Strangways

I will keep you posted, for sure. Other than getting a new nav unit as nunyas suggested, I was thinking that if I really wanted a hidden solution, I'd get a Bluetooth audio receiver that could be hidden behind the dash or glove box, powered from a USB cable or some other DC connection, getting power from the internal fuse box (with an add-a-circuit) and with the output wired up to the auxiliary input, bypassing the little jack box under the climate controls.

Strangways

My "Hi Fi Car Bluetooth Music Adapter" from eBay arrived a few days ago. The box states: "Let the music becomes wireless, let us enjoy wireless music fun!"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201059661077

Now that I've lived with it for a while, my verdict is… 4.5 stars out of 5. I'm using an ancient Blackberry 9790 and an iPhone 4 with it. I have a 2009 Ralliart with the Rockford Fosgate audio system and nav.

The unit itself is quite small, and the angled 12V socket on the Lancer puts it in a perfect location. I need to lean forward just a little bit to hit the play/pause/previous track/next track buttons, which all work perfectly.



The sound is great, but not quite perfect. It does produce some electronic noise, so if you're listening to the quiet passages of a Michael Nyman piano track at a volume setting of 32 with the car parked in a quiet spot, engine off, and the windows up, you will hear it. However, at a volume setting in the 20's, or with the volume cranked but the engine running as you drive down the road, or with a fully dynamic song playing, you don't hear it at all. I'd say I'm pickier than the average person on audio quality, and I think it's good enough. However, if you are an audiophile that spent more on your speaker cables than your car, you will be disappointed when you know deep-down there is probably noise in your signal, even when you can't hear it most of the time. The best results were with the volume on the Bluetooth adapter cranked up as high as it would go, so the factory stereo could be at a lower volume.

My car came with a factory Bluetooth phone system, and I paired my phone to that before I paired it this Bluetooth audio adapter. Much to my pleasant surprise, my phone seems to pair with both simultaneously. If I am playing music and a call comes in, or I make a call, the music pauses, and the car handles the call. So I still get the high-quality microphone mounted by my dome lights. When the call completes, the car switches back to Aux, my phone switches back to the music adapter, and the song continues. It might work differently with other phones, but for me, the switching is flawless, and I am very happy to have the car's hands-free system used for phone calls. It is supposed to work for calls, so that could be useful for anyone that doesn't have it in their car. YMMV depending on your phone.

As for charging, it has a USB port that will charge a phone while playing audio without any problems. You can often get interference issues if you have a phone plugged into the 12V socket to charge, and are using a wired audio cable into the aux jack.
The packaging claims it outputs 5V (USB standard) and 2 amps. I have a USB voltage/amp tester, and it shows the USB port as outputting 5.00 volts exactly with no load, which is rare - most wall chargers are over 5V. With something plugged it, it show 4.90 volts, which is normal under a load even for a wall charger.
Most phones draw 1 amp when charging from nearly empty, and an iPad will draw 2 amps. This unit easily supplies 1 amp when charging phones, and with an iPad which was at 64% it was supplying 1.41 amps. I then plugged that iPad into the official Apple wall charger, and it was only drawing 1.36 amps. So while I haven't had it in a situation where I can test to see if it supplies the promised 2 amps, I know it will supply more than 1 amp, and therefore should be enough to charge an iPad… if it only supplied 1amp, that wouldn't be enough to charge it.

For only $13, you can't go wrong.