Hi all,
I got $150 or so to spend at Best Buy for a new head unit for my truck. The truck is a '99 1500 with leather interior and premium sound (if that makes any difference) My question is, what are my options? I'm goin to Best Buy tomorrow and I don't really want to go in completely blind. What size should I get? What brand should I get? (I'm leaning toward pioneer, if there's any reason I should stay away from that brand, please let me know) Is there any special adaptors/connectors I need? Any other info is appreciated. Thanks in advance and merry Christmas!

 

be aware that the Infinity System has amps on the speakers, and some extra wiring to support them. i've never worked on one, but heard about it here on DF. i think you'll need to connect the blue wire on the new unit (12 v amp turn on) to something.

i have a pioneer single cd/mp3/radio and it works fine.

are you going to install it or have someone else do it. i bought the dash kit and wiring adapter at best buy. they were pretty expensive, about $18 each.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/audio-vi...-speakers.html

 

Most new units have a wire for an amp. There will be a blue wire usually labeled "amp" on the new unit, and the Chrysler wire for the factory amps on the speakers (if equipped) is white. Took me half an hour to figure out why my speakers weren't working when I installed my Pioneer unit, it was because I hadn't connected this wire.

My truck didn't come with the complete Infinity radio system, but it did come with the Infinity speaker system (normal head unit, but Infinity speakers). If you have either, you will have the little amps on the speakers.

This may also help you if you end up doing a bit of wiring yourself.
http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/DCP-Wiring.pdf

 

Pioneer is the way to go, but personally, I would spend about $30 and go to an audio shop and buy a direct plug and play wiring harness. It saved me alot of headaches when I did it that way.

 

When you go and get your head unit, haggle with them to install it for free (no labor) With the market the way it is they should do it without a problem.. Just be like "Hey, you guys install for free? I was just at circuit city (or another name brand car audio store in your area) and they said they would".

My buddy works at Circuit city and they have been doing a ton of free installs just to sell the product.

Peronally I like to roll with in-dash dvd players so I cant really help you with what type of regular head unit to buy.

 

Yea haggle...there should be no reason to have to pay for the install. What would take them 1 hr would take you twice as long unless you done enough of them!

Key is the right wire harness! The rest is just good cosmetics stuff. Goodluck!

 

Circuit City is desperate for all the business they can get. They are also trying to clear out their stores more, as it looks like they will either be going through a huge down-sizing or outright bankruptcy.

And by forcing Best Buy to price-match a lot of the stuff they are selling below cost, just to get rid of stock, they are trying to drag Best Buy down with them.

Your stock being worth only $0.10 a share will do that to you.

They charge $50.00 at Best Buy because they don't have plug-n-play adapters, they have to do a custom wiring job. And I know at my Best Buy, if you try to haggle for a free install, and bring up "Audio Playground will do the install for free..." (There is no Circuit City in SD, Audio Playground is a local stereo/speaker install shop.) They will tell you "Fine, go get it installed there. Have a nice day."

Our managers have no problem with telling you to go to h*ll if they know are full of B.S. We had a Rock Band setup for the Wii the other day, complete with microphone, and we had three guys come in and just start banging the crap out of the drumset, screaming and yelling into the microphone, and beating the crap out of the guitar. Our manager told them they had three minutes to get out of the store. Didn't even tell them to stop, or calm down, just walked up to them and told them they had three minutes to leave before he threw them out.

 

Could be just your managers preference as to if they will or wont price match/do free installs, every store is different but its not a bad idea to check, odd are they will. In my area there are 4 or 5 major places to get your car audio fix so maybe the risk of losing a sale is too great in some places over others and that could affect there decision.

I'd check, worst case you will have to do it yourself, or pay for the install.

 

Could be I suppose. We have plenty of local competition, but not a whole lot of big, national competitors here in SD.

It can hurt, BTW. Haggle, but don't low-ball them. If you try to get me to take a little off here, a little there, and you've been nice and polite to me throughout the sale process, I usually work with you. But if you start trying to low-ball me straight away, and aren't as nice as you can be about it, I will not bend at all. Best Buy is non-commission sales, so we want to make the sale, but our livelihood doesn't depend on a sale-to-sale basis. If you are nice about it, they will usually be nice to you.

Of course, there is a lot more margin in car audio than there are in computers, which would work in your favor as well.