Sounds about right for what it is. Great tech today's market, but the CS is off.

My dynavin has a quirk here and there, but by god that thing has been spot on for 6 years now.

Honestly, OEM setup + Bluebus is the end all for retaining the OG system. Both in my E53/E39 I've only really used the nav when my phone is stuck on stupid for some reason. If export prices weren't terrible in the US to UK, I'd love to try out carphonic's upgrade.

 

I've been wanting to get an Avin unit, but it is experiences like this that keep turning me away. I have been trying to figure out how to add Carplay/Android Auto to the factory system by adding a TV tuner and using one of the many aftermarket units that connect through the tuner. I am not sure that's a good way to go either considering the aftermarket unit may not be reliable and the resolution of the MKIV screen is not great.

 

WOW - thanks!

I was seriously considering getting a AVIN 4, especially the price for the base system has dropped to $339 in the US. After you experience, I will look more closely at Dynavin N7 or Xtrons PB7639BP.

The BlueBus idea is extremely tempting but CarPlay and having the screen display Nav information is key.

 

I have the BlueBus in my X5 4.8is and it works great if you are considering it. I really want Android Auto capability in my M5 though.

 

i got an avin3

• forget you will be using it for phone calls, people just cannot hear you
• SD card satnav app never worked
• android auto wired worked for a while, but then stopped and even after getting a new dongle it doesn't work anymore
• installed google maps on the unit directly, random times it loses access to the GPS unit and you lost
• ibus integration works, displays info from the car, closes mirrors that sort of thing
• can listen to music from my phone over bluetooth and that works nicely - not much else

in the other car i have a dynavin 6
if i'm not mistaking this is a windows based unit, and got it ages ago, but

• never been able to use it for phone calls
• satnav works nice
• usually forgets the volumes you have set for the different apps
• only one entity can play sound (directions turn the music off)

 

Avin 4 user here in E39.

My working with customer service has been minimal and my unit took a while to get working the way I want. But now I’d say it works pretty well.

Wireless CarPlay sometimes has an issue connecting to the phone but some combination of resetting the head unit and/or my phone gets it working again (my guess is 90% successful first try connection).

I actively use CarPlay, Dual-DVR, iBus, and Torque OBDII. The bluetooth through the Android OS works but is meh quality. Sound quality is decent but I sometimes have to restart the DSP through the iBus app.

Ultimately I’d rate it as decent for plug and forget as it sometimes requires a little troubleshooting, but I’d rather deal with that then do without On Screen Nav, Siri, and music/podcast control.

 

Thanks folks...keep the feedback coming.

 

I had an absolutely horrific experience with them that involved credit card contests and complete lack of knowledgeable or responsive service. It’s just some company run by one hack. The product was terrible, and never functioned properly. Installation instructions were laughable. Do not recommend unless you’re into really into masochism. And not the feather handcuffs kind... the prison kind.

My takeaway from this is that if you REALLY must upgrade your system, use a real (and good) brand head unit manufactuer. It won’t look as nice, but function over form (vs the opposite with AVIN.)

 

Sorry you had to experience this, I try to warn as many people as possible away from Avin. I had an Avant 3 I think back in the day, had a dynavin before that when they had just come out with DSP integration and it barely worked so sent it back for the avin instead. The Avin burnt out in like a year..said that I needed to sent it out for repair in China which I did and it still came back broken. Like others have said the company is basically run by one con artist out of California, he gets these units out of some sweat shop in China where all the other units come from (eonon, xtrons etc etc) the entire Resler interface was conned off Resler (a german dude that you can buy the interface directly from which makes it compatible with DSP and the IKE and MID of the car with the Ibus app) anyways I ended up getting an xtron units and doing the whole thinkg myself with the resler interface, at that point I had already ripped out the factor DSP and amp. Works great and hasn't broken down yet, knock on wood. Does my nav and phone calls and runs my apps with ease, I think its got the older quad core with android 8 but stills works quick and smooth, but I did flash it with a custom ROM so maybe thats helping. Word to the wise, avoid Avin.

 

I have had an Avin Avant 4 installed for a little over 7 months and overall I am pretty pleased (YMMV).

