A rare rant from me… hands-free kits
 

Right, seeing as I’ve been ignored in the ICE forum for two hours already (and I’ve found something else out) I’m going to vent here.

If you want to use your phone while driving, you have to get a HFK, bluetooth or otherwise. It’s a heavy fine if you don’t. So these things are now, effectively, obligatory.

I’ve seen cheap bluetooth ones in the sales but finally decided I don’t want a bluetooth one [actually sulking as the cheap ones have sold out ;)], I want a hardwired one which also charges the phone, powers the PDA satnav in the future etc. And I don’t want any clip-on bulky stuff, as people here will break your windows for anything worth more than a fiver.

Went to a motor factors which offered them for 140 euros fitted. The kit is simply a plug for the phone, a connector for the stereo, and a mike, held together with wires. OK, I’ll accept that.

Toyota offers the same as a factory “option” (HAH! It’s obligatory FFS!) for no less than 400-odd euros. A poxy phone plug, a mike, and a connector block with wires between. An hour installation. For 400 euros. :freak3:

For some reason the 140-euro one could not be fitted (“we don’t have the right connectors”) so I’m forced to go elsewhere, they suggest Toyota. :mad:

Stormed off to the British website I know (Road Radio in TW) and they also want 300 quid, though at least you get an aerial as well.

For such a pathetic product, isn’t this a case of supplier monopoly? The law says you have to have it, and so we’ll make you pay via Abu Graib? I can handle the yuppies in the 80s being stung for the latest gadget, and I can understand ratcheting up the price for an option which every sales company will pay for without thinking, but this is supposedly a legally compulsory safety feature we’re talking about, bought from a private individual's own pocket.

Not a member of any Consumers’ Association yet, but I think this needs some exposure.

Steaming….

Brendan

Don't blame the manufacturers, blame the government that came up with such a daft ban in the first place! ;)

If you are that angry about having to pay for a HFK - something that is the law then you ought to be livid over ID card proposals! ;)

Definitely sounds like somebody is exploiting the situation there :(

Personally, I'm all for the new law. It's proven that driving with a handset lowers your reaction times to something akin to being twice over the alcohol limit, and I'm sure you wouldn't condone that would you?

The law seems to be pretty much ignored though. Was overtaken by a porker last night and was amazed to see he had one hand holding his phone up to his ear, and he had a newspaper spread across the sterring wheel which he was reading from :eek: . Had to be doing somewhere around 90mph down the busy (rush hour) M4 as well...

I had a phone installed in the motor years ago with mikes etc. Using it is actually 100 times more dangerous than using an (illegal now) hand held IMHO. In fact the phone is so old - Nokia 2110 - that when some kids broke into the car recently they chucked the phone onto the floor in disgust :)

I'm all for the new law too, and I want to comply. But the gouging is just outrageous.

David, why do you think it's so dangerous?

Dear me, what DID we all do before mobile phones were invented?:D

Get a life, guys, VERY few people actually NEED to be called while driving, and as for making a call..........:rolleyes:

Alcazar

Yeah, and we don't NEED to watch telly, use the internet, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher etc etc.

But we do BECAUSE IT'S CONVENIENT, OK?

I spend over 2 hours a day driving to and from work, if I can make and receive calls in that time (using HFK) then it's not wasted time. If I can't then it is.

:)

Better off with the Bluetooth IMO

Depends on what phone you have really, but the wired Genuine Nokia car kits I've fitted in the past are a bit pants to say the least (for the money anyway).

As an alternative, there are aftermarket Radios comming out that support Bluetooth :)...but you'll have to wait a while though.

As for the phone laws....what's the use of a law when there's nothing but a speed camera to enforce it?? ;)

i would have thought those ones you stick in your ear are dangerous as you wouldnt be able to hear whats going on around you. i seem to recall awhile back the gov/police saying it was dangerous to have headphones or earpieces :Suspiciou

You what? You have all these things in a car?! :p ;) :D

The fact is, whether you agree with the law or not, it's illegal. Use a hands free or pull over or ignore the call. It's really not that difficult. If your 'work' requires you to speak on the phone while driving then they can sort out a hands free for you else they are asking you to break the law. They can't sack you for complying with the law either.

How is it obligatory if you don't use a mobile phone or don't intend to use one in the car?

I have BT over the ear sort. Cheapo £30 from maplins. Its not in-ear so doesnt block out any other sounds - juts loosley hangs next to the ear.

Bloody annoying blue LED that flashes when its connected to the phone - spend the entire journey catching the reflection in the windows and think I'm about to be pulled over ;)

You can buy self-fit kits which have the speaker incorporated into the cigar lighter plug and you just plug straight into the bottom of the phone. Then use a universal cradle to hold the phone itself. Quick and cheap (ish).

