[mav2000]

Lovely write up and sad to see a dealer behaving like this. If you ever do get around to installing LED lights, I would be very interested to read up on that.

I had updated to the same Hu couple of years ago and have got visual OPS working on the system. But that took a lot of time to sort out. There is an ECM type of box behind the speedometer housing. That had to be changed to a higher variant to get it to finally work. It was really a very difficult install and took a lot longer than we imagined.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by mav2000

Lovely write up and sad to see a dealer behaving like this. If you ever do get around to installing LED lights, I would be very interested to read up on that.

I had updated to the same Hu couple of years ago and have got visual OPS working on the system. But that took a lot of time to sort out. There is an ECM type of box behind the speedometer housing. That had to be changed to a higher variant to get it to finally work. It was really a very difficult install and took a lot longer than we imagined.

Thanks a lot for the appreciation!

Actually the OPS module in my car (the box you mentioned) is communicating over CAN and is the same as the Highline variant which has OPS. So I don't think it is an issue per say. Yours I believe had the RCD 320 as standard from the factory. Cars with this HU had a downgraded OPS module which only supported beeps, not visual display.

The issue is the radio. Due to some wiring constraints, it isn't communicating over CAN and thus is unable to get inputs from the OPS module. The one in my car as I mentioned does support visual feedback.

[Shreyas_H]

Great write-up. I have always adored the Jetta. Clean, no-nonsense and a fantastic car. The 2.0 TDI too is a great engine.
The DRLs look great too.

Quite surprised to see this kind of language and response from N2 Autotech - I had only heard good things about them and in fact had planned to get them to help me with some of my planned upgrades on my Polo - I do keep visiting Pune. If this is how they treat paying customers or prospective customers, will steer clear!

[MADMAX111]

Want to replace halogen bulbs of reversing light to LED of my HL Jetta. Any pointers on where to get them is requested as no more Aliexpress now.
Thanks

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by MADMAX111

Want to replace halogen bulbs of reversing light to LED of my HL Jetta. Any pointers on where to get them is requested as no more Aliexpress now.
Thanks

You can get them from desertcart.com. A couple of folks who ordered from there had a fairly good experience. The bulb type seems to be the same as the LED DRLs I used.

The issue is the Amazon listing for the same bulbs has also been removed. Try desertcart and see if it works. If you have any further queries, hit me up.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by vishy76

92,000 Km Update


LED DRLs

The second point needs some explanation for those lucky few who don't have to contend with this feature. Most cars have the ability to monitor all electronics including bulbs and whether they are fused using the CANBUS (essentially a communication line for all electronic modules and components on the car). This makes it easier to find electronic faults instead of testing them manually. A simple DTC scan will tell you what bulb has fused.

Many cars like the Jetta and above take it one step further. If a bulb has fused, an orange error light comes up on the instrument cluster with a corresponding message on the MID stating"check XYZ bulb" or "XYZ bulb fused". How does the car know the bulb is fused? Using internal resistance! If the resistance of the bulb is zero or less than what the system knows it should be, it's assumed the bulb has an issue.

For an LED bulb, the internal resistance is far lesser than a halogen bulb (also the reason why it produces far less heat for the same amount of current and running time). This means the CAN will always throw up an error on start-up as it will think the DRL has fused due to the almost negligible internal resistance of the LED bulb. Hence, it is paramount that the replacement LED has an inbuilt resistor (some resellers call it a chipset too). As the name suggests, the resistor is added in series to the LED so that the final resistance is the same as the halogen it is replacing. The CAN this way will not throw errors. Do note that this applies to all types of factory fitted halogen bulbs on the car.

Hope you won't mind if I clarify with some slight corrections to above, for your benefit as well as for those who read this nice ownership thread.

Contrary to colloquial lingo, it's incorrect to call the electrical non-compliance errors related to lighting as "canbus errors". Many online sellers sell the replacement aftermarket bulbs/LEDs as "canbus bulbs". The intention is conveyed, but the semantics is not quite right. "Error free" LEDs is the right way to name it. There is nothing called "CANBUS error" to be honest. CANBUS is only the communication link, that allows a computer to indicate an error on the instrument cluster, as a warning lamp and/or MID message. To put it in perspective, a check engine light (CEL) or a door ajar warning have to be called CANBUS errors, then. This is what I mean when I say, the semantics of how bulb errors are described in online forums, is not exactly correct. They are just 'electrical errors' , they are not 'canbus errors'.

