Yes, service intervals on the Honda (and Mazda3) are 12 months, but only 10,000 km (vs 15,000 km for i30 and Focus). Honda services are slightly cheaper if you only do 10,000 km pa at $281 ea vs $290 for Focus. Mazdas are slightly more expensive than both, in low $300s.
I don’t believe there are any plans to update any aspect of the Mazda3 MZD infotainment system in the Auguat update. No DAB etc. Yes, they are a bit off the pace here. And yes, Mazdas are renowned for being a bit noisy, but each model keeps improving in this regard.
after the kenwood debacle, i tried again yesterday. i upgraded to a Pioneer AVH-X3800DAB. this was quite a bit more expensive (the kenwood was $220 or so, the Pioneer was $550)
the dab reception is much better the JVC it replaced and even has slideshow.
the only downside (if you can call it that) is that it is harder to install due to the DVD playback - a wire needs to be connected to the handbrake line to stop the dvd playback if the handbrake is not engaged. i’'ve ordered a bypass on ebay - more for ease of install than watching dvd’s illegally
You could just connect the handbrake wire to ground - either by tapping into the black ground wire in the harness or attaching the handbrake wire to any bare metal attached directly to the body of the car. That’s what I did when I installed my X3600DAB.
It has the SONY 9 speaker unit with DAB+ radio, voice control and Apple Carplay / Android Auto.
FM reception is actually pretty good I thought, better than I thought it would be given that often tends to be worse in newer models when compared to older cars simply because of the existence of Bluetooth audio, streaming apps etc. that radio tends to take a bit more of a back seat these days in the specs department (pardon the pun).
And the sound quality is very good too… Even the rather crap audio quality of 32 kbps digital radio stations like The 80s sounded not bad ish, which I managed to get in several spots on the south side of Newcastle (Charlestown and Redhead, which is near the ocean and has a good take off to the south towards Sydney, despite a lower elevation than Charlestown).
And the voice control is really nifty too! Works very well for changing stations or songs via voice eg. press the voice control button on the steering wheel and say “FM 104.9” and you will get TRIPLE M (as it appears on screen with RDS, which also stays on the screen whenever News Radio comes in over the top of it!).
Playing music through my phone via USB also produces very good sound too, though the volume needs to be a higher than the radio does.
Haven’t tried Android Auto/Car Play or Bluetooth audio yet, but liking what I’ve experienced so far!
Congratulations on getting a car that has a built-in DAB+ radio, like what @Brianc68 & @tamago_otoko have.
Whenever you’re travelling into Sydney especially, you would no doubt be spending a lot of time on the DAB-only stations such as The 80s, Fun Super Digi & Classic Rock. I know that if I have a car that has a DAB+ radio (either built-in or after-market), I would be spending quite a lot of time on the DAB-only stations.
If you preset a station when you received RDS of it at the time of action, it will also store the RDS onto the presets. I know that’s the case on my parents’ Subaru Forester.
Glad you’re liking it! I’m more than happy with mine. Just took a trip to Byron Bay over the last few days and the DAB does drop out by Nerang on the GC. The signal actually goes further northwards from Brisbane to Caloundra in the car without any drops outs at all. Another feature I just discovered a week ago (after having the car 6 months is that it streams Pandora from my phone and also the new BBC iPlayer App. You just have to be playing Pandora or the BBC app and then hit the Phone button on the source menu (i’m sure it’s more advanced with Android Auto but even without it works). When you’re on say BBC Radio 2 on the App it streams and shows the station name and even song and artist on the display screen. Mostly I just use DAB around Brisbane but I did a bit of streaming of BBC Radio 2 on the way to Byron Bay.
Yes, there are only a few streaming apps that Sync 2/3 supports… Pandora being one of those as you’ve said (and Spotify). I’m pretty sure that TuneIn is (unfortunately) among those not supported (from what i’ve read).
But as my car has the recently updated Sync 3 system, perhaps there’s a chance that more apps like TuneIn will come.
And if it does, it will certainly be updating my somewhat pitiful data allowance on my (pre paid) Telstra mobile
I highly recommend the BBC iPlayer app that’s only just become available outside the UK. All the BBC networks are available and very easy to select. Glad you’re enjoying the Sync 3. I’m going in for my first service tomorrow, I might ask them if I can upgrade
From what I’ve read, the only way to upgrade a car from Sync 2 to Sync 3 is to replace the head unit itself.
