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Aftermarket car radios ---

R

rbrucecarter5

Guest
This is one of the big hopes of HD advocates. Whether you are for or against - is it feasible? Look at the issue in terms of possibility, not desire. Here is my vehicle survey - maybe your experience is similar:

93 Lumina - plausible. Aftermarket HD would fit in Delco slot with adapter kit, but would look tacky due to extension caused by shallow mounting depth.

2000 Toyota Sienna - plausible but undesirable due to radio controls in steering column, very convenient and losing that functionality would be undesirable. My wife won't let me touch the radio, not even to add satellite which she really enjoys - for formats not even on HD-2 here.

1997 Old Silouette - plausible but undesirable due to radio controls in steering column, very convenient. I even think it is a safety enhancement not to have to reach over to the radio. My wife let me install satellite because it is "mine", but it has the same shallow Delco mounting as the 93 Lumina, plus the inconvenient small antenna connection - causing losses in sensitivity, which is disastrous for any thoughts of HD radio.

Anybody have similar situation - integrated antenna boosters, interconnectivity with onboard computers, rear seat controls, DVD player included in the head unit, etc?

It seems to me that the aftermarket market made more sense 20 years ago, when stock radios in cars sucked, were all a standard size, and were self contained without distributed capabilities like rear seat / steering wheel control, etc. Also - Bose and some other manufacturers started cooperating with car makers, and the stock systems have improved to the point you don't need to replace them to get quality audio.

Another miscalculation by the HD folks if you ask me. Aftermarket just isn't practical as it used to be.
 
See the thread later on about the Dual (which fits nicely in my Toyota Corolla). But installation is not the easiest job.

I would recommend you visit the Crutchfield web site and query their data base about what fits in what car.
 
I got a Blaupunkt radio stock in my new car, has a separate subwoofer amp with two subwoofers and about 12 others in the car, puts out 230 watts RMS, it receives analog AM, FM, Satellite, has a 6 CD changer and a jack to plug other things in, (and they all actually work very well) and the thing sounds great. Who needs or wants an IBOC radio? It would be like a flat fifth wheel. The Dual thread did not end on a high note either if I recall correctly. You could get the best HD receiver made and it would not work well especially in a car as IBOC itself is a terrible idea.
 
I have a 2007 Chevy Tahoe. The factory radio is integrated with OnStar, a hands free cell phone interface, and the security system. When I activated XM service, access codes actually displayed on the car's odometer! Of course the factory radio/CD/MP3 player also can be controlled from the steering wheel, which is very convenient. Now that I'm used to it, I don't know how I got along without that feature.

There is a 1/8" trs jack on the front panel for auxiliary devices, which addresses most add on wants or needs. When the program material is high quality, the factory GM-Bose speakers and subwoofer sound very good. There isn’t much to not like.

Did I mention that there is a set of controls and headphone jacks for the rear seat passengers? They can listen to something different from the front seat occupants. The whole thing seems to be one huge and very complicated computer network. It is probably the best car audio system I've ever owned. You'd have to be out of your mind to try to replace it.
 
I have a 2009 Pontiac G8 GT and the system is very similar to your's except I have a huge screen right on top of the radio's controls and no separate controls for the back seat, of course mine is a little smaller than your's ;D.
 
K6JHU said:
I would recommend you visit the Crutchfield web site and query their data base about what fits in what car.
Click to expand...

I think we all know about Crutchfield. They can make it function. But all the extras like steering wheel / rear seat controls, integrated Onstar, and the other issues already posted here make it really unlikely somebody would want to do it.
 
A stand-alone HD tuner (with remote display and 'stow-away tuner module') is the only way to do it using your car's "AUX" jack or FM transmitter.
 
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