New purchase-2008 X3 3.0si

[richardodn]

Hi all. I just added a 2008 X3 to my fleet. It's a great find. There's only 106k miles on the clock. The car is platinum bronze metallic over sand-beige leather. Cosmetically it's in great condition inside and out. It was ordered with the cold weather and premium packages. It has the xenon adaptive headlights. (That was mandatory for me.) Best of all it came with no screen or nav. That greatly simplifies upgrading the system. Unfortunately, it only came with one key and the remote battery in that gave up the ghost a long time ago. I bought 2 new keys from the dealer and am now waiting on a battery to patch up the old key's remote. The dealer that sold it did their inspection and refurbishment. I know it got brand new tires and hood struts. I'll be going through the vehicle this weekend to see what they missed.

The one big question I have right now is which Android screen to add to the car. I'm looking for one that runs Android 11, is 4G capable, and supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Built in Nav is preferred. I've found a couple that look good. If anyone knows of others, let me know.
https://avinusa.com/10-25-multimedia...eries-e83.html
https://hifimaxnavi.com/products/and...for-bmw-x3-e83

[zeethreee]

I'm in a similar situation. I've heard a good recommendation about the Avin, but the one thing that I'm on the fence about is that you call use the voice command button for Siri or other steering wheel controls to change songs. That's a huge bummer - especially the Siri thing because my work has "Hey Siri" disabled.

Have you lo poked into any others or found a work around?

[richardodn]

I ended up ordering the latest model with Android 11 and wireless CarPlay support. It is supposed to work with steering wheel controls. I guess I'll find out what limitations there are. My car already supports bluetooth phone but not bluetooth audio. My basic plan is to continue to use all the existing native phone features and then use the tablet for audio and navi. I really won't know more until I try.

Assuming I like the feature set, I may end up upgrading my F25 X3 screen too.

[dukedkt442]

Nice. I'm quite partial to the '08s.

[richardodn]

Nice. I'm quite partial to the '08s.

I haven't had a hobby car for a while now. I bought this one so I wouldn't have to share my '12 X3 35iX come the winter.

[jaron]

Did you end up installing the AVIN? How did it turn out?

[VelocitySquared]

Did you end up installing the AVIN? How did it turn out?

I'm curious as well as to how this turned out.

Does the factory radio still work with it? My biggest concern, can you dim the screen, especially at night? I personally can't stand bright screens at night.

[X3456]

Good luck!



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[richardodn]

It turned out OK. I never had a chance to fine tune the install since I gave it to my son to drive and then he moved out to an apartment. I did have to move some of the pins around to get the audio working how I wanted. The other big problem I had was turning the system on/off. I think the expected arrangement is to provide the screen constant power and then have the on/off function controlled by CANBUS signals. That did not work correctly. So I moved the power supply to a switched pin and that took care of the problem.