapters it’s quit cost effective as well as fitting perfectly in the fascia with no “ears”.

Or 

Spend $500-800 on a ChinaBay Androi unit and hope it’s not a complete Turkey 🙂

I’ve read all the headunit threads and for the most part they’re a mess of old/dead links and GSV40 tips.  All great but not outright helpful to a GSV50 😉

Thoughts? Suggestions? 

[KAA]

Hi Aaron, as most threads will say it comes down to A: Price B: Personal choice of Make/Model  and mostly what your after eg: sound quality

Personally I went Double Din and had the 2 USB leads feed into the glovebox so I can add Flash-drive's  1 with my own music and  when we were able to have the Grandkids in the car a flash drive for movies. Like most things I would always suggest staying with a good supplier who can then advise any issues with fitting and the required cables for all the controls on the steering wheel to operate. I went with Monster Car Audio and the guys locally did a perfect fitting so was 100% happy looks great sounds awesome and never an issue.

Let us know how you get on mate and add some Pic's as we all love too see others set ups.

KAA

[L4WL3SS]

That Kenwood looks like a nice head unit, but pricey, but I guess depends what u want it to do. I wish they had more built in features like maps, instead of having to physically connect the phone or touch it at all. Oh, and dont go the Chinese route, Im yet to hear a legitimate positive review yet

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Thanks 🙂

The comment on the ChinaBay units is what I expected and based on everything I’ve scraped up here seems to back it up.  First impressions are great, but weird doco, minimal support and then no further comments.  I have no desire to experiment with $500+ units - I’d rather speculate on Bitcoin.
 

I spent some time today trying to correlate all the wiring pinouts that the Kenwood unit mentioned above has versus the Aurion.  I think they’d match up, or a bit of fiddling they would…. But also spot on, it’s an expensive RRP and still needs some integration extras, and I’m on my own with wiring (not a problem, but Sebastian was purchased to reduce my automotive derived stress not add another project to the family).

So that leads me standard Double-DIN and Aerpro stuff that I’m very familiar with.  Our other cars have Alpine ILX-W650 units fitted and they’re perfect for the minimalist vehicles they’re fitted to.  Want something higher featured for Sebastian but stepping to a regular double din does open the field of options quite a bit.

I’ve got a strong “bargain hunt” gene so while I’m keen to get to work, I’m also going to wait until there’s some “deal” that gets me a 20% plus saving on the hardware.  They’re never far away.  

With that said, anyone else got any ideas or examples?

🙂

[KAA]

Aaron a good idea to go double din, not only because it gives you more options but the fitting is less hair pulling as by now most top quality manufacturers of head units have matching harness suppliers which will make it virtually plug and play. When we got ours it was between the Clarion unit I got and a Kenwood unit and it came down to the Sat/Nav screen that really decided it for me as I found the Clarion way clearer and easier to use. So if you can narrow the field and as you said keep your eye's open I am sure something will come along bargain wise for Sebastian.

By the way great name you gave your beauty, ours is Faye as in Faye Dunaway the actress as we felt our Presara matched the classy lady she was.

Good Luck Keep Safe

KAA

[L4WL3SS]

OK you've mentioned wiring again so I'm just checking you understand that the stereo will go in with the correct iso adaptors. And being a jvc/Kenwood it has "direct oem" steering wheel capability which is a simple tap into 3 wires of ur harness for (very basic) steering control

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

2 hours ago, Metal_Head said:

OK you've mentioned wiring again so I'm just checking you understand that the stereo will go in with the correct iso adaptors. And being a jvc/Kenwood it has "direct oem" steering wheel capability which is a simple tap into 3 wires of ur harness for (very basic) steering control

“With the correct ISO adapters”.  True, and if Aerpro are on their game with Toyota stuff you are correct.  

I did make an error in my first post, the DMX820WS is a 200mm Toyota fitment with regular Kenwood plug on the back.  The DMX820WXS is a 230mm Toyota fitment with Toyota wiring connections.  230mm doesn’t have an available fascia for the GSV50.

However coming from doing this with other brands there’s always been a tweak or fiddle required to get the integration because someone decided not to include a wire or two (handbrake detection and reverse detection being quite common) in the conversion loom even when the wiring is in the vehicle factory plugs.  

So I’ve been burnt before.  Without talking myself up too much I do a lot vehicle wiring in the CANBUS and engine management space so probably I’m transferring a bit of the desire to know more details rather than taking some things on trust 🙂

Going more conventional Kenwood for example Double DIN (or the non-Toyota Harness 200mm unit) means it’s:

Fascia:  Aerpro FP8052 ($75 to $100)

Wiring Kit:  CHTO15C (because it has all the factory to aftermarket adapters, including Steering Control, $150 to $200)

Headunit Wiring would be the APP9KE6 $20 - change to a different brand headunit and they’re still generally $20.

So roughly $275 to use factory camera, retain factory AUX Audio/USB plugs and make 99% of this plug and play.  
 

I guess it’s “choose headunit options” time 

[L4WL3SS]

Good luck with retaining factory camera, another member here bought the correct harness and still couldn't make it work. Much easier to just bite the bullet & spend 50 bucks on aftermarket cam & run wiring through the car..

Edited February 8 by L4WL3SS