I don't post much but figured I'd write a little about a MIB 1 -> MIB 2 retrofit I did on my 2015 MK7 GTI.
I'm wordy so here's a TLDR version:
I hated HATED my 5.8" MIB 1 system and finally did an MIB 2 retrofit. I'm so much happier with the new stereo. VW Central were great and very helpful. Their shipping company is awful but oh well.
---
I bought my car in January of 2015 and have been extremely happy with it in every way except for the stereo/infotainment system which was just a steaming pile of crap.
I had the "top of the line" 5.8" screen composition media with navigation.
Things I disliked about it:
1. It would reboot occasionally for no apparent reason.
2. It took about 30-45 seconds for the navigation to start. Which resulted in me basically never using it because that's just too freaking long to wait.
3. Around 50% of the time after turning my car on it would forget what radio station I was on and pick an empty static filled station instead, yay!
4. The screen resolution was VERY low. Despite the screen already being miniature the resolution was so low it still managed to look blocky. It looked especially bad next to the relatively sharp MFD in the gauge cluster.
5. When I was on a phone call and started the car the bluetooth would take over almost immediately but I wouldn't be able to hear or say anything for around 20-30 seconds while the system did whatever it needed to do to finish eh connection which is an eternity when you're talking to someone. I'd have to apologize constantly and explain that I had just missed the last 20 seconds of whatever someone was saying.
6. The entire interface was jittery and slow. I'd touch on screen buttons and they'd sort of flinch but not actually activate unless I was slow and deliberate. The animations were all choppy or sometimes non existent because they started up so slow they couldn't kick in before whatever action was requested had already been done.
7. When started up fresh it was SLOWWWW to start up, thankfully the backup camera came on almost immediately otherwise the slow startup would have been even worse.
8. When using bluetooth media despite having an obvious place for the music cover art to go it never populated. Like the engineers were taunting me, yeah we didn't bother to implement this so we just left it blank to annoy you.
9. Given how nice the rest of the interior and car interfaces were the entire thing looked out of place, like it didn't belong there.
In short it was an awful awful system and whatever chip was driving the whole thing was obviously severely underpowered. You almost have to wonder what the heck VW thought they were thinking. It was perhaps not surprising that the very next year they launched the MIB 2 systems which were dramatically better in basically every way.
Also I missed CarPlay which I'd had on my previous car through an aftermarket AppRadio 4 stereo (that's a whole other pile of crap but for different reasons).
It was annoying to like my car so much and yet hate a part of it that I used every time I drove anywhere.
---
All of that said the cost of retrofitting was a bit much.
I looked into all the VW MK7 specific aftermarket systems but they all have glaring issues. And tended to look bad to freaking horrible despite still costing half what an OEM MIB 2 system does. Add to that, none of them support CarPlay or Android Auto.
So I waited for other people had been guinea pigs first and did a bunch of research to find a supplier for an MIB 2 system. I spoke to APG a bit but found the communication really difficult due to language differences and eventually settled on VW Central in Australia who seemed pretty responsive but there were some implementation issues at the time (roughly a year ago) that I first spoke to them. They hadn't figured out how to support XM radio in the US which meant there were non functional buttons after the retrofit and my OCD wasn't cool with that given the cost.
So I waited longer and called them back up and they'd worked out all of those issues.
---
First, VW Central were generally great to work with. The time difference of course made calls occasionally difficult but they are responsive and helped me out whenever I had questions or got stuck with the install (initially I had no audio and they helped with some VCDS coding to get that working).
One thing I didn't enjoy was their shipping company. They use Toll Priority who I'd never dealt with before. They shipped it using Toll's "Overnight Express" which took about 7 or 8 days to get the box to me. Obviously overnight means something different to Toll than it means to me.
I've had things shipped via FedEx/DHL/UPS that took way less time from the same distances. They also have probably the worst tracking system I've ever seen. It appeared to update once a day. Meaning any time you look at it it's up to a day behind reality. Again never had that sort of thing with any other shipping company. Even the US Postal Service does better.
Random things to note:
1. One quirk of the install was that I didn't upgrade to the MIB 2 Fender amp which means in the software that VW Central had to tell it I was using a Dynaudio amp (which is apparently the same part). So when you go to the sound settings they are the Dynaudio ones. Everywhere else it says Fender though. And sound wise nothing is changed which is good because I liked the sound of the previous system. The Dynaudio settings are actually more robust then the Fender ones too so it's not a draw back really. Honestly I wish VW just stayed with Dynaudio for the US. The whole Fender thing is weird. I think of guitars when I hear Fender not car audio. Just another example of VW being tone deaf and stupid when it comes to North America.
2. The 8" screen unit I got from VW Central looked new condition wise. The unit that goes in the glove box looked decidedly used though the front part that you see after it was installed looked perfect still so you'd only know if you pulled it out. I didn't get any manuals or anything except the hardware itself. So you're paying newish price on what I'm pretty sure was mostly used hardware.