I will agree it's a little quirky and the customer service takes a little while but, all in all, I am very happy with it. It looks great (very stock in feel & touch) and works flawlessly 95% of the time. Carplay hooks up seamlessly around 95% of the time and works as intended; when it doesn't I have to manually push the car play button and it syncs right up.

The backup camera works as intended, the internal SatNav (iGo) works okay If I don't want to use the phone's GPS. The Resler iBus interface took a little bit to get set up right (hence the comment on customer support) but they got it worked out for me and it is a pretty cool feature to have all the time (though a couple of the options don't display 100%).

I have a 2000 DSP system and I will actually agree with others that the sound is Fantastic, I am very pleased with the DSP interface and love the sound. The ability to set the screen background and apps is also a great feature to have. I have the android 9 version and it boots pretty quickly and after that, it's very fast with almost no lag between apps.

I too read a lot of concerning information about the Avin (specifically the 3) but researched a lot and saw less bad information and many more positive reviews on the 4. I would be willing to bet there is a good mix of happy and unhappy customers; but for the price and the features, it is an absolute win in my eyes. To bring the car into the current age and make it a much happier driving experience vs using the old and outdated stock radio/nav.

The install was plug and play (for the most part) and required a lot of interior disassemblies and patience running the wiring looms. I'm glad I took my time and didn't rush it. If I had to do it over again, I would 100% go with Avin over the other options. I couldn't find another product that came close to the look, feel, and features for the price of the Avant 4.

I hope it continues to work well for many, many years because and hope the same for anyone else who takes the plunge Good luck!.

 

I have had an Avin Avant 4 installed for a little over 7 months and overall I am pretty pleased (YMMV).

You are lucky. This is kind of the same type of conversation I see everywhere. People randomly have fine experiences and disasters like mine (and others who have posted). It seems like it's a total crap shoot if you get the one that works fine, or the one like mine where the satnav SD card arrived DOA, the backup camera never worked properly, the dashcam recorder crashed every time, I would randomly get a terrible alternator whine, and customer service responded to roughly 50% of your inquiries and only after about 2-3 days. IMO, that kind of inconsistency should absolutely not be tolerated (ESPECIALLY given that I paid over $800 for my unit, after all the options).

After all of the issues I had and the time I spent pulling the interior to wire the car properly, they had the nerve to try to charge me return shipping and a restocking fee.

 

@Terry Timmons - thank you.

I have seen both good and bad feedback..but I "seem" to see more unhappy customers. Maybe due to the fact that forums are a great place for people to complain.

 

Hope folks have more feedback...I don't see many positives.

 

I agree that a lot of times companies or products will get a bad rap because the only people who want to talk about it are the ones who have something to ***** about. But after my experience, and hearing similar experiences from others, I'm convinced it's just a garbage company.

 

It's certainly true that good news is no news, but if you look at my posts here and elsewhere you'll see I'm far quicker to praise good service and products than to slate poor ones. I like to give folks a chance. Unfortunately in this case I gave them a chance and they took the p*ss.

 

Should have listened to all these negative experiences. I spent half the weekend installing a new Avant 4 only to discover that it’s trash. Zero radio reception (I could barely make out some voices on NPR over all the static) and the newest units don’t even have a port for the radio extension like the older units apparently do. USB ports not detected or enabled so no wireless carplay capability. Buggy user interface. Cheap consumer grade hardware that probably wouldn’t last a year … the list goes on.

I’ve had these units in the back of my mind for years for both my E39 and E46 and it didn’t live up to even the bare minimum expectations. I took it out after about half an hour to reinstall the OEM nav radio. Now going to have to fight with customer service to return without any kind of restocking fee. Luckily I paid with PayPal and it’s only been a month. Non functional AM/FM is a non-starter in a car radio 🙄 wasn’t going to bother troubleshooting the rest after discovering that.

 

Sorry dude. Hate to say I told you so... but I understand. I tried it too despite mixed reviews and wasted way too much time.

 

There's nothing on that unit that comes close to OEM grade. Even the buttons and knobs feel cheapo.

 

You should give the xtrons units a try, no such issues with loose plugs in the back of the units or no radio reception. I went for the top 6gb ram Qualcomm model and it has been absolutely flawless. The guy that sells the resler interface recommends the xtrons units.

