Mercedes W203 head unit upgrade

My beloved 2005 C-class used to have an NTG 2 navigation system that broke in 2014… I was still a poor university student, so I could only afford one of those ghastly aftermarket touch screen head units. Mine was a Kenwood that used to be in my dad’s 2009 Subaru Forester. But last year that broke too. So I decided to do an upgrade. I didn’t feel like spending 2000+ Euros on an NTG 2.5, so I settled for the next best thing. A head unit from Dynavin. Looks similar to the original Mercedes head units and is a very good product. It feels expensive, all of the buttons feel like they were on the NTG2 and in the dark, the Dynavin has the original Mercedes orange glow for that factory look.

Removing the trim pieces was fairly easy. With patience, care, small screw drivers, a small funny hook thing and a bit of swearing, everything came out. I didn’t pull out any cables, cause I was kinda scared messing with the panel that had the “Airbag off” light. Enjoy the brilliance of my photography skills!

PS: No pictures from the old unit, cause I’m ashamed I didn’t swap it out for so long…

Also please note the blank switches on the sides… Future heated seats DIY project…

Summary: Had the Dynavin unit for about a year now and I’m very happy with it. The DAB+ function works perfectly, so I can listen to proper rock radios, instead of the generic garbage they play on German radios. The TV function works great too. I only got it to brag to my friends my car has tv…
Left SD-slot is for the navigation data, right slot is for your media. Got a 32GB SD-card that fits all of my music. I also have a 32GB USB hooked up that has a few Top Gear episodes for when I’m at a border, waiting and being bored…

The Dynavin works perfectly with my Harman Kardon audio and the sound is superb. It’s as good as the original system, if not better, cause of the more detailed equalizer and sound settings. Bluetooth audio works fine as well and funny enough, the screen shows the name of the song, even if it’s a youtube stream, or from dailymotion. Nice touch…

Navigation works perfect as well. I fit the GPS antenna between the air vent and the upper part of the dashboard, so signal is always good. I did turn off the digital woman that tells me where to go, cause I’m a man and I know where to go and cause the navigation announcements turn down your music.

The Dynavin also comes with voice commands and I’m proud to say they work just as good as in any Mercedes. It’s a shout match with your Mercedes and total disobedience from the infotainment system!
I love it! You’d go “Call Richard Hammond” and the system would deflate your tires XD

Microphone works well for telephony up to 160kmh, above that people can’t hear me properly.
Can’t really give it bad marks, you try having a normal conversation at 200…

Rear camera is an absolute treat. I’ve never had trouble parking, but having a camera is nice.

My Dynavin cost me 1127 Euros, but if you skip the digital radio, TV and large 16GB internal storage, the price drops to just 700 Euros. Installation time was about an hour.