Over the last few years, the internet has been flooded with "cheap" bluetooth kits, giving customers the opportunity to get a great bargain on the most recognised bluetooth brands on the market.

However, it is not a bargain when you look more closely at what you are actually buying. All the "cheap" kits are non UK stock, which posses several problems. The major drawback is that the Manufacturers will not cover the warranty if it is non UK stock purchased on the UK market place. Also when EU stock is used, sometimes foreign languages are preset onto the kit, so navigation is difficult and in rarer cases English is not even available as an option. Another disadvantage of buying Non UK stock is that no technical support will be given so if you have any issues with the kit you will be left to figure the resolution out for yourself. Currently it is apparent that the two leading manufacturers, Parrot bluetooth and Bury THD are mostly affected by Non UK "Grey Stock" and we would certainly advise you remain vigilant that the kits you are buying are genuine UK models.

Bluetooth Car Kit Direct is proud to announce that we only supply genuine UK bluetooth products, which means you get the Full 1 year warranty, full technical support, English speaking kits and on top of all of that, you are also covered by our 30 day money back Guarantee.

Fair enough the kits are priced higher than the Non UK units, but I think you will agree with us that it is worth the extra knowing that your bluetooth kit is covered if it fails in the future. We also ensure that all of the kits we sell, including parrot bluetooth are new, sealed units, where as a lot of retail companies sell the kits unsealed to their customers.

There are more cars on the road now than ever before. Combine this with new technology & the need to be in contact with everybody every minute of the day, and it could spell disaster for 1000’s of road users daily.

Some new statistics state that more than 50% of road users in the UK have illegally used their mobile phone when driving more than once in the last week, and a figure around 85% have used their phones while driving in there life time.

To decide whether handsfree kits offer improved safety, we first have to discuss how using a mobile phone is dangerous. There is no doubt amongst the experts that it is. Using a mobile phone is dangerous for two reasons.

Firstly when talking on your phone whilst driving you have to break contact with the wheel & car controls to do so, and by breaking contact from the vehicle you also reduce your reaction time by up to 4x.

Secondly concentration is lost when talking to other people, less attention is paid to the road and more on the conversation taking place. This is a natural occurrence & no matter how much we feel we can over compensate for doing so we cant, again this reduces reaction time. Combining both together when driving can result at the very least dangerous driving.

We now come to the title question, Do bluetooth handsfree kits improve driver safety? Well there are arguments for both sides of the debate. The opposition mainly concentrating on the second point made earlier, that concentration is lost when making a phone call & to be honest the use of a handsfree car kit doesn’t really improve this. However do we only hold conversations over the phone or do we also have them with the passengers we carry? I don’t know anybody who carries passengers and doesn’t talk to them at some point during the commute. Who defines whether this is more or less acceptable than doing so over the phone?

The problem is there are so many distractions when we drive already which are equal to talking over the phone, and not necessarily from inside the car. These distractions occur every minute where driving & its up to us whether or not to take notice (most of the time we don’t). However this is where the counter argument comes from.

Distractions are a common occurrence, and talking on the phone is no more of a distraction than say reading an advertising board, playing the number plate game or even singing along with the radio. The point is, if we outlaw the use of phone kits where do we stop, do we make it illegal to do anything other than drive. Were not allowed to take our eyes of the road & our hands from the steering wheel, no talking, listening to music or anything other than driving? Would this be more dangerous due to boredom?

Phone Kits are considered to improve safety due to the fact you no longer have to hold the phone to have a conversation. Your hands remain on the steering wheel & eyes on the road. In fact the process is the same as talking to somebody next to you. Using phone kits aren’t illegal, however if a police officer thinks you are driving dangerously due to using a phone kit or changing the stereo or CD or even talking to a passenger you can be prosecuted. It is the drivers responsibility to gauge whether they are capable or doing so safely.

One thing is for sure, using bluetooth car kits does improve ease of making or receiving a call & allows the driver to concentrate on driving properly. Its certainly a better option than not using one. Parrot Bluetooth is a good place to start when considering a car kit.

Its a well know problem that parrot have major supply issues of parrot bluetooth goods in the UK, The genuine stock is readily available and ready to distribute through the correct channels. However this side of the business is not the problem. The problem is there is so much grey stock in the UK at the minute it is very difficult to recognise genuine items from the Grey stock which is generally priced extremely low online.

So why does this matter?

Well if you purchase Grey stock the UK warranty is void & you don’t have technical support from parrot. This is obviously a big issue if you run into any problems with the installation or further down the line with the product. Maybe this is not a big issue for some of those willing to take the risk. But consider this, over 50% of the Grey stock is being purchased from channels with Europe who deal with faulty and returned products then import to the UK when fixed, and a considerable amount is imported from china when its debatable whether its genuine parrot stock at all. As you can see the odds are not in your favour if and when you buy them.

The Performance of the Grey stock is the same as genuine Parrot stock (assuming it is a working unit). You get the same features and functions, In fact you wouldn’t necessarily know if you have purchased Grey until its too late.

Genuine Vs Grey Parrot Kits

Both parrots kits are technically the same, one a new product manufactured and distributed to the UK through reliable sources. The other you could be getting a second hand product which has been re-flashed with software. You could get the grey stock up to £30 cheaper than the genuine product online however without warranties.

Parrot are aware of the problem of illegal importation of their products and have launched an new initiative to reduce the fraudulent products entering the UK market place. This consists of a unique serial number containing the number “55” added to the exterior packaging on the box. From now, If your parrot product does not have 55 in the serial number I would be worried about the quality and return to the retailer as soon as possible.

With this system the Supply of Genuine parrot bluetooth stock is improving, however keep when ordering the parrot online the cheapest is not necessarily the best deal. You don’t want to be stung by an immoral retailer.  

If you want a bluetooth car kit most people automatically think of the brand Parrot, it has the brand awareness that most companies would die for. Almost on the same level as google. You’ve heard of the phrase “Google it” haven’t you. Well most people contact us think parrot is bluetooth, and are unaware that other brands are available. Even though there is a competitive market for bluetooth car kits. Brands such as bury, motorola, nokia and many others are readily available most people only relate to parrot.

For all there dominance, do parrot produce the best bluetooth products especially over competitor brands that offer a very similar version?

From our experience parrot do offer very competitive kits, each kit providing something different to the other variations of parrot kits. For example the new parrot range the MKI, has three versions. The MKI9000, MKI9100 and the MKI9200. Each offers the same bluetooth and additional functions such as iPod. However each of the upgrades offer a better screen, which allows for better integration of bluetooth phone book, ipod music library and other functions. However there are other extremely good kits that offer the same level of integration and functions.

The Bury cc9060 provides excellent voice recognition software which in our opinion is second too none. Simply select voice on the screen and speak the commands you want it to perform. Its such a simple feature that really improves the functionality of the kit and adds additional safety features and value for money.

Parrot MKI range do also have this feature, although we find it a little more difficult to use.

The parrot does have some negatives, firstly the systems are difficult to use unless you purchase one with the screen & there is a lot of grey stock sold online without UK warranties. Be sure to check the parrot is genuine before hand and return it immediately if you purchase one that isn’t.

We find the Parrot brand best for several reasons including style & integration, functions & features and easy of installation. The ease of use is on par with other products but generally speaking you will be happy if you purchase parrot bluetooth