 

I’ve just ordered the xtron 665 Qualcomm unit for my 2000 E39 . Having it installed this week. Garage owner recommended as he’s got it in his M5 and says it’s the best one out there

 

I'm done with these Chinese units -- sticking with the dated but very high quality one that came with the car and has survived 20 years. I'll get a phone mount and call it part of the charm of driving an old car.

Opened my Paypal claim after Avin denied my return request despite delivery on April 7 and customer service contact on May 8. Close enough to 30 days to just take it back without a fight I'd think. Why does this thing not have a radio port? Customer service told me I need to plug this extension in to get reception, but can't plug it in if there's no port where the install guide says it should be. I looked for any kind of converter, nothing there in the huge mess of cables they send.

 

The xtrons units come with an adapter that converts from iso to fakra

 

I'm a complete minority as my experience with the Avin4 headunit and customer service has generally been positive. An old review:

Best Source For Apple CarPlay Retrofit for E39?

Hi All, I've been all over this forum looking for the best Apple CarPlay / Bluetooth solution for an E39 in hopes I'd find something akin to what Porsche classic offers. No such luck. So what is the next best thing? Thank you so much in advance!

www.m5board.com

Some updated info: That Carplay bugginess has actually mostly cleared up. I previously forced the iBus App to not open on startup. After an iBus App update, it went back to default startup behavior, which seems to have positively affected Carplay. Maybe once a fortnight it'll act up, which only takes a headunit restart to clear up. The backup camera sometimes freezes up, and hands-free calling quality can be hit-or-miss, but overall I'm still happy with my unit and consider myself very lucky. If you want OEM quality of operation, definitely do not get a Chinese unit -- there is inevitably something that'll bother you about it. A high-end aftermarket brand (Alpine, Pioneer, etc) should have the software ironed out well, but the obvious tradeoff is it doesn't look OEM.

Regarding customer service: Several years ago I do recall reaching out to customer service to see if a firmware update would resolve the issue. They were quick to respond, but they sent me firmware that was already on the unit -- or in other words no updates have been made to my older PX5 unit. I do wish they made the firmware open source so I could tweak things, but that's usually a longshot for any headunit manufacturer. On the other hand I know some advanced users (on a forum dedicated to these android-based headunits) regularly make custom firmware, which isn't a rabbit hole I'd want to go down anyway.

 

Hi all, thought it was time to share my experiences of the Avin 4.

Following a really good thread on here, I decided it was time to drag my M5 kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. My requirements (must have) were:

OEM appearance
Sat Nav
Bluetooth
DAB or DAB+
Reversing camera
iPhone connection for audio streaming

On top of that I had some nice to haves:

Dashcam
A2DP streaming
iBus integration
Carplay (wireless ideally)

It soon became apparent that the Avin was going to really be the only thing that ticked my must-have boxes, so after some conversations with their very helpful, fast-responding and clearly USA based pre-sales people I bit the bullet and placed an order on 2nd March 2020.

Avin Avant 4 with Android 10 (this was a pre-order as I figured I might as well go for the latest version)
IBus adapter
DSP with equalizer
Wireless Carplay
Front and rear parking cameras
Dashcam
DAB+ dongle and aerial (and software)
Bluetooth OBD2 adapter
Microphone for Bluetooth
Satnav maps for Europe and satnav software.
GPS antenna.

Then I sat back and waited. Fortunately I didn't hold my breath, because it was quite a long wait...

6 weeks after ordering, Avin collected payment. They had already advised me that shipping was going to be 20 days later than planned, so I wasn't worried.

3rd May I got a box from DHL. With a customs bill. OK, not their fault and smaller than it might have been. So far, so...
ah.
The harness that connects the head unit to the car loom was missing.
Several emails, including my needing to take a photo of what was there and show them on their own diagram what wasn't there later, they agreed to send me the harness.
30th May it arrived. With another bill from DHL for customs charges.
I did a quick and dirty connection straight into the loom in the back of the car. It fired up and looked great. Plugged in the DAB dongle, opened the app...not supported on this version of Android.
Using the memory card they provided I installed the satnav software. Not supported on this version of Android.
Tried the dashcam. Yep. Not supported on this version of Android.
Time for some more emails to support and some links that allowed me to download supported versions of the software.
At this point I was aware that, while sales were English speaking and based in the USA, support most definitely were not. They were also rather slower to react and far less switched on.
In all honesty, I should have had rather more alarm bells ringing that I did. But the unit looked really good and was fully featured, so I pressed on.

