I’ve been looking for a decent flexible in car mounting solution for my iPhone and my wife’s iPod Nano 2G for a long time now. I used to use a generic windshield suction mount, but it was ugly, tended to move a fair bit and was finicky to align stuff just right for different sizes iPods and the like. Since we just upgraded to a Cooper Mini I’ve also discovered that the windshield is a little far away to conveniently mount the old generic mount without adding some kind of extension to bring it within easy reach, so we’ve being bumbling along with the iPhone in the cupholder - a far from ideal arrangement.
I’ve been tripping over references to the Brodit Proclip line of mounting products for a few years now, and last week a colleague showed me the one he had mounted in his car and that closed the deal. The mounts are custom made for individual model cars, taking into account the specific ergonomics and design of the dash, and then you buy a separate clip that’s also custom designed for your model of iPod/iPhone/TomTom/GPS/you name it.
The difference between a custom made clip and a generic one is astounding. The iPhone fits perfectly into the felted clip, where it’s held without any kind of stray movement. This is really important for the touch interface of the iPhone since if it’s jiggling around while you’re trying to push a button it’s exceedingly frustrating. With the iPhone firmly in place, it feels like it’s part of the car - not the slightest bit of movement anywhere.
All of the parts are made from high quality ABS plastic and it comes with all of the necessary mounting screws (although a couple of extras would be a good idea - if you drop one and don’t spot it on the first bounce you’ll spend some time on your hands and knees looking for it), and very clear instructions for the mounting of each individual component. Note that the screws are only for attaching the separate pieces together - no screws in the dash. The actual in car mounting is designed to fit perfectly with the dash in your car so that you don’t do any damage to car dash. Although the mounts are so specific, you’ll probably leave it with the car when you sell it.
The reason I’d gone with the generic mount before is that I had an iPhone and my wife has an iPod Nano so we needed something to use with both. Obviously, the custom route seemed counterproductive since we’d need two and here’s where the Brodit solution shines again. They offer a set of optional matching attachment plates that attach to the car mount and the custom clip so that you can quickly and easily swap them around. Again, the quality of the construction is such that once the two plates are mated, it’s as solid as a bolted on connection but still easy to pop in and out as required.
The biggest problem with the Brodit (and the main reason that I hadn’t already bought one) is that their distribution network is a little hit and miss. I’d tried to find a local distributor here in France without much luck and you can’t buy directly from the Swedish site.
Oddly enough, I can order from the Proclip USA site and items are shipped from Illinois. Which strikes me as being decidedly strange since the packaging clearly states “Made in Sweden”. I’m feeling very unecological about that part since the items had to make a round trip from Europe to the US and back, but they get full marks for rapid (and reasonably priced) shipping via FedEx, including all duty and taxes so there were no surprises on receipt.
Combined with the Kensington LiquidAUX iPod connector, it’s the perfect solution for any car with an AUX Line in, and even though it’s more expensive than many of the alternatives, it’s still a lot less expensive that some of the optional iPod integration kits.
It wasn’t cheap at 130 € for the car mount, multi-mount plates, iPod and iPhone rotating mounts and shipping, but it’s well worth it and a steal compared to the optional Cooper Mini iPod package at 400 € that doesn’t even include a mounting kit. The pure iPod kits are great for the complete stereo integration, but if you want to use the iPhone as a GPS as well, putting it in glove compartment really isn’t terribly practical.
I can’t recommend the Proclip enough.