CANBUS is only a communication link between all the computers (controllers, "ECU"s) on the car. It is a logical link, not an electrical one. The Body Control Module (BCM) or a dedicated Lighting Control Module (LCM) will be the one which handles all lighting related controls - it will have bulb monitoring circuits on it's board, that 'detect' the current drawn by the bulbs/lights/LEDs which are under it's control. When the driver turns on/off a switch - this 'computer' receives an interrupt and decides what to do based on how it interprets the driver action. Hence, the job of 'powering up' or 'powering down' is an indirect control, not just with relays etc, but also with the involvement of software.

Now, the computer in charge of lighting controls, is also doing a job of 'bulb monitoring' - ie checking what current is drawn by the bulb when the car is :
(i) on battery power, 12.xx volts
(ii) on alternator power, 14.xx volts
(iii) when it is switched off (yes, monitoring goes on even if engine is off and car is locked).
This is done using by some current measurement ckts local to the computer in charge of this.

Whenever it sees :
(a) no current (open ckt, bulb fused) or
(b) too much current (bulb about to die) or
(c) lower current (someone has tampered with the bulb),
the ckt will indicate to the computer that something is amiss, and based on which of a/b/c is conveyed, this computer will send the right error message to the instrument cluster computer, via the CANBUS link. So the CANBUS is only the messenger relaying the bad news from one computer to another, it has nothing to do with the generation of the bad news.

When LEDs typically replace bulbs/halogens, the typical error is of type (c), because LEDs are non-linear devices, and the equivalent resistance offered by them (in terms of the bulb they are replacing) is far higher, and that in turn, means the current consumed by the LED is far lower than the regular bulb it replaces. So the task boils down to 'somehow draw the same current as if the regular bulb was still here' , a.k.a masquerade the presence of the regular bulb, by 'drawing' the same current, whilst the LED is the one getting used.

The solution is to fit a parallel (not serial as you mentioned in your notes) resistance, to jack the current back up to regular bulb current consumption levels. And this is precisely what 'error-free-LEDs' do. They are just LEDs with a parallel resistance and have no right to carry the word 'CANBUS' on their packaging. The trick is to work out exactly how much this resistance has to be, and that is where it is a hit or miss with a proper manufacturer v/s cheap chinese versions.

What is noteworthy, is that the total current consumption (current drawn by the bright LED + the current 'wasted' by the parallel resistance) is exactly same as before, when it was a regular bulb. That means there is no power saving, just that there is slightly less heat than before (instead of 95% of heat and 5% light from the regular filament bulb, it is now 80% heat from resistor and 5% heat from LED and 15% light from LED - all numbers just heuristics).

So, to summarize, an LED replacing a bulb has to have a parallel resistance, to masquerade as if it were the same bulb as before, and since it's doing that, there is no power saving -- this is the 'error free' LED.

All of this, if the bulb in question is 'monitored' by the computer in charge (BCM or dedicated lighting computer). If the bulb getting replaced is not a 'monitored' bulb (90% of cars in india) , just blindly replace with any 12V LED, and it will not only provide brighter light (whether that's what is needed, depends, especially w.r.t headlight & foglamps) , it will also save power.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

Hope you won't mind if I clarify with some slight corrections to above, for your benefit as well as for those who read this nice ownership thread.

Contrary to colloquial lingo, it's incorrect to call the electrical non-compliance errors related to lighting as "canbus errors". Many online sellers sell the replacement aftermarket bulbs/LEDs as "canbus bulbs". The intention is conveyed, but the semantics is not quite right. "Error free" LEDs is the right way to name it. There is nothing called "CANBUS error" to be honest. CANBUS is only the communication link, that allows a computer to indicate an error on the instrument cluster, as a warning lamp and/or MID message. To put it in perspective, a check engine light (CEL) or a door ajar warning have to be called CANBUS errors, then. This is what I mean when I say, the semantics of how bulb errors are described in online forums, is not exactly correct. They are just 'electrical errors' , they are not 'canbus errors'.

