Here's what the Parrot screen shows when it is playing a song that has cover artwork associated to it:

Screen items are:

1) On top, a blue bar with a row of icons. The top left icon is of a plugged iPod. Right of center there is a cellphone icon, indicating calls can be made or received. To its slight left there are two squiggly lines, indicating the Mki9200 is ready to receive streaming stereo sound from the phone. To its right an icon indicates how many bars of reception strenght the phone has at is current location. Finally to the right the phone´s battery status.

2) Scrolling in white text: "Rinôçérôse", the French music band (artist). Mki9200 displays correctly all of those accented characters. Also scrolling, "Rinôçérôse" (album, although I'm pretty sure that's inaccurate). Center, fixed text:"Cubicle (Edit)" (song name). Background: cover art.

3) Progress bar at bottom: song is 3 min 13 secs long, 22 seconds have elapsed.

There is an iPod nano lying at the bottom of the covered cubby, and the line in/USB/iPod connector cable snaking around. If one pulls the cable out of the cubby, it reaches comfortably all the way to the passenger seat, in case the passenger wants to play DJ. The cable could have been left even longer, but I folded part of it on the space between the radio and the glovebox.

The Bluetooth features of the Parrot are nothing to sneeze at. Here, the Parrot is ready to receive/make calls from an iPhone, yet at the very same time is playing Bluetooth streaming audio from an iPad. The Parrot can pair with up to 10 Bluetooth devices (although only one can be connected at any on time for receiving or making calls).

No cover art when streaming Bluetooth stereo audio to Parrot. Parrot will play any sound source on the Bluetooth transmitting device: internet radio, saved audio files, movies, whatever.

Mki9200 comes with 8 color themes. I tried orange to match the RNS2 interface, but the RN S2 is actually mustardy more so than orangy. Tried red to match the night button illumination of the T, to no avail. I ended up settling on blue, which matches my VW logo wallpaper and the compass/clock on the ceiling.

Brightness is adjustable and comes in two adjustable settings, one for night and one for day. Here you see the red theme. If you prefer never to show cover art, it's selectable. Here is a song with no cover art:

The wallpaper is the first one (from the 1st post), the GTI radiator wallpaper. Wallpapers are 320 x 240 pixels and can be fed to the Parrot only via Bluetooth file transfer. Many phones can do this, but not iPhones. Use instead a Bluetooth-enabled computer, such as any Mac. Here the Mki9200 is ready to receive a wallpaper...

... and receiving ...

... and done ...

To make a call: at any time, hit the Phone button on steering wheel. The conversation goes like so:
- who do you want to call?
- Joe Smith
- do you want to call Joe Smith?
- yes
- home, office or cellular?
- cellular
Ring... ring...

Or you can use your steering wheel rollbar button to hit: fwd+rwd+fwd+rwd, which takes you into Parrot menu mode. The machine will read the 1st menu option: "Phonebook". If you hit the Phone button to enter this menu, it will read out loud and display A, B, C... as you scroll down. At D, you can hit Phone to enter your list of D friends, and go David, Diane, Dufus. At Dufus, it will show all his numbers and you can choose one. Hit Phone button, and ring...

If your phone contacts are sorted by last name, Parrot also sorts by last name, but still shows by first name, like so:
David Smith
Diane Smith
Alex Thomson

Your entire phone directory is downloaded via Bluetooth the 1st time you wirelessly connect your phone to Mki9200, and it is synced/updated to Mki9200 each time you get into the car.

 

Nice writeup, thanks.

One question: does this setup play music (either A2DP or iPod connector cable) through all the Touareg's speakers? I've heard this setup, and many others, only play through the front speakers.

 

Downsides of Parrot Mki9200:

1. Parrot inserts itself between your radio's output and the T's speakers, i.e., it is hijacking your OEM radio. This means there are two modes: either your OEM radio is working as if there is nothing non-OEM on the system, or the Parrot has hijacked your radio. When the parrot has hijacked your radio, the radio's audio controls are dead: volume, fader, even on/off. This also means if your T has a digital amp, the installation is not straightforward like mine.

