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So here’s my experience with the Grom VT2 I installed 2 days ago. Installation was easy and straightforward and tools couple hours.
The sound is working fine for me and clear. You will not be able to use the car Bluetooth for making calls while using CarPlay as it will take you back to the Lexus system and won’t let you go back until you hang up the call. I’m order to make calls using CarPlay you will need to to remove your phone from car Bluetooth so it routes to CarPlay.
I thought the Grom was supposed to take you back to CarPlay when changing from reverse to drive but that’s not the case for me. It does take you back when changing climate.
It takes a while for the phone to connect to CarPlay when I start the car and sometimes the gps unit that came white doesn’t seem to be working as maps won’t update on CarPlay unless location services is always on or the app is open on the phone but than this defeats the purpose of paying for that gps unit and drains your phone faster.
sometimes everything works flawlessly and sometimes everything goes wrong as now I’m having an issue where I get kicked out of CarPlay and goes back to Lexus system and when I go back to CarPlay nothing works such as sound and buttons and this whole experience is starting to get frustrating.
it’s been a mixed experience so far and I’m still in contact with support to figure out the issue before returning.
Please keep working with our technical team, they will be able to help. As for location enabled all the time, this is the requirement from the iOS and Android OS, and should be enabled in the settings.
Wanted to share my experience with the GROM product.
I had originally installed the RoadTop unit and had some issues. Due to the amount of time it took interacting with customer service overseas and the time difference I decided to pull it and send back for a refund since I was coming up on my return window. I went with the GROM VLine 2 when the group buy came up. I was familiar with this unit as it is the same one we have in our van.
Upon installing the VLine 2 it was defective out of the box. The screen had issues while in VLine mode so it was unusable. This is where GROM stands out from the rest (IMO) with having state side service (Dallas TX). I opened a support ticket and was assisted right away and asked to provide a video to show them the problem. Within a day they determined there was a hardware issue with the unit and it would need servicing/replacement. I inquired since I needed to send it back for a serving/replacement could I just return it for the VLite because it had become available. That was really the only features I wanted as I don’t use the other features of the VLine in the van. They said no problem. I purchased the new VLite 2 and swapped the units when it arrived. It is working perfectly and sent the old one back. Only real negative experience was they didn’t pay for the return shipping on their defective out of box product. I had to pay to send it back. I feel they should have covered the cost of that since it didn’t work when I received it.
Pros:
Android Auto/Apple Car Play
All factory functions retained.
Wired or Wireless functions
Modernizes your car
US based customer support
Cons:
Not Cheap
The VLite does not come with any extras (cables, USB, GPS, etc)
All said and done these units are a great way to bring the dated infotainment into the modern day. My Lexus feels like a new car now. It made my 2016 Honda Odyssey feel the same way when I added it a couple years ago. They aren’t perfect but if you understand that going into it you will be ok. After dealing between GROM and Roadtop I will stay with spending more to deal with customer service that is able to responded same day during my hours, sometimes even with in minutes or a few hours. And if you are within the Dallas area they have appear to have an installation shop.
Some pics of the install.
Cut a hole below where the glove box slides in and out so the wires would not bind.
hole in glove box feeding wires through
Mounted to top of glove box with velcro. Ran USB from radio to VLite to retain factory USB from center console
Thank you for your review, and thanks you for mounting the unit inside the glove box according to our recommendations!
CarPlay using VLine VL2 System on factory Toyota Land Cruiser stereo
As many are asking, we will have the next group buy order starting March 9th. The discount will be $120 towards VLine VL2 system and $70 towards VLite VT2. If you would like to join the group order, simply send us direct message with your name and email. We will add you to the group order list.
I agree. I have the Road top at about 1/3 of that and I'm happy.
I actually paid $950 installed at my local installer here in NJ which is pretty much the going rate. I actually originally bought the Road Top but my installer couldn't get it to boot up pass the screen below and I ended up returning it. It took over 48 hours to Road Top to respond to our inquiry.
