97-01 Q45 Hands Free Adapter for Stock Bose

[tfvesquire]

Hi All:

So far all is well with my 98 Q at 110K miles. For those of you who have followed my posts since I purchased it a few years back, I appreciate your information and support. My salvage yard engine is purring like a kitten with no ticking and running on 5w30 full Synthetic Lubro Moly -- Yeah!! Also, for those of you who have been trying to nurse your worn out steering rack with additives like Lucas, I suggest you bite the bullet and try replacing it. It made a world of differencewhen I swapped out my worn out unit with the overall driving and handling of the car. And the best thing, no leaks in my driveway any more. Anywhoo, let me get back to my reason for posting.....

This coming January in Illinois, the State is seeking to pass new laws on the use of handheld devices in vehicles. The original law was designed to catch those drivers who were texting and messing with their phones while driving. Those drivers, when pulled over, would usually tell the officer they were just looking at their GPS for directions or would even resort to checking email and texting only at lights, while stopped. The result was that too many tickets were getting dismissed or thrown out because the officer could not always prove the driver was texting or reading emails instead of keeping their eyes on the road while the vehicle was moving.

The solution? Pass a new law that anyone caught with the phone IN THEIR HANDS while operating their vehicle gets an automatic ticket. I used to use the speakerphone on my Iphone to talk to people while driving and only looked at my phone at a red light. Now, I need to look into getting something hands free that I can tune into my factory Bose stereo to talk. Would prefer to keep the stock Bose stereo if I can, but I wouldn't mind also upgrading my factory stereo for a flip out screen with Bluetooth, IPOD synch and GPS built in. Does anyone on here know if there is an adaptor for the stock Bose in my Q that I can at least add on the handsfree feature and listen and talk thru the car's speakers?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Not looking to spend a lot of money adding onto the Bose if it would be cheaper upgrading the entire stereo and getting the upgrades I want. BTW, the only thing I have done is upgrade my 98 stereo with a newer Bose version from a 2001 Anniversary Edition Q. Same plug ins in the back, just more updated LCD display. I believe the only option is to find something that would plug into the CD Changer harness plug and operate the handsfree on the CD Changer "channel"? If there is such a thing on my stereo.

Thanks!!

Ted, Chicago

[BadQ45t]

You can buy a unit that has all of those features from Alpine, Sony etc. You can find a double-din unit that incorporates the blue tooth, GPS, etc into one unit. They are not cheap, will cost you a grand, I have looked at doing it and just opted for a high quality Plantronics blue tooth ear piece that sounds excellent and is totally legal. You can do hands free dialing with the blue tooth too easily with the Plantronics or other blue tooth products. That is the cheap way of doing it and frankly higher quality than doing the whole built in thing. that said I would love to drop a grand on an Alpine or similar unit and modernize my Q but I just don't want to mess with it. The stereo still plays CD's fine and I only use car to commute not to take long trips anymore.

[Wiggler]

why would you drop all that dough for kit into a car that is 15 years old, just for a nav system in a dash unit?? The portability and price of the dashmount/windshield TomTom/Garmin/Magellan units just cannot be beat!! A decent sounding Bluetooth headunit, with Satellite radio capability for long trips, can easily be had for $150 or less....

[Q451990]

For $15 I think I'd start with something like the Motorola T215 Bluetooth speakerphone from eBay or Amazon. In fact I may order one just to give it a try. I've used the ear bud Bluetooth stuff in the past, and haven't been overly happy with it.



Heath

[BadQ45t]

Well I don't disagree about dropping 1k into an old car....but it would do wonders on the car. If I still took my Q on long drives I would have bought one already.
If you have not tried a Plantronics Pro Voyager then you have not tried the best blue tooth headset, it is an amazing unit that has noise cancellation....it does a great job, try one.

[tfvesquire]

UPDATE:

After much debate and research, I have decided to try out the Jabra Cruiser II visor mounted hands free unit instead of the comparable Motorola unit. They are relatively cheap and I even found a few lightly used units available locally being sold by people who bought newer cars with a fully integrated Bluetooth system installed.
I wil post back with my overall opinion as to the quality of the sound, ease of use and reliability when using it on the road and especially downtown Chicago amid all the competing wireless signals.

Ted V.

[Q451990]

Please do let us know... I haven't bought one yet, but I need to.

Heath

[tfvesquire]

** Jabra Cruiser 2 Handsfree Update **

Well, I finally installed these units in my car and my wife's car (2005 Hyundai) and tested them in town and downtown Chicago. So far, I am very pleased with the ease of use and the quality of the speaker feedback as far as the phone useis concerned. I did try to switch it to run the feedback thru the car's speakers, but it places the other person's voice down by your feet in the front and the sounds goes too low. I don't have any stored music in my new Samsung Galaxy 4 phone, so I haven't tried to play any music thru the car's speakers.

Synching the phone and the Jabra unit was a breeze and it tells you what number is calling and even reads you a text message (very cool). I haven't figured out how to get the unit to recognize the caller's name, but there may be a setting on my phone I have to switch on. For now, I have a unit that keeps me and my wife from getting a ticket and it actually works.

I was able to get a good deal on these units thru Amazon. They were new in the original box with all the original accessories and instructions for $50 each. Normally they sell anywhere from $75-90 brand new. I even used my Amazon Visa points and got the price including shipping to only $43 each. From what I could tell, unless you dropped one of these from way up, stepped on it or submerged it in a cup of water, they look pretty indestructable so buying one lightly used from someone who is looking to upgrade or who just purchased a new car with a built in Bluetooth unit should be fine. The internet has plently of these units available for as little as $30 so what have you got to lose?

Any other questions, just shoot me an email and I will answer whatever I can.

Ted