3. Ordering the correct trim to go around the vents and screen took awhile since it came from Germany to Australia then from there to me.
4. I'd read about how much trouble others had had routing the new USB interface cables. I can only guess that those people had never routed cables before and probably didn't have an electrician's snake. Spend 10-15 dollars and buy yourself a snake and it's really quite easy.
5. Similarly taking out the old MDI connection was quite easy while I'd read other people having a horrible time at it. However, if you remove the trim around the shifter and the trim around the climate control stuff it just pops out no problem. Again the proper tools help too. Buy a little interior trim pry bar and your life will be easier.
6. VW Central did not supply the little removal keys you need to pull out the screen and glove box unit so you'll need to get those somewhere.```
7. Make sure you disconnect the thing on the side of the glove box door that makes it fall open slowly or you'll break it like I did. Thankfully the part was pretty cheap to replace.
8. More than a few of the harness connectors have to be shaved off a bit to get them to fit into the new hardware. Pretty easy to do. The harder part was realizing which place to put the pink rearview camera plug but I found some random post were someone had mentioned it. (It's the gray one if I'm remembering correctly).
9. As far as I can tell the larger screen is the same resolution as the smaller MIB 2 one. Meaning it actually looks slightly less sharp. But it still looks sharp enough it's not an issue (it looks roughly the same as the MFD) and I actually like how it makes everything slightly bigger and easier to hit with your fingers in a moving car.
10. The boost gauge and performance monitor stuff is kind of neat but it's strangely delayed. My P3 gauge reacts to what I'm doing immediately while the MIB2 one is like a second or more behind. Not a big deal and a boost gauge is all just for fun in my case but I'll probably never even use that panel give my P3 gauge.
Over all I'm super happy with the retrofit. It solves my largest complaint about my car.
The bluetooth issues appear to all be gone. The CarPlay stuff starts of FAST and responds quickly to your touch (in fact the entire system seems responsive and quick). The screen, while not the sharpest ever, is sharp enough that it looks like it belongs in the car. The nav is basically ready as soon as the rest of the system is and the entire system boots more quickly than the old one even the backup camera looks better since it's on a higher res screen.
For the price you'll have to talk to VW Central as I imagine it depends a lot on the options you choose. Not the cheapest option but it was worth it to me as I'm a buy a car and then keep it for 10+ years kind of person and having a system that I hated for the rest of the car's life would have sucked.
Some obligatory photos are attached as well as shot of the MFD next to the 8" screen at the same distance to show the pixel density looks pretty close at least when eyeballing it:
I'm wordy so here's a TLDR version:
I hated HATED my 5.8" MIB 1 system and finally did an MIB 2 retrofit. I'm so much happier with the new stereo. VW Central were great and very helpful. Their shipping company is awful but oh well.
---
I bought my car in January of 2015 and have been extremely happy with it in every way except for the stereo/infotainment system which was just a steaming pile of crap.
I had the "top of the line" 5.8" screen composition media with navigation.
Things I disliked about it:
1. It would reboot occasionally for no apparent reason.
2. It took about 30-45 seconds for the navigation to start. Which resulted in me basically never using it because that's just too freaking long to wait.
3. Around 50% of the time after turning my car on it would forget what radio station I was on and pick an empty static filled station instead, yay!
4. The screen resolution was VERY low. Despite the screen already being miniature the resolution was so low it still managed to look blocky. It looked especially bad next to the relatively sharp MFD in the gauge cluster.
5. When I was on a phone call and started the car the bluetooth would take over almost immediately but I wouldn't be able to hear or say anything for around 20-30 seconds while the system did whatever it needed to do to finish eh connection which is an eternity when you're talking to someone. I'd have to apologize constantly and explain that I had just missed the last 20 seconds of whatever someone was saying.
6. The entire interface was jittery and slow. I'd touch on screen buttons and they'd sort of flinch but not actually activate unless I was slow and deliberate. The animations were all choppy or sometimes non existent because they started up so slow they couldn't kick in before whatever action was requested had already been done.
7. When started up fresh it was SLOWWWW to start up, thankfully the backup camera came on almost immediately otherwise the slow startup would have been even worse.
8. When using bluetooth media despite having an obvious place for the music cover art to go it never populated. Like the engineers were taunting me, yeah we didn't bother to implement this so we just left it blank to annoy you.
9. Given how nice the rest of the interior and car interfaces were the entire thing looked out of place, like it didn't belong there.
In short it was an awful awful system and whatever chip was driving the whole thing was obviously severely underpowered. You almost have to wonder what the heck VW thought they were thinking. It was perhaps not surprising that the very next year they launched the MIB 2 systems which were dramatically better in basically every way.
Also I missed CarPlay which I'd had on my previous car through an aftermarket AppRadio 4 stereo (that's a whole other pile of crap but for different reasons).
It was annoying to like my car so much and yet hate a part of it that I used every time I drove anywhere.
