INSTALLATION: Metra Kit for 2006 Pilot was off. Needed to Dremel (enlarge) side holes in kit to line up with tapped holes in unit. Top mounting tabs to dash interior needed to be shimmed out by ~3/16″ (used 3 stacked washers under tab holes) to push unit down and correctly align with dash front opening. Ends up slightly tilted so top of unit protrudes a little, but bottom is still flush with opening. Angle actually makes display more vertical and easier to view while it still has that “built-in” look.INTERFACE: Physical buttons on front face a big plus… easier access to radio/nav/vol/tuning, etc. Graphics a bit cluttered and out-of-date looking, but usable. Fairly quick boot-up from cold starts (audio/visual and nav). Remembers last selected input on start-up (except nav which must be manually restarted). Various setting and menus can be hard to find, access or hidden (read the manual carefully and be prepared to play around with it a lot.)RADIO: Works and sounds fine. Better than stock, but have only used with stock speakers so far. Basic RDS displays a small line of text in upper right corner with current station/song. Some people complaining of eradicate station selection may have inadvertently enabled AF/TA/PTY (deselect to avoid in bottom menu using swipe to left to open hidden settings on right side).BLUETOOTH: Works well, but with some caveats. Must use with external microphone plugged into rear port. Confusing because the manufacturer’s prerelease photos have shown the word “mic” printed by a hole in upper left front panel implying an internal microphone. The actual product does not have that (though hole for mic is still there.) Manufacturer support emailed back “they work together, but the external mic must be plugged in.” Haven’t verified that, but voice pickup is fine with external mic. Pairs with iPhone 5 (running iOS6), but does not reconnect after powering off/on. Must go into iPhone and “forget” connection and re-pair it with unit next time it’s used. Old Android phone (running Gingerbread) connects without pairing and seems to work better in this regard.SD/USB: Works fine sound wise. Usual limitation of no playlist/album/artist support, only one long song list by folder in the order it was physically written to media by computer. Seems to be a universal characteristic of car head units. Shuffle play is available. Haven’t yet explored the limits on the number of song/folder/subfolders software will recognize. Works with micro SD card slot in front and mini-USB front plug (with supplied adapter cable)/full size rear connector.IPOD: Works thru supplied cable that connects to proprietary rear port. Cable uses the old style 30-pin apple connector (need adapter to use with lightning.) Need to run cable to somewhere accessible like your glove box or front console.CD/DVD: Haven’t explored this much, but it’s played anything I’ve thrown at it. DVD video looks good… but one need to go into setting menu (available only during playback by tapping screen) to select the proper aspect ratio like 16:9. A parking brake override is available in the main menu under Video settings for use with or without the parking brake wire connected.NAV: That’s a mixed bag. Runs PolNav6 software with NAVTEQ maps. Both reasonably up-to-date (2012.Q1 maps). Boot up and satellite lock is fast, navigation routes OK, and the interface is not too confusing. But TTS street name pronunciations are terrible, almost to the point of being useless. If you can live without TTS, its acceptable. Can substitute and run any WINCE6 compatible navigation software you care to install via SD card.
