Guest Swampie Posted February 17, 2006 Report Posted February 17, 2006 I'm considering getting a Brodit car mount, but at £35ish for the active mount + £16ish for the clip, it's quite expensive. I don't want a suction cup thing, rather something which can hold the Vario without requiring and glueing or screwing to the dash. This is what appeals to me about the Brodit mounts - they have clips designed for your car so you know it'll fit. Trouble is, spending > £50 on a few pieces of plastic to hold a PDA in a car occasionally (I don't drive for a living, and rarely drive to work) seems excessive. So, does anyone know of some cheap places to get Brodit mounts? Thanks
Guest Phil Lee Posted February 17, 2006 Report Posted February 17, 2006 I got mine from PDA Hut following a recommendation here. I can't fault their service. There was a delay getting the car sepcific mount for my new Toyota Verso. Brodit were advertising it but couldn't ship it. PDA Hut asked me what I wanted to do, I said I was OK to wait but they instead sent me the passive mount for my Vario together with a suction cup holder as an interim solution. They then sent me the proper mount which arrived yesterday and told me I didn't need to send back the other mount which I could keep free of charge. I fitted it to my car today and it works great. All in all excellent service from them. As for cost, it came to just over £40 but it is a quality piece of kit.
Guest Swampie Posted February 20, 2006 Report Posted February 20, 2006 Okay, trying to consider other, more budget solutions now! Has anyone got an opinion on this: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/1378.htm Whilst the Vario is not listed as a supported phone, it does support the iPod which is apparently 104x61x11. The Vario is 108x58x19, so slightly deeper and taller than the iPod, but as it also supports the Nokia 9300i, which is 132x51x21, there shouldn't be a problem. So, assuming it fits, any idea whether it is adjustable with regard to where it points, or does it just hang there off the vent? I'm hoping to get TomTom too, so ideally I'd like it to at least point at me :) You see, the Brodit passive mount + vent proclip for the Vario comes in around £41 delivered. This cheapy thing is just £8.50 delivered - a 1/5 of the price. I'm just having difficulty convincing myself that £41 for 2 pieces of bent plastic is value for money. No doubt it'll be a good product - but I'm really looking for something a little cheaper which can hold the phone for the times I use the car (not that often in reality).
Guest Swampie Posted February 20, 2006 Report Posted February 20, 2006 Or even this: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=129820&sbadd=129820 Has the vent mounted PDA holder I'm after, but also has a suction cup arm. I don't like suction cup arms - but it means I can mount it in any car should I need to in the future... Or maybe just go with the vent mount... I guess it's universal.
Guest trevormuk Posted February 20, 2006 Report Posted February 20, 2006 To be fair m8 ... you get what you pay for. I thought long and hard before I spent good money on a brodit set-up. At the end of the day it is worth it. My equipment is held securely in place, and it looks great. Previously I was using a cheap car holder, and my phone used to fall out all the time.... not great! Go for it - its worth it :)
Guest Swampie Posted February 20, 2006 Report Posted February 20, 2006 To be fair m8 ... you get what you pay for. I thought long and hard before I spent good money on a brodit set-up. At the end of the day it is worth it. My equipment is held securely in place, and it looks great. Previously I was using a cheap car holder, and my phone used to fall out all the time.... not great! Go for it - its worth it :) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm aware you get what you pay for - however, if I was using the day on a daily basis, I'd not have a problem. But I walk to work most days, driving only take 10 minutes. I'd probably use it mostly at weekends, holidays etc. For such an occasional use, and for what it is, it seems quite expensive. But I fully agree - you get what you pay for, and often going cheap ends up biting you in the end.
Guest kiteless Posted February 20, 2006 Report Posted February 20, 2006 I've been really impressed with the Brodit stuff I've used and seen installed elsewhere. In my own car, there had been an old Nokia car kit installed so I just dug out the brackets, re-mounted that into the existing holes in the dash and just bolted the holder to it. It's pricey, but the materials are top-notch and the fit is perfect. The Proclips are brilliant if your car hasn't been butchered already, and just work very nicely. I'm similar, don't use my car much day-to-day but having it mounted properly is a godsend. I wouldn't hesitate spending £40 on that setup if I changed cars. I got one of those cheap universal clip-on vent ones with my C500 Copilot pack. Cheap, flimsy rubbish and I broke the plastic the first time I tried to remove it. Buy quality, buy once.
Guest adchaffey Posted February 23, 2006 Report Posted February 23, 2006 I had a universal vent mount with my old C500 and it was terrible. Couldn't get it to point in my direction and I wasn't happy with the weight of the phone pulling on the vent the way it did. Even with the relatively light weight of the C500. I certainly wouldn't use a vent mount for the Wizard then. If you really want to keep it cheap, a few people have recommended decent suction mounts, but I'd have to agree with most people here. I've splashed out on the full brodit mount and active cradle. I only use my car on weekends and occaisional meetings around the country, but it's a great setup, even for the price! Even more so now Tom Tom is in the post!!
Guest trevormuk Posted February 23, 2006 Report Posted February 23, 2006 www.handnav.co.uk is a great place to get your Brodit stuff. Prices are good, and no postage :) HTH
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted February 23, 2006 Report Posted February 23, 2006 I have a suction mount with my Mio GPS and I find it seriously annoying on motorway travel with the unit vibrating all the time. With the Brodit mount it's solid as a rock.