LOL dsmith :D

Just get a bluetooth headset for a while and look a bit of a knob, and then get the HFK when they've come down in price.

Probably because I am crap at phones :) If it rings I have to take my eye off the road and look for the small answer button on the phone and then for the off button when call finished. To dial out is near impossible as I cannot see keypad with phone sitting in cradle between driver and passenger seats. With a regular mobile I find it much easier and no more dangerous that changing a music tape (obviously I don't do this when overtaking in foggy conditions when half-pissed*) David

*Joke btw

Had a Genuine hard wired HFK fitted in every car I've had since 1984. Wouldn't do it any other way.

They've all been Motorola kits with superb sound until this week when I picked up a SE910i car kit off eBay for £42 for the whole caboodle.

I just couldn't go the "I look a complete twát wearing a bluetooth headset" direction, even if they were free.

Póncing about having to charge to headset too is a complete joke and then there's the phone charge running down quicker whilst in bluetooth mode.

I get in the vehicle put my phone in the cradle, it charges, it auto answers, it voice dials and dumps calls if I tell it.

Brendan, try eBay.

Yep the bluetooth headsets are good, sod the fashion critics - I only wear it in the car anyway. Theres just one button for pickup/hangup on it, and I have all the numbers I ever need on voice-activated dialling - miles better than fiddling with the phone while driving. Also if there's someone in the car with me they're not party to my phone conversation which you don't get with speaker hands free kits.

I draw your attention to: using HFK

That's Hands Free Kit.

I thought alcazar was trying to say that it was dangerous to have a 'phone conv. even if on HFK. It probably is, but everything is a bit dangerous. It's probably dangerous to drive after you've been up for more than 12 hours, or something. It's probably dangerous to drive after a couple of coffees, or when it's a woman's time of the month...

Whether or not you're in the car or the fridge, you still look a complete twát in a headset.
A proper hard wired kit means you never need to touch the phone, that's no buttons, not one, none.

So the people in your car have a mute button on their ears too do they or do you think they aren't listening to your side of the conversation?

Beam me up funny ears!! :D

My colleague tried that one and was accused of being a militant.
The best they will do is pay half the price of it, so you could get one of the crappy ciggy lighter ones for 40 quid for a specific phone but these are far far more dangerous than just holding the bloody phone as you have to concentrate so hard to make out the awful sound.

So we're looking at a ton or more for a handsfree that work requires, and they wont even get me a bluetooth mobile so I have to get it specifically for a phone that doesn't even belong to me and I have no intention of ever owning (5210)

I could just ignore it yes, then the voice mails would rack up and I would spend all the time allocated to my on-site job for the day fending off the support calls that have built up in the morning, and not get the actual on-site work done.

It amazes me that all the people who have the proffesional car kits fitted have it on the left of the steering wheel

why..

lets put it on the left so all those right handed people will have to lean and stab with the left hand


the majority of people are right handed, but will quite happily let this happen???

im right handed, and i want mine on the right..

M

Hmmmm would disagree with the above statement,

why,

cos my wife & son was involved in a head on crash last year, other woman was busy texting on her phone not looking where she was going, crossed over the centre of the road and smashed into my wife and young son,(luckly for her my wife and child were not seriously hurt) even the witness says she was on her phone :mad:

And the heavy fine she got was.......................fook all, not even a telling off.
Makes a mockery of the new law if they will not prosecute EVERY driver caught usuing there mobile

That is terrible and an example of a woman who cannot drive whilst using a phone. The problem is that for every one of her there are many more who *can* drive whilst using a phone. This is what makes this legislation "knee-jerk".

That woman is obviously a bad driver and cannot concentrate adequately on two things. She might very well have crashed whilst tuning her radio or opening a sandwich, neither of which are specifically banned.

In the meantime, the rest of us who could use a phone whilst driving perfectly safely are inconvenienced by it.

She should have been charged with driving without due care, specific legislation against one particular thing you can do in your car shouldn't have come into it!!

texting on a phone and using the car radio are VERY different things.

To you maybe. I can do both without impacting my driving ability. :D

I can't so I don't use my phone at all while driving.

Apart from the fact that I might spill my beer! ;)

This is precisely my line of thinking. But as you can see, I can already get the kit for an average price - my problem, or their problem, is that apparently my radio needs specific adapters which they don't have.

TBH I'm thinking of storming off to Toyota and having a big shouting match, saying that if you charge me 300-plus notes simply for the kit, I can buy a decent stereo, speakers AND kit for that much, why should I stick with your crap?

Trouble is, I see aspiration inflation. It started with a 40-euro cheap headset, moved to a 140-euro fitted kit, and is now approaching 400 to swap out the entire stereo :(

Standard IT project scope creep ;)

...but less justifiable when neither of us use the car except in a casual leisure capacity :o