Downloading the installation guide was easy, and installation itself, while definitely not easy was OK.

Except for the fact that the installation instructions were wrong. They in fact related to an earlier version of the camera(s) which had been superceded.
I wrote a revised version of the installation guide because it was the sensible thing to do and supplied it to them because I'm nice.

At this stage the reversing camera worked, the DAB worked (after a fashion) and the dashcam worked. Satnav did not.

Then the reversing camera stopped working.

I contacted support.

Support sent me the installation guide I had written.

I explained I had written the guide.

They told me their engineers had examined the camera, determined that there was a fault and they would refund the money for it. How the Hell did they do that when it was still attached to my car?

While we were at it they also established that there was a fault with the satnav software and refunded that, suggesting that I use my phone and Carplay for navigation.

At this stage I was pretty fed up, pointed out that two of my must haves no longer worked and asked for a shipping label so I could send the unit back for a full refund.

They then refunded me for the OBD2 connector, which didn't work, the DAB, which worked but was rubbish and the dashcam, which had also stopped working.

I again said I wanted a refund.

Much going backwards and forwards ensued, but eventually they agreed they would refund me, less the cost of shipping and a 30% restocking cost. If they repaired the unit under warranty I would still be responsible for the shipping, by the way, which isn't a trivial cost from the UK.

I now got properly pissed off and raised a dispute with Paypal. Who rejected it because it was more than 180 days from the initial transaction.

So. If you're looking to buy a good sounding (and yes, it does sound good) OEM looking head unit for your E39 and are happy to use Carplay (wired - the wireless solution is also crap) with no other features then the Avin 4 may be good for you. It may, of course, stop working after a few days - caveat emptor.

If you're looking for a full featured, good sounding OEM looking head unit for your E39 and you're in the UK, send your existing one to Baris at Carphonics for an upgrade, find an Intravee on EBay with the Alpine DAB and go on from there.

But if you deal with Avin be aware that:

Their customer support isn't really very good
Their warrantly is pointless as you will end up paying out for a repair or replacement that won't be any better than the item you sent back
If you pay with Paypal, their tactics will be to stall you as long as possible by offering piecemeal refunds until you run out of time to raise a dispute
Don't use Paypal for anything like this
The quality of their ancillaries is very poor.
Their integration testing/quality control is non existent for the apps they provide

I really hoped to have a good result from this. But no - my car is getting its upgraded OEM stereo and ancient but reliable satnav back this weekend, along with the Intravee and Alpine DAB I took out. Thank God I kept all th mounting ironmongery... It's funny. A 21 year old system is better in every way that a brand new, state of the art one.

I wish I had seen these comments before I made the mistake of buying this less than satisfactory system...........

This is a product to avoid.
I have a 2003 E39 540i M-sport that I wanted to upgrade. Saw this product on a E39 540i M-sport, that was for sale on Bat........thought that would be the answer. It looked good installed, and the seller was happy with the performance. Knew this was beyond my previous experience of pulling the factory radio and speakers out and installing a new system, so I set up to have one of the top auto stereo shops in the city do the installation. They warned me, several customers have had issues with this product, but I already had it ordered so away we went. What a disaster.......the "advertised" plug and play, was more like plug and play for 10 seconds, then NOTHING. Trying to contact AVIN for customer support was like talking to a wall. Send an email and we will get back with you. Leave a message and we will get back with you....... never made the connection, so after three days of this run-around, I had the shop pull everything out, they installed an apple-play, navigation, back-up camera system that works perfectly.
AVIN refunded my money (after I contacted them a month later) less their 20% re-stock fee, and that is the best $200 I have spent.......
Their product has not matured, is not plug and play as advertised, and their customer service is an oxymoron.
Had I seen these posts, I would have never bought this system and saved myself thr frustration and headaches, plus a $200 restock fee and a $30 shipping cost, even though their "office" is in Irvine and less than 30 minutes away from me, I had to mail it to their "office".
Not as advertised, and it feels like to me AVIN is hoping the user community can sort out the bugs in their products.........similar to the early 200's when Microsoft would give out free Office system upgrades to the tech community and then use their inputs to correct the product. The difference is Microsoft had customer service reps that you could talk to and resolve the issues. NOT AVIN.

