The Leon Bluetooth Kit

[Robdrums]

Hi

Me again, with probably another confused sounding ramble, but could someone just confirm a few things for me please regarding the Bluetooth kit in the new Leon.

1) My drive in the new Civic highlighted a couple of problems with the idea of integrated Bluetooth. The Honda rep told me that due to legality you can't touch the handset while driving, meaning that in order to make a call, the number has to be stored in the car's internal memory, and that if any buttons are pressed on the handset, the call/connection is cut. Is this true of the Leon?
I plan to use the kit for both work and personal usage so it's not exactly practical to have to program everything into the car with every customer I might want to call. Can the car distinguish easily with multiple phones or would it be a mess like my current one is of having to turn Bluetooth on or off on each handset and manually connecting to the car kit if I want to change phone?

2) Is the voice operation any good? Better than the Civics? Does it work by recording samples of you or actually recognising what you say? ie 'Call David', is 'David' a recording of me saying 'David' or does it recognise the word 'David', if that makes any sense?

3) Incoming calls, what happens, does it display the number on the dash and you can accept/reject it from the wheel? Presumably it'll only give the name of the caller if it's stored in the car's memory, it can't actually access the contents of the phone? If so, all this seems rather behind the ones that Nokia and Sony Ericsson do for the same money, if not less, albeit not as tidy as a nice integrated one. My main problem is outgoing calls, having to have the number stored in the car's memory in order to call them, why can't it just passively feed off the handset?

4) Volume, can it be adjusted by the stereo's main volume knob? If I upgraded the stereo to a proper one, would this knacker the phone kit's compatibility?

Thanks in advance

Rob

 

[Michael B]

Firstly, the bluetooth works excellently! I have two phones myself, and it connects with the one you paired with last. So its handy to say pair with your work phone last, so that when ever its in your car it always pairs first, then if not - your own phone. when you first connect, it downloads all your numbers to the car. though beware, if you have multiple numbers per contact, it will just ring the default one.

I never use the voice activation, only to have a laugh with the woman.. Will you give me a.. *** "Sorry that is not possible" lol

Incoming calls - the number and name comes up on the dash just like on your phone. You have the option to answer it, leave it or cut it off.

Volume can be preset to any particular level you like, but during a call you can turn the volume up by the steering controls or stereo knob, just like you were turing the radio up.

The system works really well, and I wouldnt fault it. Only that it wont let you text from the steeringwheel.. haha

 

[chrisboyle999]

Hi

Me again, with probably another confused sounding ramble, but could someone just confirm a few things for me please regarding the Bluetooth kit in the new Leon.

1) My drive in the new Civic highlighted a couple of problems with the idea of integrated Bluetooth. The Honda rep told me that due to legality you can't touch the handset while driving, meaning that in order to make a call, the number has to be stored in the car's internal memory, and that if any buttons are pressed on the handset, the call/connection is cut. Is this true of the Leon?
I plan to use the kit for both work and personal usage so it's not exactly practical to have to program everything into the car with every customer I might want to call. Can the car distinguish easily with multiple phones or would it be a mess like my current one is of having to turn Bluetooth on or off on each handset and manually connecting to the car kit if I want to change phone?

2) Is the voice operation any good? Better than the Civics? Does it work by recording samples of you or actually recognising what you say? ie 'Call David', is 'David' a recording of me saying 'David' or does it recognise the word 'David', if that makes any sense?

3) Incoming calls, what happens, does it display the number on the dash and you can accept/reject it from the wheel? Presumably it'll only give the name of the caller if it's stored in the car's memory, it can't actually access the contents of the phone? If so, all this seems rather behind the ones that Nokia and Sony Ericsson do for the same money, if not less, albeit not as tidy as a nice integrated one. My main problem is outgoing calls, having to have the number stored in the car's memory in order to call them, why can't it just passively feed off the handset?

4) Volume, can it be adjusted by the stereo's main volume knob? If I upgraded the stereo to a proper one, would this knacker the phone kit's compatibility?

Thanks in advance

Rob

1) salesman speak. the only buttons you need to press are on the steering wheel. you dont need to touch the phone, i keep mine in my pocket. only one phone can be connected at a time.

2) i use phonebook dialing so cant speak for the spoken commands.

3) the mfd display is the same as your phone. ie, if the caller is stored in your phone it will be displayed, otherwise the number only is displayed. the car does not store any names/numbers.

4) i dont know but i guess so. i use the buttons on the steering wheel which are just an extension of the stereo. if your going to upgrade the stereo get one with bluetooth.

imho, it is a fantastic system which is a must on any factory order leon.

 

[rpmleon]

I agree with all of the above perhaps only because I have never had a vehicle with Bluetooth before. I tend to use the voice activation a lot and apart from the occasional request to "repeat name" I have experienced no major problems.

Mind you, I have not yet tried it when suffering from a heavy cold

RPM

 

[Robdrums]

Thanks guys - that all sounds great, just what I wanted to hear. He was right though, in the Civic, you could only call people stored on the car's memory, and if you picked up the phone and pressed answer or tried to call another number or cut off a call, it severed the connection! Very irritating and impractical. Glad to see the Leon is designed with a bit more common sense, as usual.

