LawDog88

I am considering getting an in dash unit and all necessary equipment. Any recommendations and what all I will need? I'm not electrically savvy beyond wiring up strobes..

jgoldwood

Give Crutchfield a call. They will definitely help you out with what you need.

LawDog88

I've had bad experiences with them..

tmerkle111

This is the unit I have, JVC Navigation/Multimedia Receiver KW-NT3HDT. I really think you get what you pay for. I really like the fact this comes with the HD radio built in and also the live traffic updates, to let you know how the roads are. I also like how it tells you what the speed limit is on each road also, just incase you go to another state where you may not have seen the speed limit sign it tells you. Can also have it warn you if you go so fast over the speed limit too. Plus you can have all the same factory options on the radio too. Just my thought.

LawDog88

Whered you get it from and for how much?

tmerkle111

Well your not going to like this, I did get it from crutchfield, because its the cheapest place to get the adaptor you need to make any radio work in our cars. In total I think I paid around 1,500. I also put the back up camera on it, not like our cars need them. I've had it for almost a year now and like everything about it. Another thing to know about this is when you install it, depending how you ground it, you can make it so your passanger can still search or type in your routes while driving, otherwise it is state laws (not sure on all) that the car must be in park to do anything on the nav screen.

tmerkle111

http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?pathId=126 here is a link to the JVC site. Mine is the one on the far right.

MODIFIEDmodified

Real nice looking unit right there


I see that same JVC unit for $680 on-line. I have the Pioneer AVH-P4300DVD in my cart at AMAZON with free shipping for $399 and the steering wheel radio interface kit for $40. I found the Scosche wiring install kit locally for $75.

The JVC has HD radio and GPS included along with a removable face. What else is different between the JVC system you have for $1500 and the Pioneer system for approximately $600?

And my bigger question is (with either of these systems or any other) can I still use OnStar and the car phone?

tmerkle111

"Real nice looking unit right there" Thanks
Yes, the price as come down a bit, since the radio is almost a year old now.
From looking at the pioneer one, there are so many differences to even list. Usually the more expensive models come with better componets, as in if you plan on doing a lot with the radio or not. Ones that use cheap products can pick up more road noise, most people can't tell. Not saying it is a bad radio or anything. It looks like on the pioneer one its only bluetooth adapter ready, where the jvc is built in. So to me that must mean you need to add something to the radio to get bluetooth to work. I know the onstar and phone that came with the car still work as normal with the jvc unit, don't know about the pioneer one. Basically you are paying for all the nav stuff and there is a lot that goes with that for the price difference. You also don't have to pay for updates either. I believe some units you do have to pay for updates for the nav part. I would just say if you plan on having nav buy it all at once, it will cost more to keep adding things a radio. Just my thought. Im sure which ever radio you go with it will work fine and both look really nice.
"And my bigger question is (with either of these systems or any other) can I still use OnStar and the car phone?" Yes, its all done throught the adaptor for all the wires, just make sure the one you buy states its for onstar they make two different ones. For the phone the radio needs to be bluetooth ready. With those two things it will all work just fine. This is the adaptor I have GM OnstarGMOS-LAN-04

RedRedSS

how about one of these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ES039V-7-Inch-2-...item27baa69ecf

What about installation with an onstar car? any good threads out there?