Pioneer AVIC in my 996!

Well it all started when my daughter gave me her old iPod Mini at Christmas, and I started looking around for a holder. Scouser made the comment that my dashboard was looking a bit cluttered, what with the phone, TomTom, Origin b2, etc all hanging from various brackets. Power supplies had to be swapped around depending on what I was using, so I decided to look for a better solution "" and found it in the Pioneer AVIC-HD1BT. I had intended to fit it myself, so started shopping around and found the best price I could at www.audio66.co.uk in Crawley. The guy on the other end of the phone said "1998 Porsche 911? No problem "" we'll have to move the aircon controls to the bottom slot". Clearly, they knew what they were doing. Fitting (or shipping) was free, so I though I might as well take advantage of that. However, I did move the aircon panel myself the night before, when I took out all the other junk that had accumulated over the years. I've only had it for a day, but I have to say it is totally brilliant! It features SatNav with TMC, Tuner, DVD video, Bluetooth phone connection, iPod connection (extra), speed camera database (also extra), hard disk drive (rips audio CDs to a music library), and is voice activated. There may be other features, but I'm still learning "" the operator's manual is 200 pages long! The only slight snag was that the unit left a gap at the top, but I made up a blanking trim with the old aircon surround. (PCM has a different "˜horseshoe' moulding which takes up the gap). Here are some photos: ​ ​ ​ ​ Cost was £1700 for the unit, £45 for the iPod adapter, £39 for the camera database, and an extra £35 for fitting (as it took about 4 hours). I'm chuffed to bits with it! ​ ​

good job, an increasingly popular upgrade

Very nice; this is the sort of devices Porsches should be giving as an option. Does it grab any vechicle data from the internal bus; think the MOST bus systems came around the facelift time...apparently passes on all the on-board computer data. Did you slip in a fiver so the DVD is on all the time and not when the handbrake is up? [ ]

Mine's a 98 car, so no MOST bus. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, and I'm not sure it would integrate anyway. Not having it certainly made the installation more straightforward. No fiver required - they did it without asking. [ ][ ]

That's nice!

Stunning Richard! So much better than PCM. A very good buy...[ ]

That does look very good....anyone know if a 2003 can integrate through the MOST bus system as that may just persuade me down a similar route. Was it easy to fabricate a trim piece to blank off the gap at the top.

With a 2003 you have cupholders at the top, and you wouldn't have a gap. I don't think the AVIC would integrate with the MOST bus to get vehicle data. They did ask me if I had Bose, because an adapter lead of some sort would be necessary. The trim piece was fabricated entirely from the original aircon trim.

Wow, I am waiting on Pioneer to update to full coverage for Ireland before buying this unit, and have read many reviews and install notes on it going in the 996, nice one Richard, I too was worried about the additional trim required, looks like its just the top needed trim on yours Richard, are you running it on the existing stock speakers and if how does it compare to the Becker Unit?>

To make an absolutely perfect job on a non-facelift car you would need to buy the 'horseshoe' panel that was used with PCM, which would give a proper double-DIN opening, as Porsche don't make a filler trim for the top. I haven't priced this up, but the fabricated trim looks fine. Previously I had an Alpine stereo, so there isn't any noticable difference in sound quality, although the AVIC has quite a nice equaliser that you can customise to suit. I am using the standard (cr*ppy) Nokia speakers, but plan to upgrade them in the future. Does anyone know of a direct replacement speaker for the dash and rear? I don't want to be mucking about with separate treeters and that crossover malarky. I have seen some really nice Morel co-axial speakers which are designed for the 986/996, but at £400+ per pair I think I'll give them a miss!

Hi. Im joint owner of Surrey Car Radio. Give us a call and we can put a system together to suit your budget. We can supply and fit or just supply to you. Our number is: 01276 24415. Thanks Steve.

I didn't get the TV tuner (it's an optional extra) but it does play DVD video. I also didn't get the reverse camera - just a bit OTT for me.

That looks outstanding Rich... I'm currently toying with the idea of replacing my existing system...

Hi, I am looking into getting this for my 2003 C4S but as it has the dreaded MOST technology I have been informed this is not possible. Can any one here with car audio knowledge please confirm. Regards alan.

Give Road Radio (Audio66.co.uk) in Crawley a call "" they fitted mine. The chap to speak to is Steve (01293 533612). I just spoke to him about speakers, and he said there wouldn't be any problem to fit an AVIC to a later model 996.

