John W.
Post-Delivery FeedbackNov 17, 2025
I bought this head unit to replace a cheap Jensen head unit that my son bought a few years ago. The old unit had BT audio and that's about it. No Android Auto or anything else besides a FM/AM tuner. So, I bought this Kenwood DMX5710S to really give the old truck a big tech upgrade. This is the third Kenwood head unit that I have purchased from Crutchfield over the years and actually it was the only one that gave me an issue. The unit that I purchased was a scratch and dent discounted unit. Upon unboxing and inspection, I could not detect any kind of flaw or blemish, and it appeared perfectly brand new. The installation went smoothly, and everything appeared to be working until I activated Android Auto and tried to use the Waze App. The GPS held my position for a few seconds but soon the onscreen icon was sliding across the screen, and the unit obviously did not have any idea of where I actually was. I tried to upgrade the firmware, but it was already upgraded. I tried just about everything to correct this problem, but it persisted on both Waze and Google Maps. I was at a loss and very frustrated. I could not listen to my music because AA, while playing a song, would constantly interrupt the music with error beeps from Waze or Google Maps even though I was not using them. Removing the head unit to return was not an option since the install on my 2007 Escape is semi-permanent and to take out the unit requires a lot of disassemble that I did not want to do. My only fix at this point was to disable the wireless option for Android Auto on my phone so that it would stop connecting to the head unit so I can use Waze straight from my phone screen and use the BT Audio on the head unit to stream my music.
I then called customer support to see if there was anything else to try before I settled with this lousy condition. The young lady who helped me was very courteous and understanding. We went through all the options, and she answered so key questions I had. She finally suggested what I considered to be a "Nuclear Option" of doing a hard factory reset of the head unit. I went out to the truck and did the factory initialization which completely wiped the head unit and lo and behold, GPS now has a solid lock on my vehicle! AA now works perfectly in wireless mode which is super convenient! I couldn't be happier with my purchase!