Thoughts on new car stereo installations...

[atltrader]

Any ODTr's out there deal with any good places lately on swapping out their car stereos? The factory unit that controls my stereo, phone bluetooth options and temp settings in my Ford SUV is starting to go bye bye on me. Had a local Ford dealer take a "quick peak" at it and they said it was more than likely the APIM system going bad. If I so desired to have it changed out to the exact same unit, I would have the honor of paying them $1,900 to install a new one. That was a hard pass for me. So the hunt starts on finding a place that can put in a satisfactory replacement unit from a place that does good work for a fair price. Any thoughts from anyone out there that does this kind of work or knows a good place to check out? Don't mind driving a few extra miles if the price and quality of work checks out. Thanks in advance!

 

[Granite3]

Alphasound in Alpharetta did a good job for me at a fair price....

Mike B.'s review of Alphasound Car Audio

Had an issue with my amp flashing low voltage light when turning on the truck. Brought it to…

www.yelp.com

 

[atltrader]

Alphasound in Alpharetta did a good job for me at a fair price....

Mike B.'s review of Alphasound Car Audio

Had an issue with my amp flashing low voltage light when turning on the truck. Brought it to…

www.yelp.com

Thanks for the recommendation! I saw thier name pop up when I looked on a random web search earlier today.

 

[spencer60]

Curious how this works out. These days the 'radios' are tied into so many different systems they must be really hard to simply swap out.

 

[Bypass]

Curious how this works out. These days the 'radios' are tied into so many different systems they must be really hard to simply swap out.

What I was thinking. I wanted to get a big screen 75 inch tv for my truck and the guys at the stereo place looked at me funny.

 

[atltrader]

Curious how this works out. These days the 'radios' are tied into so many different systems they must be really hard to simply swap out.

I'll provide an update once I visit a few places local to me. I'm sure most places will try and pull the classic sales pitch routine just like when buying any vehicle. We'll see what happens.

 

[jrocg0102]

Temperature control thingy scares me a little. Wouldn’t it have to be able to sync with fords programming some how? Is that the only way to control thermostat in the truck?

 

[joel2000]

I think I’ll just stick with this style…

 

[lbzbeast]

jokers audio in Marietta has done 4 trucks for me they do a great job

 

[spencer60]

I was a car stereo installer for a while back in the late 70s. It needed some craftmanship and the ability to fit your entire upper body behind a dashboard (I was a lot skinnier and more bendy then) but it didn't need any more electrical knowledge than hooking up speakers to a stereo at home.

I remember when I looked into replacing the head unit on my old 2004 Volvo it took reprogramming (i.e. hacking) the ECU to swap that out, because it lived on the CAN (Controller Access Network) bus. Needless to say, I decided the factory unit was just fine.

That was a pretty simple hookup too, since it was just so the steering wheel controls would work. I can't imagine swapping a unit on a recent vehicle with everything running through a touch screen.