dontpannic Posted September 20, 2019 Report Share Posted September 20, 2019 I'm not even talking airbox fouling - you need cages and bracketry which will cost you at least £100 on top of the cost of whatever double din unit you have. The Sony XAV series is a full depth, half height unit which in theory should be perfect for the E46 and you either need to fabricate your own bracketry, or purchase a kit from the States which doubles the cost when you include shipping and turns parts of your dash into non-matching cheap plastic. I really wish it was simple and cheaper to fit a double din stereo into an E46, I really do. Incidentally my horrible, unreliable, cheap, crap Android unit is still working 3 years on. I just bought a USB dongle to enable CarPlay on it and it works seamlessly. I have OEM-ish looks and CarPlay for a total of £230. Alright the inbuilt amp isn't fantastic and the bluetooth A2DP quality is garbage, but its a solution that works. The Harman Kardon setup sorts out a bit of the SQ issues anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontpannic Posted March 6, 2020 Report Share Posted March 6, 2020 Haha. Well, incidentally, I have a bit of an update... So it looks like that previous post of mine in this thread was the catalyst, and as I was driving around some time before Christmas the Android unit went up in smoke - literally. I ran with a standard radio with aux and bluetooth for calls for a while until I started to miss CarPlay. I was absolutely convinced that I wasn't going to spend £700-£1000 for the Alpine specific fit headunit, as IMO that pricing is ridiculous. I ended up with a Sony XAV-AX3005DB and my total costs for fitting are: Sony XAV-AX3005DB -> £295 Enfig RMK-E46-XAV -> $49.99 (£39) Connects2 CTSONYLEAD -> £2.99 (I was able to re-use the 17-Pin -> ISO wiring harness and SWC from a previous Alpine single DIN radio, I just needed the fitting kit and Sony compatible patch lead.) I spent a little extra to get complete functionality of the unit: Enfig MIC-BM1 -> $29.99 (£23.50) Eightwood EWAN146UK -> £28.99 So my total project cost is £389 for a fully operational double DIN headunit with reverse camera, carplay, android auto, DAB etc. I still wonder how Alpine can justify their cost. momo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
