Team-BHP - My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner

I was a Blaupunkt fan. Their approach to making stereos were different to the Japanese. I wonder if these old units you've shown were made by Blaupunkt. They were stock radio fitment in Mercedes cars back in the day. The Indian cars got them too.

While I appreciate these new, cool looking stereos, I can never get enough pleasure of seeing and operating old Japanese made single din head units from the likes of Clarion, Pioneer and Kenwood. Japanese units had array of buttons that were all beautifully back lit (While not being intrusive) and looked like Christmas lights.

The car stereo today is all software. The head unit concept is slowly going away. Every car manufacturer run a piece of their own software or use a third party vendor to provide a solution. Everything revolves around supporting Apple and Google systems. Nice big touch screen displays have replaced tiny little buttons. Its a good thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashy (Post 4727614)

Hi, Very informative thread. I have a 2011 VW IPL edition whose HU is dated and currently prone to malfunctioning. The 340G looks quite appealing. Please share from where you have procured the HU (aliexpress?)

Thanks. Yes, the 340G is indeed quite appealing - both from fitment/looks and also from a user point of view.
I got the HU from a Mumbai VW accessory dealer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez (Post 4727688)

Any chance you could review these briefly?

Sure.
I got the seat covers from a dealer here in Pune - CarAx (link). They have a good collection in the store itself and if you want something online (for which they have a partnership with), they will procure it for you and get it installed/fixed as well.

As for the details of the new fabric seat cover, I got them primarily because the Vento's original seat covers had started staining quite frequently of late, and the stitching had started to show signs of wear and tear at few places.
Plus, my kiddo now wanted a fabric-type feel cover, as that material gives you a cozy feeling/touch when compared to a leather/leatherette material.

The covers are from the "Fresco" range of Elegant Autoretail, link to the entire collection.

Elegant claims that the fabric is breathable and spill/stain resistant too. There's a 1 year warranty included.

Underneath the fabric, there's a small yet firm layer of padded foam which provides good comfort.
Ofcourse, the seat covers are custom-built for various cars like Vento, City etc.

Here are a few pictures, some close shots and some others showing overall look and feel:-

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_172703.jpg

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_172543.jpg

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_172057.jpg

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_172034.jpg

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_171938.jpg

My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner-20200104_171813.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by amods (Post 4728121)

Looks great!
Could you please let me know if it can be fit in polo '15 model?

Yes, I think it can fit into the 2015 Polo. Mine is a 2015 Vento actually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachin_cs (Post 4728383)

Congratulations for the the RCD340G installation on your shadow blue vw.

Thanks, it's Night Blue :)

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Your ownership review was a confidence booster for me to pick a DSG

Thanks, I am humbled to read this :thumbs up

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It's been 10 months into the ownership and the odo stands at 23.5k in my Rapid. I wanted to ask that how has the DSG performed in these 75,000kms

Wow, 23.5k in 10 months is a very healthy odometer progress!

The DSG, for me in the last 75000 km, has been nothing but pure comfort and bliss! And with VW's move to provide support in terms of the Add-On warranty, future concerns are also taken care of, to a great extent.
I have recently put up a short summary of the 75000 km milestone update, here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nidhinsarath (Post 4729692)

I tried this on my rapid but it’s not working. What do you mean by soft and hard restart?

Soft restart = when you switch on the HU by pressing the Power knob just once.
Hard restart = when you switch on the HU by pressing the Power knob for a much longer time, for about 8-10 seconds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashy (Post 4729803)

Thank you. Request you to PM the co-oridnates of the dealer. Will be ship to Bangalore?

Sure, will send the details.
You may want to check with him directly for the shipping part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmridul (Post 4730451)

Thanks for the great write-up. It helped clearing a lot of questions I had about the HU.

Glad to be of help :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by vishy76 (Post 4726944)

Comprehensive review. Thanks a lot for sharing this one!