CANBUS is only a communication link between all the computers (controllers, "ECU"s) on the car. It is a logical link, not an electrical one. The Body Control Module (BCM) or a dedicated Lighting Control Module (LCM) will be the one which handles all lighting related controls - it will have bulb monitoring circuits on it's board, that 'detect' the current drawn by the bulbs/lights/LEDs which are under it's control. When the driver turns on/off a switch - this 'computer' receives an interrupt and decides what to do based on how it interprets the driver action. Hence, the job of 'powering up' or 'powering down' is an indirect control, not just with relays etc, but also with the involvement of software.

Now, the computer in charge of lighting controls, is also doing a job of 'bulb monitoring' - ie checking what current is drawn by the bulb when the car is :
(i) on battery power, 12.xx volts
(ii) on alternator power, 14.xx volts
(iii) when it is switched off (yes, monitoring goes on even if engine is off and car is locked).
This is done using by some current measurement ckts local to the computer in charge of this.

Whenever it sees :
(a) no current (open ckt, bulb fused) or
(b) too much current (bulb about to die) or
(c) lower current (someone has tampered with the bulb),
the ckt will indicate to the computer that something is amiss, and based on which of a/b/c is conveyed, this computer will send the right error message to the instrument cluster computer, via the CANBUS link. So the CANBUS is only the messenger relaying the bad news from one computer to another, it has nothing to do with the generation of the bad news.

When LEDs typically replace bulbs/halogens, the typical error is of type (c), because LEDs are non-linear devices, and the equivalent resistance offered by them (in terms of the bulb they are replacing) is far higher, and that in turn, means the current consumed by the LED is far lower than the regular bulb it replaces. So the task boils down to 'somehow draw the same current as if the regular bulb was still here' , a.k.a masquerade the presence of the regular bulb, by 'drawing' the same current, whilst the LED is the one getting used.

The solution is to fit a parallel (not serial as you mentioned in your notes) resistance, to jack the current back up to regular bulb current consumption levels. And this is precisely what 'error-free-LEDs' do. They are just LEDs with a parallel resistance and have no right to carry the word 'CANBUS' on their packaging. The trick is to work out exactly how much this resistance has to be, and that is where it is a hit or miss with a proper manufacturer v/s cheap chinese versions.

What is noteworthy, is that the total current consumption (current drawn by the bright LED + the current 'wasted' by the parallel resistance) is exactly same as before, when it was a regular bulb. That means there is no power saving, just that there is slightly less heat than before (instead of 95% of heat and 5% light from the regular filament bulb, it is now 80% heat from resistor and 5% heat from LED and 15% light from LED - all numbers just heuristics).

So, to summarize, an LED replacing a bulb has to have a parallel resistance, to masquerade as if it were the same bulb as before, and since it's doing that, there is no power saving -- this is the 'error free' LED.

All of this, if the bulb in question is 'monitored' by the computer in charge (BCM or dedicated lighting computer). If the bulb getting replaced is not a 'monitored' bulb (90% of cars in india) , just blindly replace with any 12V LED, and it will not only provide brighter light (whether that's what is needed, depends, especially w.r.t headlight & foglamps) , it will also save power.

I agree to everything you have said. Thanks for this insightful post as always.

The thing is most aftermarket resellers and more importantly, those on AliExpress used to call it CANBUS error free bulbs. Maybe that's where the lingo came from. Else I am well aware of the fact that the CAN is a communication system used to communicate in a car by distinct modules.

Coming to the error part, I frankly find this useless. If you want to put a bulb, you have to find a bulb with a resistance built in and then change it. On a car without this warning, you simply swap the bulb and forget it. I also know many people who run standard bulbs and don't mind the error on the MID.

On that note, these DRLs I sourced from desertcart are now available on amazon.in! Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08FDQW35Y/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_api_glt_fabc_08M0WMRMPX2VF9K6731D

Once again, thanks to member akshay_rebel for sharing this with me.

