Review of Premium Bluetooth and RCD510

[Garethdvjones]

RDC510 Bluetooth Option

I have had my new Passat CC for a week now, I went for the Bluetooth phone option, and I am very glad that I did!

Firstly, looking around before I ordered the car I couldn't find a compatibility chart for love nor money! I have a Blackberry Storm, and a Nokia E90, both handsets work with really well! The Nokia was easier to pair, the Blackberry took a while to pair, but once it did, again it worked fine!

I love the functionality of it, the RCD510 works brilliantly, you can view your entire contact list, search for a specific contact, setup 5 speed dials, last dialled, received and missed calls. You can even read text messages on it too! (only on the MFD, between the speed dials).

This bluetooth car kit differs from many others in that it uses a 'remote sim' system, effectively the phone becomes redundant when connected to the carkit. This is good and bad, in my opinion. The positive point is that the network signal is significantly better because it uses an antenna on the car and also all of the functionallity above. The only slight downside is that you cannot use the phone at all, so if i you want to browse the web, chack your old messages, emails etc, you cant. Although you can still view youre calendar. Minor points, overall i am very impressed with it!

[canke4]

I've got a Blackberry 8100 and can't seem to pair it to the car. How did you pair yours?

Also, can you have the media input for iPod with the 6 disc changer?

Cheers

[firefly2008]

I've got a Blackberry 8100 and can't seem to pair it to the car. How did you pair yours?

Also, can you have the media input for iPod with the 6 disc changer?

Cheers

I would hope that Garethdvjones can help ref the Blackberry. My old Nokia paired easy, following the book instructions. There was a moment of panic when it asked for a code, but that is a bit of a 'curve ball' as I thinks it is a nice to have. Again read the book well first.

The unit does have a history (certainly within these forums) of being choosey as to who or what it pairs with. Hopefully you will get some help from others, or take it to VW and see if they can do it... you have given them enough money already!! I am about to get a new PDA for work and am dreading the outcome of syncing it...

as for MDI, I have the 6 disc head unit (I think the 510 is standard as 6-disc) and you can select either a CD from those inserted or swap to 'media' and play your Ipod, MP3 player or memory stick. the connection suitability is determined by the connection lead you select. again consult a knowing dealer... I now have 5000 tracks in the car! Once you have made playlists on your pc and import them to the ipod, it makes selections easy (although the daft thing always seems to return to playing by artist name ). You can chose to play by artist, alphabetical track, playlist or random. Oh, and it will charge too. brilliant bit of kit. And sounds great thro the standard speakers, so personally I wouldnt spend loads on the up-grade. If you must spend more I reckon a specialist audio shop will do you at least as good up-grade for less money. but that is a personal choice

Good luck with the Blackberry

[canke4]

Thanks for the info.

My car is in for warranty work today so I'll ask the dealer.

[jcb]

we have this unit with SAT NAV in our skoda superb. its a really nice unit. the advantage of the sat nav version is that it is hard drive based and you get 18GB spare to put your music on. The only watch out is that on the sat nav version the firmware is different and it only supposrt SD cards not SDHC. but then you dont need the SD slot often as you have the 18GB of inbuilt storage. you also get the ability to play DVDs (not whilst moving though !). this gives the added bonus that you can play MP3 files from DVD and it will take dual layer DVDS so you can upload all your MP3's via a DVD. You can also extended the storage capacity by leaving a DVD in the slot with music on it (sat nav runs from the hard drive so you dont need the DVD slot !)

[andyduz]

Hi Folks, looking on the pricelist for the Passat CC, it suggests the RCD510 is not compatible with the Media Interface for ipod. Could anyone confirm otherwise as I suspect it may refer to older models of the RCD510?
Many thanks.

[kiforrest]

it only supposrt SD cards not SDHC. but then you dont need the SD slot often as you have the 18GB of inbuilt storage.

Latest firmware supports SDHC. I now have a nice 32Gb card nestling in there

[dustynoff]

RDC510 Bluetooth Option

I have had my new Passat CC for a week now, I went for the Bluetooth phone option, and I am very glad that I did!

Firstly, looking around before I ordered the car I couldn't find a compatibility chart for love nor money! I have a Blackberry Storm, and a Nokia E90, both handsets work with really well! The Nokia was easier to pair, the Blackberry took a while to pair, but once it did, again it worked fine!

I love the functionality of it, the RCD510 works brilliantly, you can view your entire contact list, search for a specific contact, setup 5 speed dials, last dialled, received and missed calls. You can even read text messages on it too! (only on the MFD, between the speed dials).

This bluetooth car kit differs from many others in that it uses a 'remote sim' system, effectively the phone becomes redundant when connected to the carkit. This is good and bad, in my opinion. The positive point is that the network signal is significantly better because it uses an antenna on the car and also all of the functionallity above. The only slight downside is that you cannot use the phone at all, so if i you want to browse the web, chack your old messages, emails etc, you cant. Although you can still view youre calendar. Minor points, overall i am very impressed with it!

Garethdvjones,
I have a BB Strom and having problem pairing it with the Car 510 bluetooth system, can you assist.
You mentioned that it was not a easy to pair with the BB but you managed to get it to work, how did you do it. Is there a something additional or a tweak that you have to do on the storm.

[SimonN]

Hi All,

First post on here but I've been registered for ages - 3 cars ago in fact - it's been a great help so many thanks.
I've worked something out which may be of help to someone, somewhere. Anyway - I've read on here, *somewhere - and of course I can't find it now to reply properly* , that people were having trouble shuffling an entire directory structure from the SD cards on the 510. They've only been able to shuffle an album or playlist. I've had my Passat CC for a couple of days now and this was bugging me too so I've had a play and found a solution:

The mix function will only look down a directory structure and not above. You must have something to play as a starting point so, if you put a single MP3 at the top level where you store all your artists folders (which in turn will contain albums and then tracks a further level down) then it works.
Start by selecting the top level track (better make it a favourite ) and hit the mix button and it'll shuffle everything below (assuming you've enable the shuffle sub directories option in the set up obviously)

Hope that helps whoever it was that had the problem and apologies if this isn't the right place to post it.

Simon.

[cityboy62]

First post on here as just taken delivery of passat estate highline 140ps cr dsg with premium bluetooth. Having searched here and elsewhere for compatible phones and also emailed VW, the usual suspects came up via the approved list. I also found a way of getting a download to my Nokia N95 which has made it compatible with the factory fit bluetooth!

It seems to do everything I expected and have yet to find it lacking in terms of the advertised functionality.

Edit - I have also just changed my phone to a Nokia N86 8MP and this works just fine too with the premium bluetooth.


Cityboy62