Bluetooth adapter for cars, do you have one and does it work ??

[Bill Huber]

I have a Honda CRV and it does not have bluetooth, we just did not see the need when we bought the car. Now both the wife and myself have smartphones and am looking at getting a bluetooth adapter to use in the car.

There are a ton of them out there and some need power and some have a battery, one does this and another does something else, just don't know which one is better or what I really need to be looking for.

Right now I am looking at the Motorola, Roadster 2, all self-contained and has no wires to run anywhere, I guess it is called a speaker phone. I am not worried about playing music though it just the phone part and the ease of use.

So who has any of the bluetooth adapters and which one is the best.

What should I be looking for?

[Eric DeSilva]

I use a Belkin aircast like this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/belkin-aircast-wireless-bluetooth-car-hands-free-kit-usb-black/1307777565.p?id=mp1307777565&skuId=1307777565&st=c ategoryid$pcmcat165900050048&cp=1&lp=2#tab=buyingO ptions

But that doesn't strike me as being what you need--mine is plugged into the AUX of my headunit and I like the fact that it is all hidden away. That said, I've used other ones in the past and I can give you my impression... First, the battery operated ones never seem to have juice when you need them too. You might think about one that can be plugged into a cigarette light adapter if need be, even if you don't want it plugged in 24/7. Second, think about where the mic is going to end up--if the device ends up with the mic down by the gearshift, I'm not sure how well it is going to work if you aren't pointing your head that direction. Similarly, I had a mic positioned on my dash for a while, but it picked up a lot of ambient noise from the vents that make it sort of problematic. Good luck.

[Larry Browning]

My experience has not been good with aftermarket bluetooth devices. The only ones that has been workable for me and my wife are the ones that are built into the radio. I currently am driving a 2012 Hyundai Elantra with bluetooth built in and it works great! I hear the newer cars work even better. I previously had a Kia Rio that had an aftermarket radio with bluetooth built in that worked OK, but not nearly as well as the Hyundai does.
My wife drives a 2008 Toyota RAV4, she is severely hearing impaired, so I got her one that clipped to the sun visor and had gotten rave reviews (I don't remember what brand or model). It never worked very well and was always a hassle to use, it had to be recharged fairly often so she had to bring it into the house to do that and she was always forgetting to do that and it was dead most of the time. It had a feature that would auto connect to the phone when you got in the car that was activated by motion. The garage is very close to the kitchen and the phone wouldn't release for several minutes after she came in the house. This caused her to miss calls and generally cause trouble. The sound was terrible, and on and on. It caused more trouble and inconvenience than it ever solved. We decided that the only way bluetooth would work for us was if it were built into the cars sound system.
Now that was a few years ago, and maybe the technology has improved, but we found the aftermarket devices a real waste of money.

[Rich Enders]

Bill,

My vehicle is an '03 which came set up with a hands free system incorporating a Motorola flip phone that slipped into a cradle in the center divider. Some years later I moved to a smart phone and purchased a Motorola Bluetooth unit which fits in where the flip phone used to go. As part of the original hands free package the car was already wired for a microphone and speakers.

The first time around you will have to "pair" your new phone with the Bluetooth unit, but after that the two will "connect" whenever the phone is nearby, and the Bluetooth option is "On".

I went with Motorola because it was the easy option, but I have to say it has been flawless. Cell phone service however is another thing entirely.

[Larry Browning]

I did a little research on Amazon and the one we have is the Jabra Freeway, which looks to be the same type of device as the Motorola Roadster. My opinion is that even if the Motorola is twice as good, it is still not going to work very well. I am remembering a little more about my research on these things now. The reason we went with the Jabra is that it was supposed to have "crisp, clear sound" and the reviews said some of the same things. It was just junk! The sound was just awful, and the connection problems made it such a hassle to use. It just seemed like a gimmick product.
I noticed that the Motorola gets about the same 4 stars as the Jabra, so if the two units are pretty comparable then I would say run, don't walk away!

Also, keep in mind that if the vehicle is parked close to the house, the device won't release the phone for several minutes even when you exit the car. Or if you are out and about and park the car close to wherever you are going it will do the same thing. About the only way around this is to turn the device on when you get in the car and off when you leave. My wife did this for a week or two when she first got it, but then she would forget to turn it on when she got in the car or it wouldn't be charged. Then when it was charged and connected, most of the conversations went this way. "hello"..... "What??, I didn't understand you, speak slowly..." "Wait, let me turn off this %#? speaker thing, so I can hear you!" The ones built into the car's sound system don't have these problem.