[fluidicjoy]

Originally Posted by vishy76

92,000 Km Update

With this, I pinged Nikhil Patil from N2 autotech and placed an order for 2 VCDS cables. Each cable came to about 6500 bucks incl. shipping which although higher than Chinese resellers, is still reasonable considering it was being sold by (who I believed) was a reputed reseller with good ratings. The cable reached me within the next 3 days. Nikhil also installed the VCDS software on my laptop using TeamViewer. All in all, the purchase experience so far was very smooth.

My experience with N2 autotech was fair till this day. I did ask him how I could disable the speed chimes on a friend's Superb (he was after my life for this one thing) and also asked him if his cable would do the job. He wasn't confident of his cable being able to do the task, which was fair enough considering what I had paid for it and the fact that my research said it most probably wouldn't. He also didn't reveal how I could disable the chime. Again, this is a business among most coders and it's not revealed which is perfectly understandable. I decided I would figure it out myself.

I had massive respect for him before for the extent to which he used to retrofit mods on VAGs, and the fact that he was decent in his dealings, but I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.

The attached screenshots also show that I contacted him after a gap of more than a month (I clear chats every month). No conversation took place between us in any way before.

Finally, all I will say is caveat emptor. I have dealt with such people before as well and what has surprised me the most is the fact that they assume customers are gullible fools who don't know anything and don't deserve any respect. For the record, I had also bought another BMW ENET cable from him, only a few days after ordering the VCDS cables. I am not dealing with N2 autotech again for sure.

I personally believe VCDS is a learning curve, and more importantly primarily a diagnostic tool with a little leverage to enable hidden features on your own vehicle. One gets better with experience with VCDS.

On the matter of speed chimes, I'm not sure why anyone would be comfortable to openly share their experience with removing of the speed chime since it is not legal to remove a mandatory safety mechanism being enforced on present passenger car vehicles. Coincidentally, isn't this something you wanted to do as a side-business for your own commercial gain for your customers in Gujarat?

As for his work and service, you have received a perfectly working VCDS cable, which was installed. Most of the queries which you asked him regards your own vehicle were answered, including your understanding of Door Modules, incompatibility of your radio etc. I came to hear about other end of the story this morning. I am of the strong believe that an expert's knowledge, time and trust should not be exploited (even indirectly), which seems to have happened thus triggering a rude, not so appropriate response.

So with all due respect, I don't think it is appropriate to make comments like "jumped up salesman" and speak about the decency of his dealings as it tries to paint a disrespectful image of an expert working in a niche field from a few years.

Originally Posted by vishy76

The issue is the radio. Due to some wiring constraints, it isn't communicating over CAN and thus is unable to get inputs from the OPS module. The one in my car as I mentioned does support visual feedback.

When we last scanned your vehicle, I noticed that your Gateway could most likely be the weak link as to why the RCD330 isn't accessible on your car. Since your car did not come with RCD510 from the factory, I believe VW used a lower revision or firmware on your CAN Gateway. If you're keen on trying to fix it the easy way, then as discussed earlier, you can swap out the radio to a Polo or Vento and enable OPS in the radio, and give it a shot.

The other way is to upgrade your Gateway to the one sold on newer vehicles and higher trim levels which have more equipment. If you ever get to trying those, do share if any of these worked for you. If not, we can try and figure out what the wiring changes could be.

Originally Posted by Shreyas_H

Quite surprised to see this kind of language and response from N2 Autotech - I had only heard good things about them and in fact had planned to get them to help me with some of my planned upgrades on my Polo - I do keep visiting Pune. If this is how they treat paying customers or prospective customers, will steer clear!

I've only had great and amicable experiences with N2 Autotech whenever I've consulted and asked for his help for working on my car. Most owners and quite a few BHPians who have consulted him for work on their personal car swear by his work and helpful nature. To the best of my knowledge, Nikhil continues to help most individuals and businesses who are upfront about their intentions and aspirations.

So the screenshot shared came as a surprise to me. It is no doubt uncalled for, the way the conversation seemed to have gone through between the two, but it is only fair that the whole story be shared, which has not been the case in this instance. It turns out that there has been quite a lot of omission of the exchanges and activities going on which led to a conflict between the two individuals.

I'd say each owner should contact the agency who wants to work on their car, have the particular work done and then post a review of the work quality, their experience and support. You might just have an incredibly pleasant experience which makes your car a better machine.