BUYER BEWARE.

 

You should not have to pay a restocking fee. I didn’t pay it when I returned mine. Granted I had an open paypal claim during the return process but there was no discussion of a partial refund (only fighting with them to get them to take it back at all)

 

Hello, I have an Avin 3 for E46, have it for 3-4 years and is terrible, was expensive fully decked out with all options, now it barely works:

• Wi-Fi broken (it drops out after 10-15 min)
• TPMS broken (after about 2 years and one battery change)
• Bluetooth broken (can't see phone)
• radio not getting all stations (this was from the start)
• 4G week
• DVR is verry slow (front and back cameras)
• back camera broke (I replaced it with a generic one)
• UNIT IS VERRY SLOW and restarts randomly (about 3 years after purchase)
• auto dimming of the screen with the headlights dos not work correctly (from the start)

Other things that annoyed me:

• there is no way that it can resume play automatically on Spotify app (you have to hit the play button every time you start the car)
• first boot is verry long about 2 min
• android version on it do not have Bluetooth internet teetering (once the phone is connected to the unit by Bluetooth, normally there is an option to share the phone internet with the connected device thru Bluetooth, is missing in the android build of this unit)

fitment of the back camera was not plug and play, needed some cutting of the plastic

 

Does Xtrons actually update their software on older units or will it be stuck on a old version of Android within a year or two of purchase? I have the AVIN 2 currently, that I purchased six or seven years ago, and it only works as a radio and a bluetooth connection at this point. The preouts are so underpowered, it picks up a ton of interference from the alternator (i've tried a million different fixes with limited results). Thinking about upgrading, but since android 13 is out now, I'm not buying anything unless I'm sure it will be on the latest and greatest.


On a side note, if anyone is getting ready to install an Xtrons unit, can you break out a multimeter and measure the actual preout voltages? It's easy to do.

• Disconnect all RCA cables and all line level speaker outputs
• Set the meter to Volts AC
• Clip the red lead to the INNER center conductor on one of the rca outputs
• Clip the black lead to the OUTER conductor on the same rca connector (Be VERY careful to not short the two together, it could blow up the preout)

** A safer way would be to cut the end off an old RCA cable, strip the two inner wires, put the meter leads on the wires, then plug the other end into the radio.

• Play a steady test tone via a test CD or over bluetooth via youtube
• Turn the radio volume to the max level
• Voltage should be displayed on meter - 0.0 - 5.0+

The last android head unit I tested (many many years ago) had less than 0.4 volts on the preouts. I'm hopeful (but not holding my breath) that todays Chinese made units are a little better.

 

So glad I stumbled across this thread before buying an Avin. I will now look hard into Xtrons as a buddy of mine has been using one in his 2000 528i for years.

 

Hi all, thought it was time to share my experiences of the Avin 4.

Following a really good thread on here, I decided it was time to drag my M5 kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. My requirements (must have) were:

OEM appearance
Sat Nav
Bluetooth
DAB or DAB+
Reversing camera
iPhone connection for audio streaming

On top of that I had some nice to haves:

Dashcam
A2DP streaming
iBus integration
Carplay (wireless ideally)

It soon became apparent that the Avin was going to really be the only thing that ticked my must-have boxes, so after some conversations with their very helpful, fast-responding and clearly USA based pre-sales people I bit the bullet and placed an order on 2nd March 2020.

Avin Avant 4 with Android 10 (this was a pre-order as I figured I might as well go for the latest version)
IBus adapter
DSP with equalizer
Wireless Carplay
Front and rear parking cameras
Dashcam
DAB+ dongle and aerial (and software)
Bluetooth OBD2 adapter
Microphone for Bluetooth
Satnav maps for Europe and satnav software.
GPS antenna.

