The Renault Espace is a lovely car. I particularly like the spaceship dashboard, although this does create a slight problem – the Radio/CD is in the back. Right in the rear of the car, which makes it a pain to connect a phone for playing MP3s or Spotify from your phone.
You can buy kits to add bluetooth connectivity, but these are around £75. My solution costs around £20 and works with the 6CD multichanger type radio in the back. There are other kinds, YMMV.
You will need (updated December 2020) –
- Bluetooth audio receiver
- A length of 3.5mm jack cable
- A CD audio cable from a PC (No longer available. Check ebay)
You will also need to use the remote control for the Radio/CD to enable AUX input.
Plug the Bluetooth receiver into one of the three 12v sockets, then plug the 3.5mm jack cable into it. If you watch this video you can see how to use the CD audio cable to connect the jack cable to the CD changer.
Another top tip – on my android phone I’ve installed Bluetooth connect and play. This is a handy little app that will automatically open your music player (spotify, goole music etc) and start playing when the bluetooth device connects. it also closes the music app when blueooth disconnects and doesn’t seem to impact the phone battery life. I recommend putting a 10 second delay in the app settings as it messes up when the Bluetooth adapter loses power temporarily as the engine starts.
All this means I can get in the car and start playing music without taking the phone out of my pocket or messing around with anything.