If it only calls the default number, would it still be able to recognise, say, David as the same David if he called from his landline?

Cheers

Rob

 

[flakmunky]

You can speak a telephone number to the nice lady as well, if it isn't stored in the phone... e.g. when that arse in the truck cuts you up and you see the sticker saying "Hows my driving? Call....." Then you can read the number out to the woman and then tell her to "dial number". Good thing about this feature is that you can give her a bunch of numbers at once, eg. "oh eight oh oh six" then she repeats them, then you give her hte rest... As opposed to giving her them individually.

I have to use the voice commands as my phone doesn't send its phone book to the car - its an issue with the phone not with the car.

 

[rpmleon]

You can speak a telephone number to the nice lady as well, if it isn't stored in the phone... e.g. when that arse in the truck cuts you up and you see the sticker saying "Hows my driving? Call....." Then you can read the number out to the woman and then tell her to "dial number". Good thing about this feature is that you can give her a bunch of numbers at once, eg. "oh eight oh oh six" then she repeats them, then you give her hte rest... As opposed to giving her them individually.

I have to use the voice commands as my phone doesn't send its phone book to the car - its an issue with the phone not with the car.

Bin there, seen that, done that one

RPM

 

[Robdrums]

What does it do for text messages when you receive one?

I assume the music automatically mutes when a call comes in, so the ringtone comes through the speakers, but what about texts? The one I have in my current Leon drives me mad that it interrupts the radio for 5 seconds to do the full SMS alert beep, and also interrupts for a few seconds if I change the profile.

Rob

 

[yorkphil]

What does it do for text messages when you receive one?

It doesn't do anything. The phone beeps as normal but the BT kit doesn't dim the stereo sound (and it doesn't display the text on the MFD, which is a shame )

 

[Rampage]

I was told the other day that it does display on the screen by my dealer?

 

[yorkphil]

He's wrong!

 

[Simon_Peters]

Yeap you don't get anything for a text message.

The kit apart from that is fantastic!

 

[SEATcarsdirect.co.uk]

Yeap you don't get anything for a text message.

The kit apart from that is fantastic!

Agreed its a great kit

 

[YogiD]

Is it possible to adjust the microphone volume, and can you mute the mic?

 

[darrellr]

I was told the other day that it does display on the screen by my dealer?

I think the latest premium VW cars have an SMS facility - the Toureg??

 

[Tam]

Is it possible to adjust the microphone volume, and can you mute the mic?

Not sure about the muting of the mic, never tried it.

However, turning the volume up on the radio (so the other person is louder) also turns up the mic so you become louder to them.

 

[Who. Me?]

To add to the other answers;

Pressing buttons doesn't seem to make any difference, but I've not yet tried pressing 'hangup'. The MFD and Voice Dial mean there is no reason to touch the phone anyhow.

Also...

The system will take over a call if you're already on one and turn the ignition on. The call momentarily mutes, then transfers to the car, so you don't have to hang up before driving off.

The system uses the phone's phonebook, so you'll need to copy any numbers on the SIM phonebook to your phone to see them on the MFD.

You can scroll through the list when dialling, using the rocker switch on the wiper stalk. However, holding the up or down will not make it scroll more quickly. One click = one name.

Scrolling up, off the top of the list, will also not take you down to the end of the list, so, if you have lots of names in your phonebook, copy the common ones and prefix the name with 1,2,3, to sort them to the top of the list. Otherwise you'll have to keep taking your eyes off the road while you scroll.

That is also what the voice-dial is for though. I don't know whether it uses voice-recognition or 'matching' (recording what you say and matching back to it), but it works.

I don't get my ringtone when calls come in. The bluetooth mutes the stereo and plays the standard 'brr, brr' over the speakers (and the same when dialling). Don't know if that is my phone though. Either way, the 'brr, brr' is better than my phone blaring at me.

I consider the Bluetooth kit to be the one 'must have' feature. I don't know why it isn't standard already. I reckon Bluetooth inclusion should be included in the NCAP ratings as a passive safety feature.

Also, I can see buyers asking whether the car has a Bluetooth kit in the same way they used to use ABS/airbags/air-con as a bartering tool.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[geoffc]

Just a quick query.....When using a phone in SAP mode, does the car kit use an external aerial, or the phones own internal aerial?

 

[Street]

Is the voice activation phone dependant? I'm using a Samsung G800 and if I try a voice dial it says phone book empty. It pulls all my number off the phone to the dash though so its reading it OK!

Is it maybe because all my numbers are stored on the sim?

 

[Wiz cupra]

To add to the other answers;



You can scroll through the list when dialling, using the rocker switch on the wiper stalk. However, holding the up or down will not make it scroll more quickly. One click = one name.


When you keep holding the down botton on the wiper stalk it will scroll more quickly - It will jump the ABC !!!