[sarfraz1997]

Originally Posted by vishy76

92,000 Km Update

A month later, I casually pinged him because a Jetta owner wanted to fit an RCD 340G in place of his existing 510 and needed a dual to single radio antenna adapter socket. Nikhil's response was abrupt and abusive. He not only spoke to me in a condescending tone, but also abused the owner who wanted the adapter. So much for customer ettiquites. He treated me as if I am a cheapskate who keeps asking about products but never buys, even though 3-4 people had bought things from him based on my advice. I had massive respect for him before for the extent to which he used to retrofit mods on VAGs, and the fact that he was decent in his dealings, but I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.

Attachment 2233599

Attachment 2233770

The attached screenshots also show that I contacted him after a gap of more than a month (I clear chats every month). No conversation took place between us in any way before.

Finally, all I will say is caveat emptor. I have dealt with such people before as well and what has surprised me the most is the fact that they assume customers are gullible fools who don't know anything and don't deserve any respect. For the record, I had also bought another BMW ENET cable from him, only a few days after ordering the VCDS cables. I am not dealing with N2 autotech again for sure.

It is shocking to see him react like that. I agree that he should not have used such words. Let me share my experience with him. 11 months ago, Nikhil Patil and I were strangers to each other. I contacted him after hearing accolades about the quality of his work from my conversations with his customers. He was very much approachable to me ever since, and had driven down to Hyderabad from Pune for working on my car. Between the time that I initially contacted him and we finally met, as is the usual case for most who are doing retrofits on their car, I had many questions, some even very stupid. So I had asked him so many queries, he had always answered them without any fuss. Fast forward 11 months, having known him for this long through numerous interactions, I don’t think he’s a person who’d do that without a sound reason. Now, when I ask him about queries for my customers on a daily basis, he has never hesitated to answer. I know a numerous other business owners in this industry who swear by his friendship and work. However, as always, there are two sides to a story. It would’ve helped us better understand what happened if we knew more about the background of the conversation. If there has been a miscommunication, I’m sure it can be cleared with dialogue.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by fluidicjoy

I personally believe VCDS is a learning curve, and more importantly primarily a diagnostic tool with a little leverage to enable hidden features on your own vehicle. One gets better with experience with VCDS.

On the matter of speed chimes, I'm not sure why anyone would be comfortable to openly share their experience with removing of the speed chime since it is not legal to remove a mandatory safety mechanism being enforced on present passenger car vehicles. Coincidentally, isn't this something you wanted to do as a side-business for your own commercial gain for your customers in Gujarat?

As for his work and service, you have received a perfectly working VCDS cable, which was installed. Most of the queries which you asked him regards your own vehicle were answered, including your understanding of Door Modules, incompatibility of your radio etc. I came to hear about other end of the story this morning. I am of the strong believe that an expert's knowledge, time and trust should not be exploited (even indirectly), which seems to have happened thus triggering a rude, not so appropriate response.

So with all due respect, I don't think it is appropriate to make comments like "jumped up salesman" and speak about the decency of his dealings as it tries to paint a disrespectful image of an expert working in a niche field from a few years.



When we last scanned your vehicle, I noticed that your Gateway could most likely be the weak link as to why the RCD330 isn't accessible on your car. Since your car did not come with RCD510 from the factory, I believe VW used a lower revision or firmware on your CAN Gateway. If you're keen on trying to fix it the easy way, then as discussed earlier, you can swap out the radio to a Polo or Vento and enable OPS in the radio, and give it a shot.

The other way is to upgrade your Gateway to the one sold on newer vehicles and higher trim levels which have more equipment. If you ever get to trying those, do share if any of these worked for you. If not, we can try and figure out what the wiring changes could be.



I've only had great and amicable experiences with N2 Autotech whenever I've consulted and asked for his help for working on my car. Most owners and quite a few BHPians who have consulted him for work on their personal car swear by his work and helpful nature. To the best of my knowledge, Nikhil continues to help most individuals and businesses who are upfront about their intentions and aspirations.

So the screenshot shared came as a surprise to me. It is no doubt uncalled for, the way the conversation seemed to have gone through between the two, but it is only fair that the whole story be shared, which has not been the case in this instance. It turns out that there has been quite a lot of omission of the exchanges and activities going on which led to a conflict between the two individuals.

