The Automotive Thread

[Road Guy]

I really have no need for the sub woofer.....& I am having a hard time parting with the stripper pole..... What else yah got in trade?

 

[knight1fox3]

I broke down and had a modern radio put in my old tahoe.... The Bluetooth feature that will play our music (via phones) with no wires is cool as ****.... The kids at the car audio place got a kick out of my AC/DC music I think.... Maybe I need to go back for a sub woofer and amp?

How much did the install (and parts) cost you? Just curious as I just did this at Best Buy. Did you use a similar provider?

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

No one NEEDS a sub...

 

[Road Guy]

dex- LOL you are right!

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

I had previously taken the car to "Car Toys" and there were around $315 for about the same set up. they claimed I would need a special part to deal with the onstar that I didn't really need..

 

[engineergurl]

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

We got one of those local broadcasting things for the jeep to address the same issue.

 

[Road Guy]

It has iheartradio? Does that use data? Or is that just digital radio? I haven't had time to thumb through the instruction booklet....

 

[MetsFan]

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

We got one of those local broadcasting things for the jeep to address the same issue.

Those were great, until you pulled up next to another car that had one and you started listening to their music.

It has iheartradio? Does that use data? Or is that just digital radio? I haven't had time to thumb through the instruction booklet....

I think that would go through your phone's data.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I got a Bluetooth FM modulator adapter that plugs into the cig lighter for both my work truck ('08 Ford Ranger) and personal vehicle ('01 Chevy Blazer). It works really well for me, as there are plenty of FM radio stations that are empty up here in the mountains. When I travel down to Denver, though, I sometimes have trouble getting an empty FM station.

 

[jeb6294]

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

We got one of those local broadcasting things for the jeep to address the same issue.

Those were great, until you pulled up next to another car that had one and you started listening to their music.

I had one when I was in Afghanistan. The base had 2 radio stations and neither of them were great...they tended to play the same songs a lot. The radio didn't have an input so I got one of the FM doo dads so I could listen to my iPod. Every once in a while I'd run into a truck that had one on the same station as me because we'd swap music for a bit.

 

[engineergurl]

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

We got one of those local broadcasting things for the jeep to address the same issue.

Those were great, until you pulled up next to another car that had one and you started listening to their music.

Considering we do mostly Interstate or back country road driving, this isn't too big of an issue, plus I think that more and more cars have at least the Aux jack (our newer car does)

 

[P-E]

KF - my wife got this set up through a friend at work who had used them, we used a quasi local place called Quality Audio Sound. It was out the door around $220. Kenwood radio, lots of bells and whistles, this kind of thing isn't my bag so I don't really know all the specs on the radio, but I am enjoying it.. I think the sticker on the radio was $159 or something. It was a pretty rough looking place that I would probably not have stopped at to be honest. Best Buys always irritate me but I am sure its the same service.. the Tahoe is an 02 and didn't have an aux jack so I had been playing music through the CASETTE deck! LOL

We got one of those local broadcasting things for the jeep to address the same issue.

Those were great, until you pulled up next to another car that had one and you started listening to their music.

Considering we do mostly Interstate or back country road driving, this isn't too big of an issue, plus I think that more and more cars have at least the Aux jack (our newer car does)

I also had a cassette broadcaster until the car got broken into. Only thing they took. I may throw a boom box in the back seat - it would kinda fit the old neighborhood.

 

[engineergurl]

Hyundai SantaFe

Hyundai Genesis

Dodge Journey or Nitro

Dodge Avenger, Charger or Challenger

Mazda Cx9 (or 7)

Chevy Colorado

Dodge Ram 1500

Toyota FJ Cruiser

Jeep Wrangler

Any opinions? The last two are my top choices. I know they stopped making the FJ Cruiser (and I dislike the land cruiser) so I'm concerned about long term part availability. (and yes, I know the list is all over the place, but I don't know what I want. We already have a sedan (mazda 6) that gets good gas mileage that isn't too old and a Grand Cherokee so we'll still have a 4WD with a towing package and I don't care if the dogs get the inside dirty. But we want to purchase something before we NEED to and apparently, my husband thinks now is a good time (I still think we should wait until after we move because it's going to be the biggest PITA to register the thing and we'll probably pay taxes out the wazoo here).

 

[DVINNY]

I think that new Chevy Colorado truck looks great

 

[csb]

You guys with your fancy bluetooth know we use that to track your speeds, right?

 

[csb]

And I say wait until you NEED to buy something and wait at least 6 months more.

 

[engineergurl]

And I say wait until you NEED to buy something and wait at least 6 months more.

No. This is how you get sucked into buying something for not the right price, right now if we don't see what we like for what we want to pay for it we can walk away. And some of us can't ride a bike to work, have no public transportation available, and can't share a car with their spouse.

 

[Road Guy]

You know I will always vote for the Wrangler. But the FJ Cruiser has really grown on me. I am giving strong consideration to getting one and giving my 16 year old my Tahoe to abuse next year.

I wouldn't worry about getting parts. I drive an 02 vehicle and there is a massive market for parts out there

 

[engineergurl]

You know I will always vote for the Wrangler. But the FJ Cruiser has really grown on me. I am giving strong consideration to getting one and giving my 16 year old my Tahoe to abuse next year.

I wouldn't worry about getting parts. I drive an 02 vehicle and there is a massive market for parts out there

Yes, I am very torn between these two... I think it will come down to $$$ in the end. The truck has additional distinct advantages, but we could always pick up a trailer to haul stuff.

 

[knight1fox3]

Hyundai SantaFe

Hyundai Genesis

Dodge Journey or Nitro

Dodge Avenger, Charger or Challenger

Mazda Cx9 (or 7)

Chevy Colorado

Dodge Ram 1500

Toyota FJ Cruiser

Jeep Wrangler

Any opinions? The last two are my top choices. I know they stopped making the FJ Cruiser (and I dislike the land cruiser) so I'm concerned about long term part availability. (and yes, I know the list is all over the place, but I don't know what I want. We already have a sedan (mazda 6) that gets good gas mileage that isn't too old and a Grand Cherokee so we'll still have a 4WD with a towing package and I don't care if the dogs get the inside dirty. But we want to purchase something before we NEED to and apparently, my husband thinks now is a good time (I still think we should wait until after we move because it's going to be the biggest PITA to register the thing and we'll probably pay taxes out the wazoo here).

Have you checked any of these models on Consumer Reports? I was fairly shocked to see various makes from "the big 3" who got horrible marks in reliability in addition to other nuisances. Dodge/Chrysler being the biggest offender (which makes sense having worked at the Detroit axle plant with their "quality" engineering group).

That said, we've always has very good results from Hyundai and Infiniti.

You guys with your fancy bluetooth know we use that to track your speeds, right?

Not the Fox you don't.

 

[csb]

And I say wait until you NEED to buy something and wait at least 6 months more.

No. This is how you get sucked into buying something for not the right price, right now if we don't see what we like for what we want to pay for it we can walk away. And some of us can't ride a bike to work, have no public transportation available, and can't share a car with their spouse.

Totally joking.