I actually paid $950 installed at my local installer here in NJ which is pretty much the going rate. I actually originally bought the Road Top but my installer couldn't get it to boot up pass the screen below and I ended up returning it. It took over 48 hours to Road Top to respond to our inquiry.
That is the only downside, their customer service isn’t US based.
New to the forum so, Hello All!
Before we pulled the trigger on buying one of the many Carplay/Android Auto options for us, we spent a lot of time on this and other forums to help us narrow and ultimately pick what we thought was the best unit. We ended up buying a GROM VL2 via the group buy. Just want to share our experience and be a source to others as you guys were to us.
Ordered the item on Jan 15th and received it Feb 11th. Installed it ASAP that same day as we wanted to take full advantage to really LOVE it within the refund period. We did read some of the "when the GROM works, it's awesome, when it doesn't work, it sucks" comments and we wanted to see what that meant. Item was well shipped and included all harnesses and peripherals. With all we needed in the box, we tackled the disassembly of the RX's dash (thankful for the Lexus build quality as nothing broke) and did a quick try out of the GROM before putting it all back together.
This is where we noticed bad screen flickering bad on the upper half of the screen and a dark but not dead screen on the lower half. Verified all connections (all straight forward so not much to troubleshoot) and restarted the box and vehicle but the screen was constantly malfunctioning in the AUX Grom screen only btw.
Contacted the Grom team via a ticket (only way they communicate with customers) and since it was a Saturday, we did not get any reply until Monday at noon. THANKFULLY we took a video of the screen on Saturday and put the RX back together. Monday Feb 13th at noon reply from GROM was "send us a video of the screen to see what could be causing it". Thank goodness for the foresight or luck that we took that video Saturday, if we had not, we would have had to disassemble the RX dash and install the GROM all over again to take the video. We sent the video Monday Feb 13th 2 hrs after their reply and received no more emails until Tuesday Feb 14th at 9 am again for an RMA, we replied with an agreement to an RMA at noon that same day and received nothing else from GROM until Feb 15th. At this point in time we were a bit dissilusioned with the daily allotment of one email per day technical assistance so we asked GROM for a full refund and just call it quits. Just received the full refund to paypal on March 3rd.
Posting this with accurate dates so others can see what we experienced over almost 2 months from unit order to complete refund. GROM team was respectful, unhurried (not attacking GROM, just our opinion) and ultimately the transaction did not work out. All we lost was our time and disassembly of the RX dash to give this a shot. We also worried about the package making it safely back to GROM, thankfully USPS did a great job! Not able to purchase insurance as the RMA label was prepaid.
All in all, we would probably give GROM a second shot if they agree to sell to us again
We did have some concern about the outdated Android version it ships with, maybe not an issue as the unit is upgradeable by GROM. Another worry is the unknown hardware inside the box itself and capability to remain upgradeable to future Android/Carplay software requirements now that OEM manufacturers are Android Auto/Carplay users and upping the industry. These worries could be unfounded and not affect the unit, but thought I see what others think. Lastly, we did not get to do a full install but all the peripherals it comes with require an installation location in the vehicle. Not sure if we would have liked losing the glove box to host the GROM, but that is just an opinion.
Thanks for reading, hope this helps others!
(edit, fixed a letter)
Looking to see how it’s working out for you and if it’s stable and all buttons on steering wheel, joystick works with it and how calling quality is?
calling quality is good, unit is very dependable. Occasionally hard to acquire if 2 phones are in the car and BT is on -on both.
all buttons work as does joystick.
sorry for the delay in posting.
Upcoming group buy order for GROM VLine vL2 system - May 8thth
Hi all,
Wanted to let you know that we will have new group order starting May 8th. The discount will be $120 off the VLine VL2 system, and $70 off the VLite VT2 system. If you were looking to add CarPlay / Android Auto to your car stereo, and wanted to save - you can join our group order. To join the group order, PM us your name and email address. We will add you to the group list of participants. Let us know if you have any questions.
CarPlay using GROM VLine VL2 system on Lexus GX factory car stereo
03-01-23, 08:39 AM