I'd say each owner should contact the agency who wants to work on their car, have the particular work done and then post a review of the work quality, their experience and support. You might just have an incredibly pleasant experience which makes your car a better machine.

Thanks for your inputs on the HU Sujoy. I am not in the mood to touch it now. But from what I reckon, I saw a similar CAN Gateway in a Skoda Superb 2014 which led me to knock it off the suspect list. I might be wrong here but i will surely try to put this same unit in a Polo/Vento and have a go at it again.

Coming to Nikhil, I have never questioned his expertise. He has earned a loyal customer base only because of his work and that's the reason why I approached him in the first place. I don't have any complaints wrt the cable I bought from him either. You can read the same in the post. I told him I had a Jetta Mk6 and he gave me a VCDS cable for a Mk6. No complains there whatsoever else I would have raised them separately.

The issue comes when his tone turned abrupt all of a sudden. I have mentioned again in the post itself that I agree him not revealing the speed chime disabling methods because it's his business and his methods. That's fair on his part. But, not indicating his discomfort in a respectable manner is what shocked me. I contacted him more than a month after the speed chime fiasco (if I may call it that), and that was also for a product enquiry. It had nothing to do with any previous dealings. And there was no interim communication between us either (all comms on whatsapp. Absolutely none on call).

I am not here to name call anyone, else this post would have been on a separate thread. I don't want to insult him or defame him, that's not my way of doing things. However, there's better ways to tell me I am in the wrong and "exploiting" someone than calling me cuss words, especially when I have never wronged you at any point or defamed you in person or on a group.

Originally Posted by sarfraz1997

It is shocking to see him react like that. I agree that he should not have used such words. Let me share my experience with him. 11 months ago, Nikhil Patil and I were strangers to each other. I contacted him after hearing accolades about the quality of his work from my conversations with his customers. He was very much approachable to me ever since, and had driven down to Hyderabad from Pune for working on my car. Between the time that I initially contacted him and we finally met, as is the usual case for most who are doing retrofits on their car, I had many questions, some even very stupid. So I had asked him so many queries, he had always answered them without any fuss. Fast forward 11 months, having known him for this long through numerous interactions, I don’t think he’s a person who’d do that without a sound reason. Now, when I ask him about queries for my customers on a daily basis, he has never hesitated to answer. I know a numerous other business owners in this industry who swear by his friendship and work. However, as always, there are two sides to a story. It would’ve helped us better understand what happened if we knew more about the background of the conversation. If there has been a miscommunication, I’m sure it can be cleared with dialogue.

I agree Sarfraz. But what is done is done. On the outset I will add one line. I am not discouraging anyone from dealing with N2 autotech. There's a reason why he's the best and I am sure the quality of his work speaks louder than any of the screenshots I have posted here.

But, I think the damage is done personally for me. I am not going to deal with him again. That's just my personal opinion. I am not forcing it down anyone's throat. Whoever wants to take business to him can happily do so and I am quite sure he will do a good job of it too.

[sharan1988]

Originally Posted by vishy76

92,000 Km Update



My experience with N2 autotech was fair till this day. I did ask him how I could disable the speed chimes on a friend's Superb (he was after my life for this one thing) and also asked him if his cable would do the job. He wasn't confident of his cable being able to do the task, which was fair enough considering what I had paid for it and the fact that my research said it most probably wouldn't. He also didn't reveal how I could disable the chime. Again, this is a business among most coders and it's not revealed which is perfectly understandable. I decided I would figure it out myself.


A month later, I casually pinged him because a Jetta owner wanted to fit an RCD 340G in place of his existing 510 and needed a dual to single radio antenna adapter socket. Nikhil's response was abrupt and abusive. He not only spoke to me in a condescending tone, but also abused the owner who wanted the adapter. So much for customer ettiquites. He treated me as if I am a cheapskate who keeps asking about products but never buys, even though 3-4 people had bought things from him based on my advice. I had massive respect for him before for the extent to which he used to retrofit mods on VAGs, and the fact that he was decent in his dealings, but I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.

