Premium Telephone Kit & Nokia 6500S

[steveast]

July update:
Over the past few months I've been corresponding with Nokia Europe (they are very slow at replying).
Having told them about the Nokia badged box under the driver's seat etc, this is the opening of their latest reply:

Dear Steve,

Thank you for contacting Nokia Care.

With regard to your email, I would not be able to confirm compatibility with third party hardware. As the VW Passat car kit is not manufactured by Nokia, I suggest that you speak to your VW Passat dealership or car kit installer to find out if any Nokia phones are fullly compatible with your car kit.
!!!

I am just about to reply & let them know that it WAS manufactured by Nokia & that my 'car kit installer' was the VW factory in Germany.
As for my VW dealership, they know NOTHING about the Premium Car Kit (PCK) mainly because they have never had one fitted - they always recommend the Parrot system. After drawing a blank with VW and Nokia, I can agree with this view. The Parrot costs a fraction of the PCK, doesn't require a multi-function steering wheel and actually WORKS!

[steveast]

Latest reply from NokiaCare - note comment about latest phones:

Dear Steve,

I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. The Nokia Car Integration product for Volkswagen Passat is compatible with the following Nokia phones:

Nokia 3100
Nokia 6020
Nokia 6021
Nokia 6100
Nokia 6230
Nokia 6230i
Nokia 6310i
Nokia 6820
Nokia 6822

You may refer to the following link for more information:

http://europe.nokia.com/A4405065

However, the car kit is not designed to be compatible with the latest Nokia phone models.

Help Nokia improve the service we offer you! To take part in our short confidential survey, please click on the link below.
http://digiumenterprise.com/answer/?...9&chk=FUMSE62K

Keep your phone software up-to-date by using the Nokia Software Updater. For more details visit Nokia Support and Software at http://www.nokia.co.uk/support or http://www.nokia.ie/support. You can also go online to find user guides, troubleshooting support and other services to help you use your Nokia product.

This response has been given based on the information you have provided us. The response is provided for general information purposes only. It is intended, but not promised or guaranteed to be accurate or complete, and it does not constitute any binding commitment.

To ensure proper handling, please continue to use the current subject line.

Please don't hesitate to contact us again if you have any further questions.

Yours sincerely,

Dana
Nokia Service Professional
UK & Ireland Team
Nokia Care

-----Original Message-----

Subject: Nokia - Steve Eastman - Car Kit Compatibility

Evelyn

This process is VERY difficult because my emails are answered by different people each time. As someone else will answer this one, let me outline the position:

NOBODY at NokiaCare, Nokia - accredited installers, VW, VW local dealers or any other part of EITHER organsiation can tell me for certain which Nokia (or any other make) phone will connect to the FACTORY-FITTED system in my VW. VW have only confirmed that it was designed and manufactured Nokia and tell me to contact Nokia.

So, here I am months later and STILL trying to obtain an answer to this simple question: Which phones are designed to work with the system you have designed for factory installation into VW cars?

As it is a factory-fitted option, local installers know NOTHING about it!!

Pease ask someone at NOKIA HQ which phones will work with the VW Premier Car Kit designed & manufactured by NOKIA.

Looking forward to an answer to this question.

Stephen

[Teflon]

Don't expect a fat lot from Nokia. They are a gigantic firm, with the usual dipsticks and university drop-outs answering technical EMails. Also, although the box in the car says Nokia on it, there is a suggestion that it is badge-engineered and the kit is actually knocked out by a German firm, who I've tried to contact but without success.

The list of compatible phones you got from Nokia is different to the one I got from them, which in turn is different to the two lists I got from VW. Even worse, all 4 lists say the old 6230i works; I've tried 3 of them and one refused to play ball because it has the wrong software version. There's a long list of phones on Wikipedia (in German), but I've tried a selection of these and none work. So in the end, it's just a lottery.

Bottom line is that VW is charging the best part of £600 for an over complicated piece of kit that doesn't work with 95% of the phones available on the market today. There must be a law against this somewhere.

[Moth70]

I'm not convinced by the reply from Nokia about the car kit not working with the latest phones.

As I've posted before, I've now tried the 6300, 6500c, 6500s and E61 - all unlocked handsets - and all of them worked perfectly. Also, some people seem to have used the N95 successfully too.

All of these phones, with the exception of the E61, are current models - much newer than the old models on the official list.

I suspect that nobody from Nokia or VW has actually tested the more recent phones - in other words, they are not maintaining the list.

[Teflon]

Tried an (older) N95. It didn't work. It's a shambles mate.

I suspect that the 6300 and 6500 both work, but it hardly qualifies as an extensive list. Anyone not in the Nolia camp is stuffed.

Scandalous, if you ask me.