Then I sat back and waited. Fortunately I didn't hold my breath, because it was quite a long wait...

6 weeks after ordering, Avin collected payment. They had already advised me that shipping was going to be 20 days later than planned, so I wasn't worried.

3rd May I got a box from DHL. With a customs bill. OK, not their fault and smaller than it might have been. So far, so...
ah.
The harness that connects the head unit to the car loom was missing.
Several emails, including my needing to take a photo of what was there and show them on their own diagram what wasn't there later, they agreed to send me the harness.
30th May it arrived. With another bill from DHL for customs charges.
I did a quick and dirty connection straight into the loom in the back of the car. It fired up and looked great. Plugged in the DAB dongle, opened the app...not supported on this version of Android.
Using the memory card they provided I installed the satnav software. Not supported on this version of Android.
Tried the dashcam. Yep. Not supported on this version of Android.
Time for some more emails to support and some links that allowed me to download supported versions of the software.
At this point I was aware that, while sales were English speaking and based in the USA, support most definitely were not. They were also rather slower to react and far less switched on.
In all honesty, I should have had rather more alarm bells ringing that I did. But the unit looked really good and was fully featured, so I pressed on.

Downloading the installation guide was easy, and installation itself, while definitely not easy was OK.

Except for the fact that the installation instructions were wrong. They in fact related to an earlier version of the camera(s) which had been superceded.
I wrote a revised version of the installation guide because it was the sensible thing to do and supplied it to them because I'm nice.

At this stage the reversing camera worked, the DAB worked (after a fashion) and the dashcam worked. Satnav did not.

Then the reversing camera stopped working.

I contacted support.

Support sent me the installation guide I had written.

I explained I had written the guide.

They told me their engineers had examined the camera, determined that there was a fault and they would refund the money for it. How the Hell did they do that when it was still attached to my car?

While we were at it they also established that there was a fault with the satnav software and refunded that, suggesting that I use my phone and Carplay for navigation.

At this stage I was pretty fed up, pointed out that two of my must haves no longer worked and asked for a shipping label so I could send the unit back for a full refund.

They then refunded me for the OBD2 connector, which didn't work, the DAB, which worked but was rubbish and the dashcam, which had also stopped working.

I again said I wanted a refund.

Much going backwards and forwards ensued, but eventually they agreed they would refund me, less the cost of shipping and a 30% restocking cost. If they repaired the unit under warranty I would still be responsible for the shipping, by the way, which isn't a trivial cost from the UK.

I now got properly pissed off and raised a dispute with Paypal. Who rejected it because it was more than 180 days from the initial transaction.

So. If you're looking to buy a good sounding (and yes, it does sound good) OEM looking head unit for your E39 and are happy to use Carplay (wired - the wireless solution is also crap) with no other features then the Avin 4 may be good for you. It may, of course, stop working after a few days - caveat emptor.

If you're looking for a full featured, good sounding OEM looking head unit for your E39 and you're in the UK, send your existing one to Baris at Carphonics for an upgrade, find an Intravee on EBay with the Alpine DAB and go on from there.

But if you deal with Avin be aware that:

Their customer support isn't really very good
Their warrantly is pointless as you will end up paying out for a repair or replacement that won't be any better than the item you sent back
If you pay with Paypal, their tactics will be to stall you as long as possible by offering piecemeal refunds until you run out of time to raise a dispute
Don't use Paypal for anything like this
The quality of their ancillaries is very poor.
Their integration testing/quality control is non existent for the apps they provide

I really hoped to have a good result from this. But no - my car is getting its upgraded OEM stereo and ancient but reliable satnav back this weekend, along with the Intravee and Alpine DAB I took out. Thank God I kept all th mounting ironmongery... It's funny. A 21 year old system is better in every way that a brand new, state of the art one.

Thank you for the mention at the end

I’m shocked they sent the whole system without testing it and expected you to go above and beyond to fix it yourself. How hard or long would it take to plug your headunit in, install everything and give it a test, before shipping it out to you. Considering it took so long to ship it to you.

If you want OEM CarPlay, where the wireless is flawless, and the system comes on when you unlock the car, not when you turn the ignition on, so it’s ready when you get in your car, give me a shout.