Which apparently can be done, but costs about $2k.
This is because beefier hardware is needed to support some Sync 3 features like pinch and zoom gestures for mapping.
This can be a blessing or can be a PITA.
On radios that do store the RDS info, they look for the PI code (part of the coding sent in the RDS signal), if a station has multiple transmitters, the radio will search & tune into the strongest one with the same PI code, without the need to have the RDS encoder programmed with alternate frequencies for each transmitter (e.g. all RDS encoders of ABC Classic could have a PI of AU24 & the radio would tune to the strongest ABC Classic frequency anywhere in Australia, without having to program RDS encoders with 700 alternate frequencies).
If you travel into an area with no ABC Classic reception (PI code), the radio will look for & tune to a local station with the same Program Type (Classical for example) on that particular preset.
Problems come when there may be a Community station with a Classical Program Type set, but they play heavy metal for parts of the day, your radio will tune into this station automatically when it loses ABC Classic reception, & you’ll go from relaxing classical music to heavy metal.
Another problem is that if the station changes the PI code in their RDS encoder, then when you press that preset, the radio will search all frequencies for the preset PI code, but it won’t find it, & will just keep on endlessly searching, the only way to fix it is reprogram the preset.
Luckily these problems don’t happen very often, & most radios with RDS don’t store the RDS info with presets, just the station frequency.
When programming an RDS encoder, you have to be very careful to not program the same PI code as another station (especially one in the same licence area), as the radio will tune to the one with the strongest signal. RDS codes are allocated (like licence call signs) in the USA & Europe, but here you can use whatever you fancy.
It looks like the aerial was broken off on my '09 Toyota Yaris so I don’t have great FM reception at the moment,can’t receive The Breeze or 99.7 FM from Redcliffe .The radio picks up local stations ok AM and FM.I’ll try sticking a wire coat hanger in the aerial socket on the back of car and see if that works However for me having steering wheel controls to change radio station or CD track and volume(and a CD player)is a big step up for me compared to my previous car. I have an aux socket so I can plug in my iPhone to listen to my tunes but no Bluetooth but I don’t really need it
My guess would be that because the Focus is a ‘global car’, it has a tuner which can tune to any frequency required around the globe.
Most car radios I’ve used have FM tuners which use .05MHz increments, as there are oddball European FM stations which are actually located on strange frequencies like 101.65MHz. It sounds like the 1kHz increment tuning on AM radio is a thing because the United States uses 10KHz spacing, whereas everywhere else uses 9KHz spacing.
And I have an American HD Radio (Insignia brand) that tunes up/down in 0.2 MHz increments!
Obviously because in the USA, FM stations are only allocated frequencies ending in odd numbers ie. .1, .3, .5, .7 or .9 MHz.
I recall seeing Jeremy Clarkson on ‘Top Gear’ being very bemused by this when driving an American car in Britain and finding he couldn’t tune in some British stations that were on even numbered frequencies ie. .0, .2, .4, .6 or .8 MHz.
There are a handful of FM stations in Australia that end in a even number, Hope 103.2 in Sydney being one. Have never been able to find out why it is the “odd” one out in Sydney.
I figured it may have been because of 2GCR Goulburn (200 kms away) being on 103.3.
I think 2GCR was already moved off 105.7 to accommodate 2JJ’s move from AM, perhaps they didn’t want to ask 2GCR to move again to accommodate 2CBA (now Hope).
Yes, the ATN7 issue is the most cited explanation.
The other even oddballs are:
88.6 3PVR Plenty Valley VIC
91.6 TCBL Sydney
96.0 6CKI Cocos Islands WA
97.4 3WRB Footscray VIC
99.4 4RBL Tamborine Mountain
100.6 4BRZ Tamborine Mountain
I’m not sure of the reasoning behind the placement of the Melbourne stations, and I think the Rebel/Breeze situation arose out of a sheer dearth of spectrum (like 91.6 Sydney). There are also several unlicensed/remote stations on even decimals, like 4TAB 90.0 from Richmond, QLD.
However for me having steering wheel controls to change radio station or CD track and volume(and a CD player)is a big step up for me compared to my previous car. I have an aux socket so I can plug in my iPhone to listen to my tunes but no Bluetooth but I don’t really need it