[Eric DeSilva]

I get great audio from my aftermarket BT product. Factory or dealer installed BT obviously has some significant advantages--those systems can use mics that are optimized for the car interior and they typically use the car's audio system for received audio--it is pretty hard to match that in an aftermarket product that has size and installation limitations. You might look into whether you can get your dealer to install the factory BT now, or whether there is an OEM kit that you could install yourself. That may be more expensive, however.

Barring that, systems like the one I have can address some of the inherent limitations. Mine is hardwired into an AUX port in my car, so it actually does use the car's audio system for inbound audio. It also allows me to play music off my phone while driving, which is my more common use. I'm basically an audiophile, so the fact that I find it tolerable speaks pretty well for the fidelity of the audio playback for the system. The second limitation is mic placement--but you can experiment a bit and find spots that work. My system is pretty much driver-only, but I can live with that. The downside of a system like mine is that it takes a little more work to install. I ended up having to buy an OEM AUX input kit from the dealer for my stereo headunit (oddly, it only cost me like $10, so that has to be the cheapest BMW OEM part ever). I also had to pull some body panels to route the wires--my wiring goes into my glove box, where I installed a cigarette lighter multi-plug wired into a spare fuse block. I also installed a Pro-Fit vehicle specific mount and a iPhone 5-specific charging cradle that get wired back to the glove box as well. I can drop my phone in the cradle, have it charge, and play/make calls via BT. It works fine for me, and I haven't used any factory systems that I think are better.

[Larry Browning]

I think what Eric described would solve the problems I have described and would probably be workable. Sounds like it will require a bit of installation, but it might be worth it.

[Roger Feeley]

I work for Frontline Test Equipment, a maker of Bluetooth protocol analyzers. A lucrative side business for us is Interoperability Testing. Manufacturers send us their prototypes and we test them against our library of over 3,000 Bluetooth devices. We report back to the customer how well they did. Depending on what the customer wants, we evaluate pretty much anything. Of course we look at basic pairing and communication. But we can also evaluate the quality of sound by presenting a reference wav file to one device and comparing it to what comes spitting out the other device.

All of that was a very long winded way to say that it depends. All devices certified by the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) must work together. But some combinations work better than others.

My advice is to try it before you buy it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bill,

My Garmin GPS that I bought at Costco has Bluetooth built into it. We use it when on the road for travel.

[Bill Huber]

Thanks for all the info, I guess I will just keep looking and reading.

I think one of the things I really like is not having to wire it in but then you have the problem of charging,,, Maybe I just need to get a new car.

[Eric DeSilva]

I just did a little googling, ask your dealer about whether they can install "Bluetooth HandsFreeLink" in your car as a retrofit. I gather it is available as a dealer installed mod on a lot CR-V model, but it may depend upon your trim level. If it is dealer installed, it will be pretty seamless. But it will also be expensive (although not as expensive as a new car).

[Curt Harms]

We have an Alpine box with bluetooth built in. It seems to work quite well. I have a Pioneer GPS with bluetooth and while it's usable the audio quality isn't good. That may be because the Pioneer unit is intended to be wired into the vehicle's audio system, I didn't I just use it as a portable device.

[Larry Browning]

Bill, I know you said you were not interested in the music feature at all, but maybe your best option might be to find a good aftermarket replacement radio that has the bluetooth feature in it. I know that Best Buy sells several models with that feature and they also will install it for you as well. You might want to do a little research on going that route. It will definitely cost a bit more than the stand alone units, but I think you could get it done for $150 or so. I had one of those units installed in a Kia Rio and the bluetooth was workable, but not quite as good as the factory unit in my Hyundai.

It just occurred to me that another option might be a bluetooth headset rather than the speaker setup. The good ones work really well. That would have the added feature of being able to use it outside the car. Of course it has it's drawback too, like the likelihood of loosing the thing and touting it around with you all the time, and of course the whole geekyness thing of how it looks when you are wearing it. That one never much bothered me cause I am sort of geeky looking anyway.

[Jim Becker]

Before I had integrated Bluetooth in my vehicle, I used add-in Bluetooth hands-free devices. They were all by Blue Ant and worked well.

[Curt Harms]

Before I had integrated Bluetooth in my vehicle, I used add-in Bluetooth hands-free devices. They were all by Blue Ant and worked well.

The Blue Ant devices do work pretty well. The advantage to me with built-in is that it mutes the music automatically when using the phone and no concern about battery state/charging cables.