I'm in the process of buying a new Fit Sport, but I have a couple of questions -

I'm debating between Navi or no Navi, and it's primarily because of the other gadgets that I'd be using in the car over the Navi itself.

There's definitely a lot of complaints that the usb interface is painful to use with the ipod in the non-navi Fits. I suspect its a bit better on the navi ones (at least it did to me when I tested one) - especially if you have a large collection of music. Is the Navi that much better?

So, it seems to me the better solution would be to use the ipod through the AUX jack. Has anyone tried a mini to mini cable (ie 3.5mm jack to ipod speaker cable) vs a 3.5 mm to ipod doc cable?

I was curious which one would have better sound.

I'm also looking into picking up an XM receiver for the fit. Has anyone tried the Audiobox portable kits plugged into the AUX jack? Are there any problems with using one like that?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

I really don't see how the usb interface would be hard for anyone to figure out. I test drove an '09 w/o navi and had no problem figuring the navigation of my iPod out in about 10 minutes....its not rocket science, lol.

 

The only complaint that i can remember is that it takes a loooong time to scroll to the bottom of your artist list. there has been some complaints and confusion with using a flashdrive tho... files unreadable or lost.

welcome to the site!

 

I'm sorry. Let me clarify. What I've seen on this forum is that there are a lot of complaints that navigating through music on the ipod via the USB interface is very slow on non-Navi Fits. My experience in testing a Navi one was that it was better, but slow to read a large number of artists/albums off of the ipod.

I was not asking about how to plug in the ipod. I'm simply asking what people have found to be the best solution to using an ipod with the fit from a usabillity perspective.

 

playlists with groups of selected artist instead of artist scrolling? only thing i can think of off the top of my head. I dont recall reading any good solutions besides that. most just deal with it and listen to the abc's more than xyz's

 

For your XM question... I own an XMP3 by pioneer... i love it, one of my best purchases, now i cannot tell you how it sounds in the fit, i have a good receiver in my crx with 4 crappy speakers ant it sounds really good, although it seems like the volume is low, to solve the problem, TURN IT UP!!! oh and if u think about getting it, get the car kit from cuircit city ASAP... the car kit itself is $80, but if u can get one from CC right now they are $25

 

It seems that the iPod interface works much better on the Navi equipped cars.

 

The problem is the scrolling time. It shouldn't take any more than 2.5 seconds to scroll to Wilco but it takes about 1 minute.
This doesn't work. When you place songs into a play list the car sees it at separate songs; it is not separated by artist. For example, if I wanted both the Beatles and Wilco to be in one play list I would have to scroll through 240 songs to get to Wilco.

 

Even if you make a playlist on your comp, then sync the ipod? or does the car go straight to artist?

 

Regarding Sirius / XM - I bought the Starmate 5 which is compatible with both products. I used a Honda antenna adapter kit (any car audio place can get them) along with the Sirius FM direct adapter, so everything is wired behind the scenes. For power I used a fused link wired directly to the fuse box, and attached a 12V outlet, which is also mounted under the dash. No wires in sight, crystal clear signal, and matches the interior perfectly. Here are some pics:

 

Yep. If you make a playlist on your computer you can't go by artist, it goes straight to songs sorted by artist.

 

This is very clean.

 

MAN that looks good...love the placement. There are a couple of other mounting options I was considering: front quarter window using suction, passenger cupholder mount etc. but I like yours best, at least the passenger cup holder still seems to allow some function. Thanks for sharing!

 

i havent found the ipod scrolling to be THAT big of an inconvenience. i always put my songs into playlists rather than going through the artists in the first place, so if u put ur songs in a playlist u can get to ur songs quickly

 

I just load mine up with a playlist of my favorite songs (all types) and let it shuffle them. If something comes on you don't like (at that moment in time) just hit the skip button on the radio, done. I guess I just don't get into the car each day and want to hear any single particular song or artist.

 

The only bad thing about the Ipod/USB hook up in the 09 Sport, is if you happen to be in the "camp" that likes to surf through their songs/artist/album lists. It is slow at that, Nav or not. It works however.

I tend to pick a playlist or the entire music library on my Ipod to play in random mode. The Ipod hookup is great for me.

I like being able to hook up the Ipod and toss it in the glove box, and work it through the in-dash head unit vs. having it plugged in through the Aux jack. No dangling cords, jerry-rigging an Ipod mount so that the Ipod is in reach of the driver; nice and clean.

To me, the solution you should be seeking is not to spend $1800 for Nav but to spend some money replacing the stock head unit with one that does what you want it to, in terms of Ipod functionality/fast scrolling through playlists, ect...(if there is such an after market unit).

 

I just did this install today. Must have the remote for this one.

 

I like that. From where do you draw power?

 

I used a professional install kit called "SIRIUS SIR-PVK1"

You can get them from BestBuy or ebay.
I took this one out of my wrecked Accord.

 

I've got a Starmate 5 that I need to install. I've already got a dock mounted in my Corvette, doing the same in the Fit should be easier. This gives me a good idea of where to locate the dock.