» Parrot MK6100 Bluetooth Car Kit with Steering Wheel Control (Black)

Parrot MK6100 Bluetooth Car Kit with Steering Wheel Control (Black) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrible for my Honda Pilot. One star is too good for this bluetooth kit
Comment: I purchased this Parrot Car kit along with a Metra car cable adpter for my new Honda Pilot since they don't come with optional bluetooth capability. I have had it for about six months now and this thing has been a problem since day one. I installed it exactly as recommended by the Parrot instructions. It comes with the dual external mic, which sounds like it is cutting in and out constantly. It doesn't matter if the AC is off as well as the radio. The inside of the car is as quiet as it could be. I have used it with an LG Dare, LG ENV and a Blackberry Curve phone. It does the same to all phones. After contacting Parrot support they sent me out a new unit. It worked exactly the same. I found myself using my earpiece most of the time since no one can really hear me through this thing. I have even moved the mic to different areas of the car to see if the sound improves to no avail.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mostly great, with a few flaws
Comment: I've had this installed in my car for about 2 months now and overall am very pleased with it. I wanted a bluetooth kit that would not only let me make calls but also let me play music from my phone without having to plug it in and this accomplishes that quite well. Overall I'd say it's a great product with a few flaws that annoy me on an almost daily basis, but that I've pretty much gotten over (though I can't make sense of some of these design decisions - hasn't Parrot been making these for a while?)

1. The screensaver - there's a screensaver that comes on for seemingly no reason other than to distract you while you're trying to look at the road. It's just a bouncing bluetooth logo that you have to press a button on the remote to get rid of, usually resulting in the system performing some unintended action when all you wanted to do was make the screensaver go away so you could see your signal strength and/or battery life.

2. Audio muting - it seems a little aggressive on the audio muting. For some reason it seems to insist upon muting your system for about 3 seconds when it connects to your phone and also any time you get a text message, even though...

3. No text display - it doesn't display texts on the screen. You just have to infer that you got one by the fact that it muted the audio for a few seconds and then pick up your phone and check it. Lame. I swear other bluetooth kits can do this...

4. No track info display - this one is certainly more annnoying that I thought. Again, you have to pick up your phone to see what track is playing (although thankfully you can control playback from the remote).

5. Doesn't work well with polarized sunglasses - (starting to dig here) If you've seen a display that gets all screwy when you're wearing polarized sunglasses, then you know what I mean. I'm just mentioning this because a lot of people wear them while driving and Parrot designs a lot of car kits, so you think they would have designed with this in mind. Or not...

6. The remote - while I haven't had any of the breakage or short battery life issues that other people have, I am surprised at how poor the remote mounting "system" is - and by system I mean a cheap plastic band that is way too huge for just about any steering wheel. I mounted mine on the thickest part of my wheel and had to use the tightest setting on the mounting band. I know Sony has been making wheel-mounted remotes for its car stereos for years that have much better attachment systems than this. Come on Parrot!

Overall, I'd say if you're considering, it's either this or the Bluetouch at like 2-3x the price. Overall a great system, so much so that I've been considering getting an iPhone if and only if they add stereo bluetooth because I'd miss being able to use my MK6100 too much if I switched.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: unreliable
Comment: I recommend that you not waste your money and look for another brand. The remote unit works unreliably, even with a new battery. The microphone in the display is pretty much useless. They must know that they have a problem because it comes with a separate mic but even when that mic is located within 6 inches of your mouth and you talk extra loud, people complain that you can't be heard. There is no volume adjustment for the mic. Also expect to spend another $40 to $60 on a wiring harness so that it will work with your radio.

If you have an iPhone, you will have to have the firmware downgraded so that it will work with the phone. If the remote happens to be working and you touch the green button, it will dial the last number that you dialed on your phone and you cannot make it hangup. You must stop the call with the phone.

I wasted my money and I will have to remove it from the car. Their tech support has been no help.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Parrot MK6100 Bluetooth Car Kit
Comment: In early September 2008, I had the Parrot MK6100 Bluetooth Car Kit installed by the Best Buy installers for $79 on my BMW 740 iL. Either the installers or the Kit had limitations in that the system could only be hooked up to the front speakers instead of all 6 speakers, leaving my MP3 player music using the Parrot less than optimum sound (in fact, sounding "tinny" in just the two speakers). This may be a limitation of the installers, although I checked with another installation company and also with the local BMW dealer and they both confirmed that it would cost between $400-$600 to make the requisite changes to the BMW system to allow the Parrot to use all of the speakers in my car, because of the limitations of the Parrot MK6100. I don't know whether this is true or if they just saw an opportunity to charge more. In any event, I didn't think it was worth it for just the improved sounds for the MP3 player; and, in addition, my son has a connection appliance for his iPod that he has installed in the cassette player drawer in his Audi that allows the iPod to have full access to all of its speakers, so I'm hoping that I can purchase this appliance and have it work with my AT&T Tilt smart phone for the MP3 feature (which, unfortunately, means that the Parrot did not perform as I expected for this function. As to the Parrot features independent of the speaker/quality sound issues for the MP3 player, I have found that it is slow to recognize the MP3 player feature of my AT&T Tilt smart phone and sometimes it requires re-synching the two. In addition, the "call out" feature of the phone feature is not synched up for "voice only" commands and the "push button" approach to dial a number is not what I would normally want out of a "remote, hands free, voice-activated" system, which I had with my previous Cellport system. This may be my lack of knowledge in how to use the Parrot. The Cellport system came with a CD to instruct the use on how to use its features, and the Parrot comes with a printed "play book" which is cumbersome to use. Because I haven't used the Parrot for phone calls and generally just have used it for playing songs from the MP3 player feature of my AT&T Tilt, I'm "OK" with the Parrot and certainly prefer it to my earbud or to holding the AT&T Tilt to my ear while driving, but it's NOT the A+ standard that I would like to see, and for phone calls, it doesn't measure up with the now "out of date" and probably no longer available Cellport (which was before bluetooth).

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Customer Rating:
Summary: MK6100 - rocks
Comment: I love the MK6100. It works as expected with a couple of minor surprises, but all in all, I would definitely buy it again.
The noice-cancellation software does a funny thing. If you raise your voice, it starts cancelling the noise. As long as I speak at a normal tone, my calls go through crystal clear. Also, I bought the MK6100 specifically because the control screen and touch control can be detached and taken with me or hidden in the car when not in use. The only problem is; after taking the control screen off a few times, the inside connector broke (inside of 2 days). The seller was an e-direct seller and, of course, didn't return my calls. The manufacturer honored the warranty and sent me a new piece very quickly.
I love being able to answer the phone without a funky ear-piece and because the call comes over my speakers, it's loud and clear. The unit also has a separate volume control so when you end the call, you don't get blasted by the stereo.
As I said, a couple of surprises, but I would definitely buy it again.

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