Just checked out the demo video on the pioneer website, this is serious kit and I really like the idea of the hard drive to record CD's. £1700 is a bit steep but I would hope you would get a fair chunk of this investment back on resale given the lower residuals offered for non PCM cars. Although could go the other way due to non standard porsche parts which would be a shame as this kit is undoubtedly far superior to the standard ? And I suppose if you have kept your head unit you could reverse the process and 4 hours later everything could be back to standard in any case. I tried to do something similar a couple of years back but kept finding a brick wall as I have the BOSE system, so the shops comments on an adaptor are very interesting. Richard the only experience I have with blue tooth telephone is in my dad's range rover. The system used to make it's own telephone calls but this is now sorted after numerous software updates. Although the sound quality is not too bad when you are in the car, for the unlucky person who is talking to my dad (and not just because he's grumpy) it's shockingly bad due to the amount of echo. What's your experience with the AVIC on this point ?

I haven't had any problems with the phone speech quality, or any comments from people I have called. It seems to be as good as the hardwired Nokia car kit I had installed previously. Once you get to grips with it the voice command feature is really useful for dialling favourites. Just press the voice command button and say "Call - Home" and it dials home for me. It is surprisingly good at recognising numbers when you speak them. Everything works together so brilliantly, and that's what I like about it. I just need to get those speakers sorted........

Hi Richard, How is the car info quality. I notice on the Avic demo video it will give aceleration readings, some digital dials for info etc. Is this really more a boy racer toy or useful telemetry?? Regards Alan.

Hi Alan I haven't played with the Vehicle Dynamics mode, so I can't really say. I suppost it might be fun to have to measure performance on track days. I've attached the instruction page for the Vehicle Dynamics setup, so you can see what you can do. You can download all the manuals from the Pioneer web site (about 15Mb for all of them). I did this before I decided to buy it, as it told me pretty much everything I needed to know, but there is so much you can do it's a bit mind-boggling at first. Although the menu system is fairly straightforward and logical, I'm not sure I would recommend it to a technophobe. I've only had it a week, but I'm still getting used to it and finding things that I didn't know were there! BTW, I also got the Speed Camera Database from Teleatlas that is specifically written for the AVIC. To be perfectly honest it isn't as good as having the Origin b2, but it does give plenty of warning of fixed cameras, so is adequate. It was an extra £39 for a year's subscription. Once registered with Pioneer, they issue updates for the Gracenote Database (the music title database used when ripping CD's to the HDD) on a regular basis, and are free.

Thanks Richard, certainly looks a bit more useful than I thought. Looks as if I will be going down this route. However still looking into the warranty issue. As I stated on another thread the Audio installer I have contacted stated that if I have it installed Porsche will not honour the warranty period. What makes it more ironic is they actually are contracted to do audio retrofittng work for Porsche. Regards Alan.

I'm not sure how well qualified an audio installer would be to know the ins and outs of the Porsche warranty (unless they have asked, or voided someone's, I suppose). I would ask your OPC and get it straight from the horse's mouth. I think it would be quite unreasonable for them to void the warranty completely. If they said that they would no longer cover the amp and speakers, that's perfectly understandable, but how could an aftermarket stereo affect the engine, for example?

we're going back quite a few years now Richard, but I had Infinity 6x9's speakers fitted to the doors (same position as the BOSE speakers) of my Boxster. Had a Kenwood amp to drive them (which is a must if you really want a difference) located near the spare wheel at the front and let the head unit still power the speakers on the dash controllable between the two via the fadder settings on the head unit. It cost me about £350 fitted from a radio specialist and the sound was fantastic and powerful, even at 100mph with the roof down. If I'm honest probably a better sound than what I have now with the full BOSE system! The guy who bought the car off me was delighted when he heard the output as the other cars he had been looking at just had the original sound system which he thought was woeful. Go for it

Hi richard Am going to attempt to install one of these myself....do you know how to bypass the handbrake on limiter than prevents watching DVDs on the go (not for me of course) and also am I right that the nav doesn;t work unless you are stationary - is there a way to disable this - I ve had the problem with factory fit Nav units and its very annoying!?? thanks Alex

As you know, I took advantage of a free fitting offer, so I didn't do the job myself. However, they did bypass the handbrake switch somehow (not sure if by a permanent feed, or permanent ground), so my passengers could watch DVD's on the go. For anyone else who is interested, I notice that Road Radio have recently reduced their price to £1589, inc VAT & fitting.