Certified Refurbished Echo Auto- Hands-free Alexa in your car with your phone

All reviews I watched for this device were "meh", but no one addressed my particular use case, so for $20 refurbished, I decided to give it a try.I have Android auto in my car, that I use for making calls, navigation, and listening to podcasts. However, for premium music, I subscribe to Amazon Music, which is very cumbersome and functionally limited when using in the car through Android auto (which only works seamlessly with YouTube music subscription)I only wanted this device to play songs and my playlist through Amazon Music by voice command through the car stereo, without disrupting my Android auto functuonality.Setup was a breeze, and it worked perfectly right out of the box. I can request any song by asking Alexa, and it will automatically switch over from the radio or anything playing through the Android auto apps. As a bonus, I can also add things to my shopping list while in the car as easily as I can using the Echo Dot in my kitchen. Google maps navigation works just fine, even with Alexa playing DJ.Any song, any time, with perfect sound quality, while losing no other Android auto functions. I even discarded the cheesy air vent mount, and hid the unit it deep in my center counsel... Alexa can hear me just fine even though it is installed virtually invisibly. Exactly what I was hoping for.Very rarely can you improve ease and quality of life so much for $20. If you have premium Amazon Music, Android Auto, and sometimes you just gotta blast "Living after Midnight" in the car for no reason, GET IT!Totally worth it at twice the price!

I was a little hesitant to lay out $50 for one of these, but it's absolutely worth the $25 I paid for a refurbished one. These units aren't repairable, so I suspect that the refurbishment is nothing more than a re-packaging of ones that were returned because they wouldn't connect well (or at all) with the bluetooth in someone's car or older model phone. So you're getting what is essentially a new Alexa Auto for half price. (Before ordering, be sure to look at the list of phones and cars that it's not compatible with.) My unit works great with my iPhone 8, but it won't connect with the bluetooth in my 2010 Nissan Murano. So I plugged an auxiliary cable directly into the Alexa Auto and it works like a charm! The audio quality is excellent. Its eight microphones can easily hear you, regardless of where you position the unit. It's not really necessary to hang it on an A/C vent as the directions suggest. I personally think that's kind of unsightly. I just lay mine on the console between the two front seats and it picks up my voice perfectly. Sure, the Amazon Music account that is required to operate this unit is $4 per month for Prime members. But you're getting a music library with more than 9,000 songs; also live news, your local NPR station, and podcasts. Worth every penny! I highly recommend this product.

The auto echo was bought for a 2005 Jaguar S-type R That does not have SiriusXM capability nor does it have the ability for hands-free driving with a cell phone. The output from the auto echo goes to an FM transmitter. We then tune the FM to the channel that the FM transmitter is broadcasting on. The trick is to find an FM frequency but does not have a station in your area in order to Eliminate interference. Because it is operating over FM the signal is not always crystal clear, but that is not the auto echo‘s fault. The echo only works as long as you have cell phone coverage. In our part of Western Maryland where we are in the mountains cell phone coverage is not continuous so the music will drop out when we run through a dead spot. You can make calls out easily just like you can do with the echo at home, but you cannot answer calls from a landline or another cell phone. This is a big negative. However, the auto echo is a very good deal for an older vehicle that is not capable of hands-free driving and does not have SiriusXM capability.

My original Echo Auto was super easy to install when I finally was able to get to it. Not sure what happened but when I changed phones the initial device stopped working. The typical trouble shooting and uninstall and reinstall also did not work. Amazon tech was gracious enough to send me a replacement. This one works perfectly ! I tell it to do various tasks from playing my favorite playlist, sending messages to opening my garage door. At times you can get a delay if the connection to your phone is off but so far it does not happen too often. The notifications whether on my Apple Watch or on my iPhone can be ok to annoying lol especially if you are sitting at home and not traveling anywhere. At least you know the device is ready to go as soon as you are. Is there a negative? Well besides the cord that you need to drape around the dash, not really. The device responds and executes your commands really well and the status lit bar lets you know she is listening. So far I’m super pleased with the device and really happy I was able to get this replacement.

I have two of these; one in each of my two cars. As a rideshare driver, I like having the ability for passengers to request their own songs verbally. What I dislike is that the echo auto will randomly either disconnect from my phone or just stop responding to my voice subsequently requiring me to unplug/replug power which is not safe while driving. Also, after restarting, it sometimes won't reconnect to my phone without me opening the Alexa app which is a further distraction while driving.I suspect that sometimes Google apps interfere with Alexa Auto because I've noticed when opening Google Search, the Echo often stops working.