Alpine ilx-207 in the Scosche trim

[chazyouwin]

Thanks, but the main credit goes to Alpine and Scosche!

Well I'm a lawyer and I drove to court today - very important to get there on time about an hour away, so here's what I did. Picked up the phone and started Waze, inputted the address. Plugged the phone in and stated Carplay on the Alpine, started Apple Maps. Asked Siri to go to the address, which input the address into Apple Maps. Started Spotify and chose my favorite station. Switched back to the Apple Maps view and got the map visual, set it up the way I wanted it and I was able to see all of the traffic jams (different colors on the route). Drove with the sound from Spotify and both Waze and Apple maps gave me audio indications (all of them - there was uncannily no overlap, and the accents were slightly different so I knew which was speaking). Apple Maps and Waze took me the exact same route, which happened to be slightly off of their normal route. Right on time, listening to music the entire time.
Received the Axxess AX-SUBUSB, which is the connector for the stock dash USB outlet to the head unit.
Many thanks to everyone who has posted here -- made the installations clean and confident.

[chazyouwin]

Ok, having difficulty installing the Axxess AX-SUBUSB. Loosened up the old USB connector in the dash panel, and thought I'd be smart by inserting a Lightning USB charger cord in the old connector so I could fish it out if it fell down. Well it fell down all right, but wedged itself impossibly behind a metal part with a hole that doesn't seem large enough to take it. So now that little USB connector is stuck there, and pull as I might on the charger cord I can't get it to budge. I also removed the gear shift fascia and pulled the soft material up over the gearshift, but it did not budge there either. Put everything back and now I've got a lousy looking hole with a useless Lightning cord sticking out. There must be a better way . . . but I'm not seeing it on any threads here. Anyone with experience on this issue - could use your help!

[chazyouwin]

Ok, idiot me. I finally was able to get the lightning cord out and pull the corded usb receptacle up using one of those plumber's claw pickup tools. I pulled the usb corded receptacle out under the space vacated by the shift lever collar. Pulled the plug for the cord out (required a mighty pull) and not only did the cord come out, but the usb receptacle came apart in two pieces. Looked at the back of it I was puzzled to see a female end for the cord on the back of receptacle which looked just like the female end of the AX-SUBUSB adapter. It then finally dawned on me that the AX-SUBUSB adapter should be connected to the other end of a stray Kizashi USB cord hanging around somewhere back of the new Alpine head unit, not anywhere to the usb receptacle, with the male end plugged into the head unit. Going to check all of the wires back of the head unit now.

[chazyouwin]

Ok - the Axxess AX-SUBUSB works very well. You plug one end into the Kizashi's connector back of the head unit, and the other into the head unit. You do not try to connect it in the little storage compartment USB port. Having done so, I now have a USB Apple Lightning charger sticking out of the hole, connected on the one end to the old USB port rolling around in the bottom of the dash and the other is available to connect to the phone. Much better than the the connector being in the glove compartment, but I regret the hole. Even if I pull the USB port up to the hole, I can't make it stick there.

[chazyouwin]

Ok, now I've got the USB port back in its original spot and able to take the Lightning plug as might have been anticipated by Kizashi engineers. Attached are the pics. Basically, what I did is use a plumbers grabber to fish up the downed port in the larger space under the bottom lip of the bin (moving the gearshift fascia to get there), disconnect it from the Kizashi host wire, fish the line back up through the hole using the plumbers grabber and a needle nose pliers, reconnect it, attach the USB garnish, and pop it back in. Reassemble stick. Pics in this and the next posting.

[chazyouwin]

The pics, by the way, are for some reason in reverse order. Start at the bottom.

[KuroNekko]

The head unit looks great and certainly gives your Kizashi an updated look and function. I wish the screen was bigger though to fill up more of the space. It's nice that the Scosche trim is designed to match the angles of the Kizashi's interior trim.

[chazyouwin]

Thanks, and interesting observation. I had been thinking that with the icons presented by Carplay and experience pressing those same icons on the phone, that the screen was marvelously big enough for its intended purpose.

I guess the only thing I find a little negative is that if you use Carplay with the phone plugged in, it apparently kicks out the Bluetooth connection. Then the next time you start the car the Bluetooth is not connected and the unit insists that it be connected manually; phone-in-the-pocket BT audio is not available simply because you don't plug in and use the wired Carplay.

[chazyouwin]

Correction on the Bluetooth issue mentioned above. It turns out that if you use wired Carplay and turn the engine/unit off, and then next time have the phone in your pocket and want to keep it there -- then you can simply wait a period of 20-30 seconds for the unit to handshake and adjust to Bluetooth and it will automatically start the music on the station where you left off with the Carplay (I'm using Spotify). Neat.

(I was expecting immediate automatic transfer off to the Bluetooth -- if you press the button for BT music play too quickly it gives a screen that says you need to connect the Bluetooth device. Just wait.)

Cleanup items: (1) use the included Alpine clippy adapter to adjust the microphone so that it is away from the windshield just a tad and point the mic down so that it is not obstructed by the liner; (2) figure out a way to clip the A-pillar lining back in completely - thought it would just snap right back in, but it is a bit loose.

[bkcheong]

I have also installed this unit in my Kizashi. However, do you find that it sometimes does not recognise your iPhone? When this happens, I have to disconnect and reconnect the phone. Sometimes, it would work, other times not. It can be most frustrating, to say the least!