2. Mki9200 audio is different from OEM audio. Think about it. When on normal mode, it is your radio´s amp and fader, balace, treble, etc., that are driving the speakers. When on Parrot line in, Bluetooth streaming, iPod play, SD card or USB play, it is the Parrot's amp and DSP, digital equalizer, digital bass, etc., that are driving the speakers.

3. The Parrot has no fader. Sound is fine, but I hear it a bit forward. Can't help it. Rear door speakers are pumping audio, but not as much as I would prefer. Once on the highway, I can't tell the difference, though.

4. The Parrot mutes the OEM radio by making it think there is a phone conversation going on at all times that the Parrot is active. One side effect of this is that the center speaker (forward of the dash cubby bin) seems to be always disabled, as far as I can tell. You do get sound only from the other 6 speakers/tweeters.

5. Gotta remember that when the Parrot is active, only volume control is on steering wheel Vol buttons and the little Parrot wireless remote, which I've left loose in the passenger glovebox in case anyone wants to play with it.

6. Slight learning curve. From OEM audio, a quick RWD+FWD steering wheel barrel jog switch input takes you to instant Mki9200 play. From Parrot audio, another quick RWD+FWD takes you back to OEM. Fwd+rwd+fwd+rwd from OEM or Parrot gets you to main Parrot menu. Other than that, it's straightforward plain button depresses as marked on the steering wheel buttons.

7. No nav audio prompts while on Parrot mode. So if you are navigating, use the OEM audio in, the radio, or the 6-CD magazine.

8. Parrot's twin microphone technology blocks use of the OEM microphone locations forward of the dome lights (when using the OEM screens that replace the default blank plate at that location). Kills your 100% OEM look in a small way.

9. Tough fit for all of the wires. I had to cut a 1.5in x 1.5in hole in the plastic bracket at the rear of the radio, and even so the wiring ended up stressed. Spent hours figuring out where to stick the wires —the radio simply wouldn't slide in to its place all the way to the back. At one point considered giving up on project. I have other ideas for cable management, ask in the thread if interested.


Upsides of Mki9200 and Parrot Unika box install:

1. Don't have to cut a single cable

2. OEM look. Technically, you never have to open the lid on the Euro-style covered cubby, as all functions work via audio prompts. If you don´t have the Euro-style covered cubby, and you don't want to permanently see the screen you could just plug it at the end of its cable and leave it inside the glovebox.

3. No need to stick the remote in some visible place. You could throw it away, or just leave it somewhere for occasional passenger use.

4. Good audio quality. The Parrot aggressively drives the speakers to pump digital bass even in "flat" mode. I found the digital boost mode to be too pumping and unnatural. In hijack mode, the Parrot will overdrive the speakers further than the OEM radio will, if blowing your ear drums is your thing.

5. Good handsfree telephony. Parrot is good.

6. All kinds of up to the minute audio options. There is an SD-card slot in the Parrot screen, good for "unlimited" capacity SD's, although some have said you don't want to go too big. Stick a 24GB one in there, plus a 24GB thumb drive in the USB port, and you may never need the Mki9200's iPhone or Bluetooth stereo streaming functionality.

7. No engine noise.

 

Found a small functionality detail I like:

If you start an audio source on your digitally connected via Bluetooth iPhone, it automatically pauses whatever else is playing (Radio, CD, iPod, USB, SD Card) and it starts playing the iPhone's audio output via Bluetooth!

This is great if one wants to switch to internet radio, or just play the audio file someone just emailed you. It makes sense to give priority to whatever audio source you manually start on the wirelessly connected device above the "static" sources you may be playing on the car. After all, if you are manipulating the phone, there must be a reason for it, and it would be awkward to hit play on the phone and then have to manually select Bluetooth streaming from the phone on the steering wheel controls.

 

Great review!!!
I need to read it again from my Mac as opposed to here at work over my iPhone....can't wait to read what you wrote in depth.

 

Mki9200

Hi vwW12,

I have the same setup as you but can't get the phone buttons on the steering wheel to work. The unit was professionally installed and I had it at VW to code and still not working. Yours seems to worked out of the box. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Sim

 

You should post what year T you have, as none of the below may apply.

This is the most complicated thing I have ever done to any car and therefore I am a total newbie, but I'll throw some suggestions as to why the buttons are not working, in order of probability.

1. The Unika wire harnesses became damaged in the process of getting the radio to fit back in its opening. Though one to address.

