Car GPS solution for the DR

beeza

Silver
Nov 2, 2006
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I thought I'd share with you all my recent experience of upgrading the audio head unit in my car.

You see I'm both a gadget freak and a car freak, and I love putting the two together and upgrading my cars with the latest tech.

My current vehicle is a Mercedes ML280CDI. I love this car. It's very refined as you'd expect from a Benz but also very practical for this country and best of all, super fuel efficient. It has a V6 diesel which purrs along very nicely and is unnoticeable that it's an oil burner once it's warmed up and on the move.

Anyway, the stock audio system was very basic. Just a radio and a cd changer. So I started investigating into upgrading to a unit that would play my iPod, connect my phone via bluetooth and even perhaps add GPS functionality.

I ended up ordering an aftermarket head unit from China. It boasted plug and play capability and all the toys I could ever need. The main feature that attracted me to it was the fact that it ran on the Android OS.

The unit arrived by EPS and it was pretty much plug and play as advertised. It looks like factory fit, the steering wheel controls work and even the information centre in the dash works!

Next step was to see if the GPS would work. As I suspected the pre installed software call iGO didn't have maps for the DR, so I kept looking. As the unit came with both a wifi dongle and a 3g dongle, I connected the wifi dongle and tethered it to my iPhone. I now had full access to the Google Play store. I first downloaded Googlemaps, which works very well, but you need a constant data connection and the display wasn't to my liking. It doesn't switch to night mode and the user interface isn't that intuitive. Next I tried an app call "Offline Maps" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.aponia.bor3.offlinemaps&hl=en

This app is amazing......and completely free! The user interface is just like something from Garmin or TomTom. You can select from a number of voices and languages and best of all you can download the latest map of any country which is stored on the device. So far it's the best offline GPS solution I've found for the DR. The Points of Interest (POIs) are very accurate and up-to-date. All the roads I have driven on mainly up on the North Coast are featured and accurate.

So I am one very happy customer!

I didn't realise that these manufacturers of aftermarket head units are incorporating Android OS in them. But it's a fantastic addition and now it means I have a tablet in my car, which does far more than just play merengue and bachata!

Here's the link from where I bought mine Seicane - Global Online Shopping for Car DVD Player Radio Nav,Car Accessories
 

beeza

Silver
Nov 2, 2006
3,480
731
113
I forgot to add that when I ordered it, I politely asked them to include an invoice inside the package that showed a purchase price of $190.

They did that without any problems and I ended up shipping it here via EPS without any glitches or customs to pay!!!!