Guest Swampie Posted February 23, 2006 Report Posted February 23, 2006 www.handnav.co.uk is a great place to get your Brodit stuff. Prices are good, and no postage :) HTH <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The other strange thing is many places are selling the passive mount for £20, they're selling them for £28, with the active being just £35. Hmm, actually - if you're interested in buying from Handnav - make sure you look at their Brodit bundles, which include both proclip and mount for a discounted price. Slightly under £40 for passive and slighly under £50 for active. Far more reasonable prices I think. Free delivery too if you can wait 3-5 days. Also, they'll only charge for you next day delivery (£5.99 + VAT) if they can ship the same day (or next if ordered after 2pm). If the item is out of stock, then they'll, apparently, send it out for free via their normal service. I just ordered the active mount and proclip in the end upon recommendation by people. Expensive - yes, but should hopefully be a good product.
Guest JPo_23 Posted May 3, 2006 Report Posted May 3, 2006 (edited) Does anyone know where I can get hold of the Brodit car mount designed for the Wizard in landscape mode with the keyboard open? I can see it on their site, but not on handnav.co.uk, and brodit's uk supplier (nemesis) seems to have a particularly unhelpful website. I'm after the 'passive' one. Edited May 3, 2006 by JPo_23
Guest Swampie Posted May 3, 2006 Report Posted May 3, 2006 (edited) Does anyone know where I can get hold of the Brodit car mount designed for the Wizard in landscape mode with the keyboard open? I can see it on their site, but not on handnav.co.uk, and brodit's uk supplier (nemesis) seems to have a particularly unhelpful website. I'm after the 'passive' one. Handhav certainly have the both active/charging one on their site (Brodit part number 968655), and the passive one: http://www.handnav.co.uk/search_results.ph...ounts&st=Brodit 4th option down on the left side labelled "Brodit PDA Mount / Holder - Powered through Cigarette Lighter Socket", in the drop down you'll see that part number listed. The passive one (Brodit part number 848655) is a bit hidden as you need to select the 5th one down on the right labelled "Brodit PDA & Mobile Phone Passive Mount / Holder" - NOT the one above which sounds right but doesn't list the Vario in the drop down box. The one to select doesn't have a drop down - you only select the model when you've added it to your cart/clicked Buy Now. When you do this, you'll get to select your PDA etc. If you do this, for the Vario you'll then find you get a "For an upright click here" and "For a horizontal click here" type option. I've got the active portrait model and thing it's great. I'm glad I went for active, as I find the Vario has a short battery life, and being able to charge it whilst driving helps me ensure that by the end of the day, it's always fully charged, giving at least, a whole day out the office on battery. Plus, I use it for Satnav, so that helps for long journeys/when I've forgotten to charge it. The actual extra cost of the active one isn't much more than buying an in car charger anyway, and it's very neat! Ensure you look at the bundles, and not just pick the items separately, the price was far better I found, making it silly not to go for the active one. Finally, I'm glad I didn't go for the horizontal one, as I believe you *must* open the keyboard to mount it that way - you can't mount it closed. For TomTom etc, you can still rotate the portrait one into a horizontal orientation - you just can't have the keyboard open. Think carefully if you have to have the keyboard open and not just after landscape orientation - I'm glad I didn't go for it in the end as I was very serious about it. The vertical one just slides in perfectly without having to open etc - nice and easy. Edited May 3, 2006 by Swampie
Guest Leaskovski Posted May 10, 2006 Report Posted May 10, 2006 I got a cheepo one of ebay and its crap. I am now looking at one of these... http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3459 with this adapter for the Vario... http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3481 This HR product aparently does not give you vibrations even though its a suctions mount. One thing you will always notice with any goose neck mount (bendy arm thingys) is that it will suffer from vibrations.
Guest Swampie Posted May 11, 2006 Report Posted May 11, 2006 After being unsure about the Brodits and their price - I can see what people say about you get what you pay for. Excellent bit of kit, well made, perfect fit, no vibration - just perfect. I hate the suction cup ones as they block some of the windscreen and need long arms to reach from the windscreen.
Guest Zahid Posted August 31, 2006 Report Posted August 31, 2006 I bought a Brodit Proclip with a mount for my C500 back in the day and it looked/felt so much more professional than any other non car-kit holder I'd had. I then upgraded to the M600 and didn't hesitate to order the Brodit M600 mount, again from handnav.co.uk. The M600 turned out to be faulty and I was within 7 days of upgrading so cancelled the upgrade but then the M600 was never in stock to get another one. Since then the M3100 was released and so I went for one and get it yesterday. I'm now going to order the Brodit mount for this. Anybody want to buy an unused Brodit mount for an M600? :D
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted August 31, 2006 Report Posted August 31, 2006 I get all my brodit stuff from www.dsldevelopments.com, they're excellent! P
Guest FragMeister Posted October 10, 2006 Report Posted October 10, 2006 www.morpethmobiles.co.uk are good, free uk delivery and a discount if you get a proclip at the same time as a holder
Guest dmr54 Posted October 29, 2006 Report Posted October 29, 2006 I get all my brodit stuff from www.dsldevelopments.com, they're excellent! P I agree with Paul's comment here, I have purchased my mount from DSL and had excellent customer service.
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