I am facing a simliar problem. Fortunately, I have the benefit of having an amazing shop in Ottawa, Canada. (insert shameless plug for Autotrendz here) The good news is that I'm going into the upgrade with the intent to keep the steering wheel controls. This is a great benefit and I don't want to loose it. Below I'll discuss the stock stereo, what's being taken out and what I'm going to put in. I'll finish with where you can find people in the LA area. Let me know what you think....
The stock stereo in the 2004 C230 Coupe (tape deck FM/AM only) is truely sad for a CDN$40,000 car. I was expecting much more. Speakers I hope are better.
The headunit/amplifier/CD-Changer connects are all going.
This is my plan.
Pioneer has a great head unit in their Primeire line of CD-Players. Not only this, but it easily connects to an iPod. For the CDN$960 price of the CD Changer, I'm getting a whole new system for this coupe.
PARTS I'm PURCHASING
-Pioneer Premier Head Unit Part No. DEH-P8MP
-Metra Mounting Kit Part No. 99-8710
-Metra Wiring Harness Part No. 70-9401
-Metra Antenna Adaptor Part No. 40-VW12
-Pac Wiring Harness For Steering Wheel Controls Part No. SWL-X
-Pioneer I Pod Adaptor Part No. CD-IB100
-JL Audio e1200 Amplifier
The Pac Wiring harness is what will allow me to maintain control from the stalk or steering wheel.
I was concidering an Alpine CDA-9855 because it has a really neat user inteface with that glide/scroll bar thing. The benefit for the Pioneer DEH-P8MP is the really bright display (which I always found to be a problem in daylight with Alpine head-units), the ability to author your own screen-saver will keep my graphic artist wife buzy. A huge bonus for this deck is the 6.5v preouts. Now much can be said about actual voltage in this high volt preouts, however the Alpine is a 4v system and likely suffers the same slight.
The install is scheduled for July 9th so I'll let you all know how this goes. Let me know if you manage to find a good spot in LA. Just a note, the Pioneer website should help you locate a Primere (their high-end line). This link below details some of the primere dealers/installers in the LA area. I hope that this helps you out...
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...tml?country=US
Linear Mode