Shocked to see your experience with n2auto tech. There are certainly 2 sides to this. Known Nikhil for quite a while now, he wouldn't do anything like this to a genuine person.

[SuperSuri]

Originally Posted by vishy76

92,000 Km Update


For 5200 bucks, I don't think I could have bought a better HU (OE or aftermarket). Yes, the lack of AA and AC does pinch me sometimes, but I go back to the first sentence again and convince myself that I atleast now have a contemporary looking HU with Bluetooth streaming and calling with USB if the need arises.

Hello, I just saw a video on YouTube on adding CarPlay & AA to the RCD 330. Just have a look, might help you.

https://youtu.be/VkV_l6aP6XA

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Originally Posted by SuperSuri

Hello, I just saw a video on YouTube on adding CarPlay & AA to the RCD 330. Just have a look, might help you.

https://Youtu.be/VkV_l6aP6XA

That's a 330G Plus. Not a 330G. This is applicable for 330G Plus and unfortunately, 330G can't have Android Auto/CarPlay.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by vishy76

My experience with N2 autotech was fair till this day.

There are always 2 sides to a coin, and unfortunately, only one side has been presented here.

He treated me as if I am a cheapskate who keeps asking about products but never buys, even though 3-4 people had bought things from him based on my advice.

Keeping 100% transparency is a key here. Nikhil will help you out as a friend and has been doing so, as far as I know, but when it comes to commercial transactions, or dealings, it is best to be very clear on expectations from both parties involved.

I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.

Nikhil is very hardworking and has learnt a lot of things which which takes a lot of time and effort and at times $$$ too when things break / get damaged. Expecting a free consultation from him just because it's an easy process or the customer is aware of things is not justified.

I am not dealing with N2 autotech again for sure.

I'll leave you with this tale:

There was once a rich businessman with a broken beloved car. Despite several attempts, he was unable to fix the engine of that car. He called several engineers but no one was able to fix it. Finally there was an old mechanic who visited him. That old guy inspected the engine and asked for a hammer. On front side of the engine, he tapped few times with his hammer and brrroomm…brroom…It started Working! Next day, the old mechanic sent his invoice for $1000. The businessman was shocked.
He said, “ This was merely a $1 job. You just tapped the engine with your hammer. What’s there for $1000 that you are asking?”
The old mechanic said “ Let me give you a detailed invoice.”
The Invoice read:
Tapping the engine with hammer: $1
Knowing where to hit the hammer: $999
That was his experience which made him hit the right spot.

Originally Posted by Shreyas_H

If this is how they treat paying customers or prospective customers, will steer clear!

It's best to not be judgemental due to one bad experience than 100s of positive experiences. We are the first to post about bad experiences but never do so for countless positives ones.

Originally Posted by fluidicjoy

Coincidentally, isn't this something you wanted to do as a side-business for your own commercial gain for your customers in Gujarat?

When there is a commercial transaction involved, expectations (of both parties) vary vastly. It is best to clear things up before the transaction.

So the screenshot shared came as a surprise to me. It is no doubt uncalled for, the way the conversation seemed to have gone through between the two, but it is only fair that the whole story be shared, which has not been the case in this instance. It turns out that there has been quite a lot of omission of the exchanges and activities going on which led to a conflict between the two individuals.

I know Nikhil very well, and if he has send this, then things have reached a boiling point.

Originally Posted by sarfraz1997

However, as always, there are two sides to a story. It would’ve helped us better understand what happened if we knew more about the background of the conversation. If there has been a miscommunication, I’m sure it can be cleared with dialogue.

Bingo, I don't think Nikhil is a member here, but I have requested him to use the contact us page to share his side of things.

Originally Posted by vishy76

However, there's better ways to tell me I am in the wrong and "exploiting" someone than calling me cuss words, especially when I have never wronged you at any point or defamed you in person or on a group.

So you admit you were in the wrong and it is the language that is bothering you and the way he communicated it with you.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by SuperSuri

Hello, I just saw a video on YouTube on adding CarPlay & AA to the RCD 330. Just have a look, might help you.

https://Youtu.be/VkV_l6aP6XA

It's a different unit. The one installed in his jetta is RCD330G. It can't be upgraded to get Carplay and Android auto.