2. There is a Unika installation manual specifically for Touaregs 2004-2006. Guess what, I can't find it on the U.S. site, it exists only on the U.K. site, as far as I can tell. Now you don't actually need it if you follow all other instructions... but by following this manual a successful installation should be guaranteed.
http://dbinstall.parrot.com/compatibility_pdf.php?model=1652&ck=12
Page 5 is the key here and the 3 matching snap-on connectors are provided for you both in the UNIKA harness and in the Quickconnect harness, all nicely labeled and stuff! Males match to female and females match to males. Now, the sole tripping point is that the wire colors do not necessarily match. You have to mentally trace the Can H, Can L, and mute wires back to their positions on the DIN connector. But, here you have a great big potential pitfall for anyone not paying attention.

3. The installer failed to use two UNIKA harnesses and only used one. This one seems very unlikely, but hey. Here are the facts: The Unika comes with 3 harnesses in the box.
(a) The Unika main harness for regular radio setups
(b) The Unika-interface harness that sits between the MKI9200 harness and the ISO harness
(c) The Unika main harness for the Parrot radio model Rki8400 (rare)
Well, potentially someone could use harness (c) and screw up everything else. I doubt it, but it could happen. You need to use only harnesses (a) and (b) and throw away (c).

4. The software in the Parrot and Unika is too old. Upgrade MKI9200 to sw v.1.90 and this will also upgrade Unika to v.18.

5. The installer set the DIP switches incorrectly on the UNIKA. This is highly improbable, as all switches are supposed to be at zero and it is in the manual!

Piece of advice: with so many new harnesses, I was able to get the radio and Parrot to work while the radio was way outside its cavity, sitting behind the gearshift stick. This is important for your installer to verify the LED on the UNIKA is green not red, and therefore everything is working prior to final install. He needs to do this and show you the light is green. It's all in the UNIKA manual.
http://www.parrot.com/fr/support/guidesutilisateur/unika_qsg_mki-rki.pdf

Finally... recode the radio? Say what? The radio software has little to nothing to do with this. That's a wild goose chase, I reckon. Goodness gracious, the Parrot hijacks the in and out connections to the radio, it couldn't care less what the radio is up to or what sw version it is running. At one point, with all wire harnesses plugged in and the radio not plugged in anywhere, in fact sitting in the trunk, I got the Mki9200 to use all of its functions, audio, etc. Wife asked if we could get rid of radio, I told her a huge grey blank panel in middle of dash wasn't going to have the pretty moving maps...

 

mki9200

Hi vwW12

I would have to take the radio out and see what the installer did as I was not there to see what he did or what harnesses were used.....I can only assume it was done correctly. Any other suggestions for a 2008 Touareg???

 

Hi vwW12

I would have to take the radio out and see what the installer did as I was not there to see what he did or what harnesses were used.....I can only assume it was done correctly. Any other suggestions for a 2008 Touareg???

No, not really.

All I can say is emphasize from my post above that «At one point, with all wire harnesses plugged in and the radio not plugged in anywhere, in fact with the radio unplugged and sitting in the trunk, I got the Mki9200 to use all of its functions, audio, loudspeakers, etc.» The Parrot really does hijack your wiring and while the Parrot is working, the radio becomes an irrelevant 5-pound piece of metal.

Don't let the installers fool you into a radio software version ghost hunt.

 

mki9200

Hey vwW12,

Thanks for the reply. I've ordered a set of radio release keys for my treg so I can take look at the install. Perhaps by doing that i will be able to find out why my phone icon on my steering wheel doesn't work...Ill keep you posted if you like??? Thanks again...Sim.

 

Couple of updates:

1. Siri for iPhone 4 users

The Parrot Mki9200 with Unika steering wheel interface is not currently able to trigger Siri.

If one depresses the phone button briefly on the steering wheel, the Parrot asks: "Who do you want to call?"

If one depresses the phone button for a couple of seconds on the steering wheel, the Parrot redials the last number dialed.

Parrot is actively updating the sw for the Mki9200 every couple of months, even adding new features, especially for iPhone. Hopefully all of us Siri users will register a bug on the Parrot website regarding the lack of Siri access and Parrot will invent an access method. For instance, they just need to put a new preference in the Settings menu of the Parrot where: long depress of phone button is used for (a) redial or (b) Siri.

