I agree with you on that. It's that most of the available aftermarket units require a new bezel or cutting and modifying the truck. Not many choices out there. Besides, it's too much money for what you get in return.

Refurbished OEM units require extra hardware from the dealer for the uconnect (if you don't have it already). Then they want a mint to program the NAV. More moola for the flash to enable the CAN bus to work with your unit.

 

Man i like the clean facyory style look, but i agree with above poster, idk about the no name brand, if i upgrade it will be exactly that, an upgrade, it will be Alpine, Kenwood, pioneer, eclipse etc. Nowadays yhey all have adapters that work with steering wheel controls and factory harness, no need to cut oem wiring.

 

Just as a Heads up, Advent's Mother Company also ownes Klipsch Speakers, Audiovox, Jamo speakers, Mirage speakers, and acoustic research. Advent has been around since 1987 and for us 12volt guys that have been doing this for a while, its good stuff.Its not a brand that is sold retail, it is usually dealer only because they don't want just anyone slandering their brand.

 

My Kenwood DVD/GPS, Bluetooth phone, Pandora, back up camera, Sirius, CD player, HD Radio (and everything else) head unit required no cutting wires whatsoever and all the factory steering wheel controls still work. No cutting of the dash trim either. It comes with an adaptor that looks factory. You do have to cut a bracket inside the dash but it's simple to do with a hand saw and the factory radio will still fit back in place for when you decide to return the truck to stock.

You get what you pay for. You may have a quicker install if you go with a cheaper (direct replacement) but the audio quality will far less, you will have less features and no Garmin based GPS. If you have ever dealt with a non name GPS system you will know how annoying that can be. My mother has lived in the same neighborhood in NC for 14 years and the entire neighborhood does not exist on my Cousins cheap GPS system.

 

Sorry to revive an old thread........


NV290-

Looking to upgrade my 2013 Ram.....do you have the install kit part number for your Kenwood unit? I have sourced a few Advent OCH-1 units, but if I can, I would rather install a Kenwood. Thank you for your help.




[QUOTE=NV290;3245283]My Kenwood DVD/GPS, Bluetooth phone, Pandora, back up camera, Sirius, CD player, HD Radio (and everything else) head unit required no cutting wires whatsoever and all the factory steering wheel controls still work. No cutting of the dash trim either. It comes with an adaptor that looks factory. You do have to cut a bracket inside the dash but it's simple to do with a hand saw and the factory radio will still fit back in place for when you decide to return the truck to stock.