Hi all this is my first post. Was looking at one of the after market head units for my 08 plate focus titanium. The ones with bluetooth, reversing camera and dvd player etc. I've seen one in a zafira before and it seemed quite good has anyone had any experience with one.

Have a look at these

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/39164-new-dvd-satnav-unit-fitted-pics/

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/60112-dvd-sat-nav-system-installed/

First link was really helpful for getting me started, plus there's good info on wiring in the reversing camera too.

That's great thanks for that. They look like the ones I've been looking at. Definitely think it's worth a try. Especially buying the number plate light reverse camera.

I was looking into one of those as well, but didnt have the money to go for it, they are good value for money there is no doubt about that!

I got one from eonons uk website for £325 delivered I think. It's great, does everything really well. Here's some pics from my build thread of it working with the reverse camera installed.

This is the camera:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221508434071

This is the head unit:

http://eonon.co.uk/Specific-Car-GPS/GM5162E.html

Sent from my iPhone 5s.

As soon as I have a goal to get one, other penny priorities creep in!

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Avoid buying the cheapest available one I wish I had spent an extra 100 for mine as it randomly crashes usually when playing music from sd or usb

is it not worth sticking to a well known branded head unit such as a pioneer?

It is in some ways but In others they are overpriced and whilst good limited. Most Chinese ones are based on Android and often cost over 100 less, so you get more for your money.

I wanted an Android one, and was looking at £50-£100 more than the cheapest units.

The cheapest ones were generally WinCE based with a very low res screen and questionable tech-specs.

The Eonon units fo seem to be quite good.

For now though, I'm sticking with a little bluetooth music module plugged into the Aux port lol

As James said really..

There is often a positive trend between quality and cost, but invariably when companies reach a certain size you start to pay a premium for owning a product they produce, even if the quality is not reflective of the price... Pioneer for instance, is never (never say never..) going to be a bad buy, but value for money? You know that a percentage of what you pay is just to have the word "pioneer" printed on the box and machine..

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I wanted an Android one, and was looking at £50-£100 more than the cheapest units.

The cheapest ones were generally WinCE based with a very low res screen and questionable tech-specs.

The Eonon units fo seem to be quite good.

For now though, I'm sticking with a little bluetooth music module plugged into the Aux port lol

The Bluetooth module you mention, does that have any comms with the control stalk? Or are you still stuck changing things via the device?

I've got a male jack wire in my armrest that I connected to the quad lock at the back of the stereo, I plug that into the headphone socket of my phone/mp3 etc.. And it plays well, but stalk controls just control volume, track changing has to be done on the phone or device etc..

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Nah its basically a USB powered Bluetooth receiver with an aux port (I assume, as I have the same setup) so you pair your phone to the dongle, music goes to it and gets transferred down the Aux connection to the speakers

When I was shopping around for an aftermarket headunit for my focus I looked deeply into chinese headunits but all I seemed to hear was horror stories and the general concensus then was that if they can cram in a dvd player, tv tuner, bluetooth, satnav etc etc into one unit and only charge 300notes for it then it will be very poor quality. Remember hearing review of how the wiring damaged the cars, how the radio and tv never picked up a signal and how the satnav was very low quality and couldnt find satelites etc.

All this steered me well away.

I then trumped for a pioneer 1400dvd at the as it had everything I need and I only paid 250 all in for it including the fitting kit. The only things it didnt have was satnav and bluetooth.

That headunit later met a messy end when it had a fight with a flat pack tripple wardrobe.

I replaced it with a pioneer 3500dab for 300notes. It had cd/dvd player, ipod connectivity, rear usb, rear camera, bluetooth, dab radio etc. Only thing it didnt have was tv and satnav. Ive never heard anyone so far say that they have actually got a decent signal out of the chinese tv reciever and i have a tomtom with free lifetime map updates so i was not bothered about having a satnav built into the head unit.

I now own a mondeo that has the built in satnav that has all the climate control etc built into it so it is not possible for me to fit an aftermarket head unit :( i really would of liked to have fitted my pioneer into it

I haven't heard of a first hand account of it damaging wiring where someone didn't have to cut wires and manipulate it to do what they wanted. I would go on the basis of using what I wanted and ignoring the rest I don't see the need for TV in the car but would prefer TV via memory device (downloaded shows etc ) fro what I gather it's people trying to use things they don't need that damages stuff, but I could be wrong.