But please no-one make an assumption that Parrot will comply.​

2. Screen saver.

In forotouareg.com I was offered the following screensaver. I put it on and never went back to the Phaeton one.​

One interesting characteristic of it is that it shows how poor/ancient the MFD color display in the center of the binnacle is. It possibly only has 16 or 32 colors, so the standard Touareg startup and goodbye desert image looks very washed out and pixelated, compared to the high-res screen on the Parrot, like so:​

 

Another update:

PRIVACY
While you are on a call, if you have other people in the car and want to have some privacy for your call right in the middle of it, you can quickly hit the Phone button on the steering wheel > the call will go back to the handset. To make the call go thru the car again, just hit the Phone button again.

MUTE
But what if you want to mute the microphone? Dear wife found out that if you hit the mute button on the iPhone, both the Touareg's and the iPhone microphones go dead. You can still hear what the people on the other side are saying thru the car's speakers.

 

Just to throw my experience into the mix here, last week I installed the same unit using the audio-only Aux. input pins on my RDS2, without using any aftermarket wiring harnesses or accessories. I removed the speaker-level input and output wires from the main Parrot wiring harness and inserted them into the vacant spots on the RDS2's connections. It's working -pretty well- but I've currently got some induced noise that I'm trying to banish. I suspect it's from whatever circuit I've tapped into for power at the fuse box and I'm going to try a couple of alternate locations.

I had to go this route because my 04 has the digital amp in the rear, so I couldn't use Parrot's "splice into the speaker output" approach (which I think is kinda shady anyway) and especially in the case of iPod audio I'd much rather be using the existing amplification than whatever Parrot has tucked into that little blue box. It took me awhile to make sure I had all my wires run in the right locations, but in the end it was a pretty easy installation, and with a bare minimum of extra wiring to shove in behind the radio.

 

Just to throw my experience into the mix here, last week I installed the same unit using the audio-only Aux. input pins on my RDS2

Great input! Some people put little diodes (or whatever these things are called) in certain wires, to isolate or reduce noise.

It would be great if you can take some pics when you move things around, so people do not have to reinvent wheel as to what goes where in a T with factory amp.

 

I was looking at purchasing the 7 button for the phone and was told that i have to change out the steering wheel. Does anybody have any information regarding installing the button as i am looking to install a(not surre which one) into my 09 Tregg NON Navigation

 

and was told that i have to change out the steering wheel

If it was a dealership where you were told this, I'd stay as far away from that dealership as possible.

If I had no other VW dealership, I'd just sell my two VWs.

Just my opinion.

 

GuyV6,
You don't need a new steering wheel. My dealership replaced my 5 button with a 7 button. The airbag does need to be removed to switch them out.

 

Expansys has a REALLY good deal on these right now.
Parrot MKi9200 Bluetooth Car Kit (Factory Refurbished) #PF320008AA-RFB - Expansys USA
and with a Techbargains coupon code Parrot MKi9200 Wireless Bluetooth Car Kit w/ 2.4in Color Display (Refurb, Connects to Car Stereo) $119.99
It's down to only $119. I want to pull the trigger today but I have a few questions.

I want to install it on my 2008 that just has the base Sat Radio and no navigation.
I imagine this should work, any suggestions?

 

I want to install it on my 2008 that just has the base Sat Radio and no navigation.
I imagine this should work, any suggestions?

Check the parrot.com page for compatibility. You will need a harness unless you are willing to cut and solder wires.

Parrot USA - Installation diagrams for hands free car systems

all North American vehicles, please contact our partner below:

www.quickharness.com - Here, you can browse for a harness by vehicle make, model, year, and audio system type.
​

Also bear in mind many have mentioned engine sound while operating these units. Careful installation is a must.

 

Looking to try this. I have used the Grom device, but it doesn't keep my iPad mini charging all the time and is weird about starting up the car already connected to it. I refuse to lose the moving trajectory lines from the OEM radio's backup camera software, but I desperately need bluetooth for calling.

Online there are a bunch of UNIKA boxes, which goes to the T-reg? I'm a bit of a music snob, will the parrot's hijacked sound be clear and not weird due to lack of fader?!