Quote:
Originally Posted by xdavidx
Stock radio is not great, but changing it out is quirky and has issues. They don't make any units that truly fit properly for the US market, so you either have to get one that has that aftermarket looking adapter around it or order one from asia/australian that really wasn't supposed to work with out cars. As one person stated, you need to get a wiring harness from an australian company that never responds and even then it has issues. Also, the bluetooth microphone won't work anymore no matter what you change it to and all the aftermarket ones result in fuzzy phone calls. That's not even getting into the speaker/amp issues as they have a very particular setup with speaker sizes that are impossible to get and non standard ohm ratings. Everytime anyone does anything with the stereo it somehow turns into a 14 page thread of issues.
I'm sure there will be someone out there who is going to respond to this saying their aftermarket swap was super easy and great if it was, but I've seen enough go awry that I wouldn't opt for anything but factory plug n play.
|
I will say that it was a pain installing my Pioneer head unit with Maestro RR... but that was primarily because I pretty much had to figure it out myself since the harness that idatalink was selling for the Maestro at the time that I did the install was far from plug n play and I had to add pins/wires to get the backup camera and factory amp working properly. However, with the latest SU2 harness from idatalink and the help of threads including my own install thread on here... it would be a pretty easy install for anybody doing it at this point.
Aside from that, you are pretty far off base on most everything else. The adapter plate that I used makes it look as clean if not cleaner than the factory head unit. The aftermarket mic that came with my Pioneer radio is crystal clear... it actually sounds better than the factory head unit/mic. I’m still using the factory speakers but the audio quality is MUCH better than it was with the factory head unit... by a long shot. As another person stated, the added functionality of having Android Auto/CarPlay is worth the swap alone. All of the other features and greatly improved audio quality just make it all the better.
I just don’t see the point in swapping one garbage factory head unit for another, but to each their own.