---
All of that said the cost of retrofitting was a bit much.
I looked into all the VW MK7 specific aftermarket systems but they all have glaring issues. And tended to look bad to freaking horrible despite still costing half what an OEM MIB 2 system does. Add to that, none of them support CarPlay or Android Auto.
So I waited for other people had been guinea pigs first and did a bunch of research to find a supplier for an MIB 2 system. I spoke to APG a bit but found the communication really difficult due to language differences and eventually settled on VW Central in Australia who seemed pretty responsive but there were some implementation issues at the time (roughly a year ago) that I first spoke to them. They hadn't figured out how to support XM radio in the US which meant there were non functional buttons after the retrofit and my OCD wasn't cool with that given the cost.
So I waited longer and called them back up and they'd worked out all of those issues.
---
First, VW Central were generally great to work with. The time difference of course made calls occasionally difficult but they are responsive and helped me out whenever I had questions or got stuck with the install (initially I had no audio and they helped with some VCDS coding to get that working).
One thing I didn't enjoy was their shipping company. They use Toll Priority who I'd never dealt with before. They shipped it using Toll's "Overnight Express" which took about 7 or 8 days to get the box to me. Obviously overnight means something different to Toll than it means to me.
I've had things shipped via FedEx/DHL/UPS that took way less time from the same distances. They also have probably the worst tracking system I've ever seen. It appeared to update once a day. Meaning any time you look at it it's up to a day behind reality. Again never had that sort of thing with any other shipping company. Even the US Postal Service does better.
Random things to note:
1. One quirk of the install was that I didn't upgrade to the MIB 2 Fender amp which means in the software that VW Central had to tell it I was using a Dynaudio amp (which is apparently the same part). So when you go to the sound settings they are the Dynaudio ones. Everywhere else it says Fender though. And sound wise nothing is changed which is good because I liked the sound of the previous system. The Dynaudio settings are actually more robust then the Fender ones too so it's not a draw back really. Honestly I wish VW just stayed with Dynaudio for the US. The whole Fender thing is weird. I think of guitars when I hear Fender not car audio. Just another example of VW being tone deaf and stupid when it comes to North America.
2. The 8" screen unit I got from VW Central looked new condition wise. The unit that goes in the glove box looked decidedly used though the front part that you see after it was installed looked perfect still so you'd only know if you pulled it out. I didn't get any manuals or anything except the hardware itself. So you're paying newish price on what I'm pretty sure was mostly used hardware.
3. Ordering the correct trim to go around the vents and screen took awhile since it came from Germany to Australia then from there to me.
4. I'd read about how much trouble others had had routing the new USB interface cables. I can only guess that those people had never routed cables before and probably didn't have an electrician's snake. Spend 10-15 dollars and buy yourself a snake and it's really quite easy.
5. Similarly taking out the old MDI connection was quite easy while I'd read other people having a horrible time at it. However, if you remove the trim around the shifter and the trim around the climate control stuff it just pops out no problem. Again the proper tools help too. Buy a little interior trim pry bar and your life will be easier.
6. VW Central did not supply the little removal keys you need to pull out the screen and glove box unit so you'll need to get those somewhere.```
7. Make sure you disconnect the thing on the side of the glove box door that makes it fall open slowly or you'll break it like I did. Thankfully the part was pretty cheap to replace.
8. More than a few of the harness connectors have to be shaved off a bit to get them to fit into the new hardware. Pretty easy to do. The harder part was realizing which place to put the pink rearview camera plug but I found some random post were someone had mentioned it. (It's the gray one if I'm remembering correctly).
9. As far as I can tell the larger screen is the same resolution as the smaller MIB 2 one. Meaning it actually looks slightly less sharp. But it still looks sharp enough it's not an issue (it looks roughly the same as the MFD) and I actually like how it makes everything slightly bigger and easier to hit with your fingers in a moving car.
10. The boost gauge and performance monitor stuff is kind of neat but it's strangely delayed. My P3 gauge reacts to what I'm doing immediately while the MIB2 one is like a second or more behind. Not a big deal and a boost gauge is all just for fun in my case but I'll probably never even use that panel give my P3 gauge.
Over all I'm super happy with the retrofit. It solves my largest complaint about my car.
The bluetooth issues appear to all be gone. The CarPlay stuff starts of FAST and responds quickly to your touch (in fact the entire system seems responsive and quick). The screen, while not the sharpest ever, is sharp enough that it looks like it belongs in the car. The nav is basically ready as soon as the rest of the system is and the entire system boots more quickly than the old one even the backup camera looks better since it's on a higher res screen.
For the price you'll have to talk to VW Central as I imagine it depends a lot on the options you choose. Not the cheapest option but it was worth it to me as I'm a buy a car and then keep it for 10+ years kind of person and having a system that I hated for the rest of the car's life would have sucked.
Some obligatory photos are attached as well as shot of the MFD next to the 8" screen at the same distance to show the pixel density looks pretty close at least when eyeballing it:
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