My Jetta comes with an RCD 300+ if the user manual is to be believed. I didn't find any pics of this HU on the internet to be honest. It misses out on a USB port and Bluetooth both, but does get an AUX in and SD card (both of which are redundant in today's era). To think that VW once offered this on a 19 lakh car is just :Frustrati

They have come a long way since then for sure. The RCD 340G is a very good step up even when compared to the RCD 510 the Jetta Highline and Passat came with originally.

The HU in my car is manufactured by Delphi IIRC. Had Chinese stickers over it when new. The RCD 510 was made by Bosch and the 330 and 340 series are made by Visteon. Aftermarket options of AliExpress also bring up names such as pumpkin too. Maybe some sort of an open source license for manufacturing this one?

Here's a pic of the HU in my car. Even the Vento had a Bluetooth and USB equipped HU back in 2014 when I bought the Jetta!

Attachment 1954594

Attachment 1954595

My Jetta has the same HU. Thinking of updating it with RSG 340G now.. in dire need of Bluetooth as my phone doesnt have a 3.5mm jack. :)
However the price ~18k seems to a bit high :Frustrati

Wow! That's a comprehensive review. Even though I don't own a VW car, that's still quite a lot of information that you have provided. It will surely be useful for VW owners out there.
The evolution of the car stereo has come a long way. While touch screens are all the more common these days, I feel nothing beats the user experience of a good tactile feedback of well designed buttons. And they are much more hardy too.

Off topic -A similar case which I observed - motorcycles these days come with a fully digital console, but I find them boring. Nothing beats the pleasure of watching the needles of a speedo and a rev counter working together!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshMachine (Post 4726566)

In summary, the GMaps feature on AndroidAuto gives you EVERYTHING that you want for, from a "conventional" GMaps feature on your phone.

And by far, the tenet of (real-time) NAVIGATE is perhaps the most useful and important tenet among all the tenets of AndroidAuto!

Speaking of tenets, for the ENTERTAIN bit, if one were to press the MEDIA button on the unit (with USB connected) and try using the "source" to play music via Bluetooth, then the unit won't allow you. It will remind you that the phone is already connected via AndroidAuto (and its best to utilize that!):-

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeKay (Post 4727157)

Glad I could be of help JoshMachine!

I think it’s a no brainer, honestly. Installing the 340G Plus in my Vento was the best decision I’ve made as far as making my driving experience better is concerned. The fact that these units are Compatible with all Polo based cars is amazing.

I had a question for you though - Have you tried using apple carplay? In my experience, using Apple carplay feels slightly smoother when I compare it to android auto. Does this depend on the phone’s processing power or is it just another case of Apple’s hardware+software integration?

For reference - I use Apple carplay regularly on my iPhone 7 Plus. And I’ve tried android auto using a oneplus 6T .

Guy, I was looking for something exactly like this. A good OEM like head unit for my Vento 1.6 TDI, which has a very basic factory installed unit currently. My main criteria are:

1. Good sound quality for listening music, which I guess should be decent as even the current basic system sound reasonable.

2. Google maps with Apple Car play. I’m an Apple user and single user of the car so.

3. Reverse cam feature. Need to have an option for that as would want to install a reverse cam too.

Also I have a few doubts:

a) can you play music, say from apple music etc., while using Gmaps simultaneously?

b) do we need to connect the phone to the system via a usb/lightening cable or can it work on Bluetooth?

c) have you installed better speakers with it, if yes which and how’s the performance?

d) lastly, I am from Mumbai and so where can I get this and if you can please share the price and total cost, would be great. Also were there any other options with this which you may have considered? Also is this OEM and made by VW itself?

Thanks a lot :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperSuri (Post 4819333)

Hello all,

Hope my message finds you well and safe from the Pandemic.

I also have the same system on my VW Ameo Highline Plus DSG. I have a thing for clean setup, hence was wondering is it possible to relocate the USB port to a better location like the inside of the glovebox? The front USB port and the phone's cable spoils the comfort of the car I feel.

Your updates would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Lots of options for OEM usb relocation converters are there in Aliexpress. However it will not be plug and play. You will need to open the head unit and solder the wire above the USB port. Please go through the wiring diagram below and colour match the wires to be soldered.