Pioneer AVIC-U310BT user reviews

5.0 stars

"Great Budget GPS Radio" on August 15, 2009 by epa4wd

Pros: Bluetooth
Color Display Custumization, DOES WORK.
GPS
USB
Ipod Control
Excellent if you plan on keeping stock speakers

Cons: A bit Complex Menu, takes some time to get used to.

Summary: Although this CNET reviews says setting for illumination did not work, they didn't complete the process for changing the color display. After creating a color, saving it to the SD card, copying the settings to the radio, press and hold SRC button until all sound comes off, then press the volume knob for a few seconds and initial settings will appear, select illumination color, change from SCAN to CUSTOM. Thats it works like a charm. Read the manual Antuan!!!

0.5 stars

"Don't call it a GPS navigation system. But a nice radio" on March 5, 2011 by metzger_mb

Pros: If you can find how to change the colors of your GPS navigation system... well, it's the cool thing on your GPS. That's it. No.. I forgot, it's good looking. But that's it! It's not a cool gps at all.

Cons: I know I used to have a Garmin Zumo... which is great. But compare to that, the Avic-u310bt is total ****. I don't understand how can they provide such a gps and pretend it's a gps.

Summary: Not intuitive, not easy to understand, no useful at all... and regarding Pioneer, well no service, no updates provided, a complete waist of time, and money.

Updated on Dec 20, 2011

GPS: Strange POIs available... ?? Excellent hardware but really poor software in it!
Many minor fixes would benefits a lot to this radio/gps/cd player.

1.0 stars

"Great feature set but product doesn't deliver" on November 23, 2010 by gk141054

Pros: Combines car stereo, mp3 playback, sat nav and bluetooth hands free all in one package

Cons: See below for detail

Summary: Bluetooth is bad and very difficult for the person you are calling to hear what you are saying. TMC (Traffic Message Channel) only works about 0.1% of the time so basically if there is traffic / roadworks / an accident on your route, you'll never know about it. Would have been good to have DVD / XVID playback but they obviously kept that back for their more expensive models.

2.0 stars

"Overall feature set interesting but too many flaws." on October 17, 2010 by dSly

Pros: - good sound quality
- good screen
- removable face plate
- good feature set (USB, POIs on memory card, bluetooth, driving log)

Cons: - intermittent GPS hangs
- the bluetooth does not switch automatically between cell phones
- driving log does not have a rolling total, it stops working when it is full and it cannot be erased from within the device
- Pioneer service not adequate

Summary: I have had the device for a year and was generally pleased at the beginning. The 310BT has lots of interesting features and it seemed to work very well. However, it is very annoying when it hangs as it can take a while for it to "come alive". It seems that removing the faceplate will also do the trick sometimes. The driving log is an interesting feature especially if one needs to monitor kids who would be using the car. However, having to take the memory card out every time to clear the log is very frustrating; it should have some kind of rolling content where one define the size of the log and where older items get removed automatically when the maximum size is reached. Or, at least, have a way to reset the log from the device's controls. The most annoying flaw though has to be the inability of the device to switch between cell phones by itself; it will accept up to three paired cell phones and will work with all three but the driver has to go to settings to select the appropriate phone (unless it is the same phone as was used the last time the car/GPS was used). If multiple drivers are using the car/GPS with their own cell phones, this is a very annoying problem. I have contacted Pioneer by e-mail and phone multiple times and have sent the device to Pioneer for repair. It came back with no-fault-found and it still does not switch between phones by itself and it still hangs every now and then. Pioneer service has been inconsistent and unreliable; they have actually stopped answering my e-mails. I cannot recommend the AVIC-310BT nor any device that could require Pioneer service.