I had some work done on my car (2006 Suzuki Forenza) the other day, because it was having problems with handling and braking. It was rather expensive, but they seem to have fixed all of the problems I was having - so I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to get a new stereo for it in a few days - a Pioneer DEH-X6600BT. I've had good experiences with Pioneer amps, so I thought I should stick with them. It has Bluetooth and iPhone controls, as well as a feature that allows you to change the color of the display to match the color of your dash. I'm pretty excited about it. I might post some pictures once I get it, if anyone's interested.
I have a full Pioneer system in my car too. Fantastic sound but just make sure you have a good speaker system too. I have 4 main speakers, two separate tweeters and a bass speaker all made by Pioneer.
my old Miata has none. I took 'em all out to save weight and the acoustically tuned exhaust note was fine by me. Think I used to carry small battery AM radio just in case - it was before iPhone came around mind you... ^ ^
hehehe, I'm in my car every day for 2 hours so I need a good sound system. In summer the windows are down so I can hear the exhaust but other seasons stereo is on. I have a Nexus 7 connected in my car so there's quite a good entertainment system right there.
I have some pretty decent Boston speakers in the front of the car, as well as the stock ones in the back. I'd like to get a nice subwoofer, but that'll have to wait for now.
my old Miata went extreme diet loosing thick underlay under the carpet except few area, complete gutting out the trunk and swapping two seats with light weight fixed bucket seats. Even headlights, side mirrors, rear view mirror as well as conversion to single wiper arm mechanism. But those weight saving was negated by installation of full roll cage although I normally drove with the front section removed for easy get in and out of car. One funny anecdotes was because of the fixed bucket seats no one asked me to give the lift unless they had skinny butt hence only people I gave the lift were young temp girls at the company I worked. And you did get to know them quite well over time... (let me tell ya fixed seat is not a good idea when you have the company...)
Just got my new Pioneer stereo installed the other day. It's a Pioneer DEH-X6600BT, 2014 model. It has Bluetooth, USB, and AUX (3.5mm) inputs, as well as a CD drive. The Bluetooth is really nice - if you already have your music selected, you just get in your car and it automatically connects and starts playing. No need to even take the phone out of your pocket, unless you want to pick a different song. And you can skip tracks and pause/play using the receiver. It also has an external mic that mounts on the dashboard, so you can make and receive calls without needing to touch your phone. It has a feature called "Siri Eyes Free", which lets you activate Siri on iPhones by pushing a button. It took me a while to figure out that you activate it by holding down the volume knob (the manual doesn't say this). Another cool, though pointless, feature is color customization. You can choose any color you want for the display and buttons sections of the receiver. That way, you can make it match the color of the other lights in your center console/dashboard. It took me a bit of fiddling, but I think I found a pretty good match. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. My old receiver was becoming more and more problematic over the years, and this greatly simplifies things. It also looks really futuristic. The one issue I have with it, which is pretty minor, is that it can be difficult to read the display in sunlight. You can turn the brightness up, and that makes it more legible. But then it becomes blinding at night, so you have to turn the brightness down again. I'm trying to find a good median between the two options. It's a little annoying, but not a huge deal. Anyway, here are some pictures. This is a picture of the stereo with all the other lights turned off. And here's a picture with the overhead light on. Obviously this isn't anywhere near as bright as it'd be during the day, but you can see it a little better. I think it's pretty cool looking.
That looks like my now 6 year old Pioneer receiver. Mine being old doesn't have bluetooth on it but does have the AUX in. I also can't change the lighting on it, it's always red but that's cool because my Impreza is a STi so the red actually fits with the STi image. I'll take a few shots of mine tonight in the dark to show you. It really does look quite like yours. I bet yours sound fantastic too. Mine sure does so a newer model should be just as good if not a little better.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that. It does sound very good. It has a feature called "Sound Retriever" that supposedly restores CD-quality sound to compressed audio files. I'm a little skeptical of that claim, but it does sound really nice (better than my previous Pioneer stereo, which I got in 2006), so maybe there is something to that. It might also have something to do with the fact that I'm using a digital connection now (wireless, in the case of Bluetooth), whereas my previous receiver used analog audio even for the iPod input.
