Bluetooth Integration for Car Audio on older cars

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Bluetooth Integration for Car Audio on older cars

Postby Wedgie » Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:32 am

One of my latest projects for my car since my missus got her new car and I got mine back was finding a decent audio solution as I solely use spotify these days to listen to music. My mazda 6 is 15 years old so has the stock standard radio/6 stacker cd/mp3 options. An FM Bluetooth transmitter was not an option as they sound terrible and look ordinary. There is also is no Aux in and that looks ugly in use anyway. (Plus most new phones don't have aux out)

Considered getting a whole new system which includes full hd screen, digital radio, navigation, etc but when I priced it up it was going to be $600 for a new fascia, around $900 for the unit I was looking at and $300 for installation. A bit pricy considering I travel 5 mins to work atm. Having said that if someone does want to go for this option I highly recommend 360 Car Audio at Marion, after some investigation I found this the best place in town, Nafe does some amazing work and is great to chat to, check out 360 Audio on facebok.

After some more investigation I found a place interstate called Cushie Audio that sells units for diffetent brands of cars called Groms. Just plug your car make/model/year into their website and it tells you which unit you need. I purchased one of these for about $250 and paid a little extra for a aux cable out and usb charger which sit in my glovebox ready for use.
Got it delivered in 4 days, installed it in less than 20 mins. No need to take the interior apart, just had to remove the glovebox and insert a cable into the back of the existing audio unit. Pushed it away all neat so its hidden.

Turned the ignition on, paired my phone on bluetooth to "Grom Radio", put my audio system into CD mode and voila, top quality spotify through my existing speakers with full control from my steering wheel controls, the existing system or the phone. Also comes with a microphone with a long cord that easily attaches which allows you to make calls, use Google/Alexa/Sirri, etc. I might hide this somewhere eventually but didn't bother as just after decent music at this stage.

Highly recommend this option for people in the same boat as me and wish someone had put me onto it years ago! There are some other similar options to Grom but didn't seem as good especially for what was available from an Australian seller.
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