NW_allroad

The dealer sells the motorola v60 for $1000. Is there a cheaper option? i already have the onstar system so the armrest is wired for it already.

itacud

I have the onstar pre-wiring, and a normal (non Audi) V60 ($50 with verizon service or free through Amazon with AT&T service.)

One of these days I'll get the Audi cradle and see how well a normal phone works, w/o the Audi specific firmware. As long as it makes/receives calls, I'll be happy... I don't expect the phone-book display to work.

Better yet, maybe I'll find somebody who has the cradle who'd let me try it out for a few minutes. If it works, I'd happily buy one from the dealer! =)

MKallroad

Talk to some of the folks in the a4 forums. There may be a hack possible to even make the phone book work. Dealers are largely useless, as they really don't understand the phone situation. Since I have a 01 AR, which is pre-wired for an analog motorola, I hade to build in a motorola kit to support the v60. Works fine. I did put in the "Launcher" from audi, so that the phone disappears in the arm rest, but somes forward to dial. I recommend that.

markcincinnati

The phone price you were quoted is list. My dealer sold me mine for hundreds less -- but it was still way way too high.

Having said that, I like the way everything integrates, I like the cool Audi logo on the phone and I guess that might be worth a couple hundred bucks. Under the circumstances, $500 would seem to be "ouch, you're killing me" but what the heck, it would not -- in my mind -- be over the top expensive.

What they are asking you and the $700 I paid are still too much.

I probably screwed up -- I voted, with my dollars, to go ahead and let them set me up.

By the way, the on-star package has temporary minutes. I converted mine to 100 minutes for 1 year for $40. But, in my case I wanted "emergency minutes" not talk on the phone minutes.

itacud

Yeah, even at $500, it's "over the top excessive" for a few lines of firmware and a logo. At $1000, it's "I have so much money I don't know what to do with it" silly... =).

NW_allroad

what dealer sold it to you for 700? at least i could save 300 bucks if i can't figure something else out.

TheLex

I've got an '02 with Onstar and the phone prewiring. I know I can get the V60 for practically nothing from At&T so I'm really not incline to spend up to a kilobuck for the Audi version. I seem to recall reading that the firmware is different tho and the functions won't work properly.

What would be really interesting if we could find out if the firmware (which is software right?) can be flashed. We could clone the firmware from an Audi phone and download that onto the "normal" V60.

itacud

Since the non-audi phones are upgradable for new firmware releases by the store, there's no reason for that new firmware to not contain Audi specific code. It's just a matter of getting that code... those who've checked in the past say neither Audi nor Motorola makes it available.

As for just trying out the phone, it would happen more quickly if I wasn't unwilling to just buy the cradle before doing the experiment. =)

TheLex

When I get some time, I'm going to do a search on cell phone forums and see if someone can give me some info on whether it would be feasible to clone the software from an Audi phone to a non-audi phone. Only problem I could forsee is that the cell phones might be different generations.

adam allroad

But... I used the Motorola hands free kit... hooked up the mute wire to the mute input on the back of the stereo & the speaker leads to the phone speaker input on the back of the stereo as well... The phone now automatically mutes my stereo/pauses the cd player - and displays the word "phone" on both the dash and the stereo when a call comes through...