I found that iPod annd iPhone had really shitty audio playback anyway through my pioneer when I used to use them with an analogue cable. They sounded so flat most of the time. I knew it wasn't the stereo because CDs sounded so good as did DVDs via the satnav I was using at that time. I now use a Nexus 7 connected to my Pioneer. satnav (dedicated software too, not Google maps), video, music and high quality games all in one compact unit.
My iPhone didn't sound bad on my previous stereo by any means, but the new stereo definitely sounds better. I'm still limited somewhat by the quality of my speakers. The front speakers are made by Boston, which are pretty nice, but they're not high end. They're lacking somewhat in bass, though not bad considering their size. What I really need is a decent subwoofer to fill out the bass end. My current car setup can't compare to my home setup, which uses audiophile-quality components. Part of the problem with my previous stereo was that I needed to use an extension cable for my iPhone, due to the fact that it needed multiple different adapters to work properly (it was designed for older iPods, not iPhones), and it was too short to allow me to mount it on the dash to use for navigation. The extension cable was shit, and it introduced horrible noise over the audio connection. So in addition to all of the other benefits of the new stereo, it fixed that issue.
I have the displeasure of driving a car with a CVT. Flooring it on level ground is about 11sec 0-60. Its a Dodge Caliber SXT and other than acceleration I love it. You can still can have some good fun with it, seeing me with tires screaching around turns in it is not an unusual sight. Sadly its been acting up for the past year, randomly going into "limp mode", where the RPMs dont go over 3.5k rpm and the 0-60 time becomes "maybe, how much did you eat today? ..oh, no im only doing 40 today". If it happens on the highway, just hope your not being tailgated... Turning the car off then on two times gets it out of limp mode, and it drives normal again, and will remain normal for a few days, or a few months. Its totaly random, and after 5 or 6 fix atempts, its time to let it go, Sadly it did it again today and now I'm looking to get rid of it soon and grab either a Dodge Challenger or Charger in its place. Didn't get the chance for a test drive but I sat in a Challenger today while dropping off the Caliber and the interior was very roomy. I also reved the engine, and holy shit it sounded amazing. The car twisted to the side from the torque. The same engine is in both challenger and charger, so ill have to look into what i like best. Alas I dont have much cash now, so ill probably make a thread in the marketplace to help out my down payment soon. Ill miss the Caliber though, slow as it may be. The glove-box is fed cold air from the A/C to keep drinks cold and the speakers in the rear hatch flips down to face outwards, which was quite nice when doing work outside and I've had lots of fun with it these past few years.
I finally took a few pictures last night of the Pioneer in my car. It's much older than yours, la-li-lu-le-lo but you can see it's sort of similar in design. A view of the center console from the drivers perspective. and a view with the front ceiling lights on. Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Yeah, I can see the resemblance. They are made by the same company after all. I think mine looks cooler, though. Man, you have a lot of displays on your dashboard. I hope you don't get distracted by all the pretty colors while you're driving!
Yeah, yours does look better I'll buy a new Pioneer when I get a new car next year. Yeah, you'd think all of those displays are off putting. But they don't actually bother me and at night they all auto dim so they're not distracting at all. It's actually quite normal here in Japan to have so much stuff on the center console.
Oh, man! The Pillows! I need to start listening to them again. I recently got a new car. My little brother came home from Australia and I tried to drive him out to Vegas to celebrate. Long story short, we didn't make it and my 2000 Mustang finally died. My new car is a 2013 Scion TC. It's fun little car. Nothin' fancy. Decent gas mileage. It gets me from A to B and then back to A, so that's good.
Damn Yakumo, your dashboard looks like a modern take of Knight Rider. =] The only thing missing, on the front:
