I live in Australia where nobody sells 1 1/2 din cd players. I found a pioneer that will fit my 85 trans-am (DEH-P47D). But i will have to ship it in from the states. I am also finding it hard to get the best price. If somebody has seen these can you please give me some prices and places.
Thanks

 

I just bought one last weekend from Best Buy for $240. While it's not as nice as an Alpine or a Kenwood, it seems to be a decent unit, and about the only 1.5-DIN unit you can still buy new other than a crappy Jensen unit. The only hitch during installation is that the endges of the radio's faceplate extend too far out from the unit to get the four front mounting screws all the way in. I ended up having to use a Dremel tool to grind back the edges about 1/8" to make room for the screws (better be sure your radio works before trying this, as you won't get a refund for it afterwards). I also had to buy a Metra mounting kit because my factory mounting brackets were missing.

Circuit City may also carry the same unit. As for buying it online, either Circuit City or Best Buy would probably be your best bets. Crutchfield would be another possibility. (I bought mine in person, so this is all just speculation on my part.)

Once the car's outer faceplate (the black one that surrounds the radio and heater controls) is snapped back on, you can't tell where the edges were trimmed back to fit the screws, and it fills out the space very nicely. It fits flush with the dash, so there's no need for that ugly 1" projection like when you have a DIN unit in there. So far I'm very happy with the unit, although I still can't figure out how to set the clock. I would have preferred an Alpine unit because of Alpine's superior quality and because the Alpine display would match the dash better, but it wasn't worth the extra money to me.

Sound quality seems decent enough. That is, I don't notice a huge difference between the new Pioneer unit and the old Kenwood unit it replaced. However, I've got a very basic system -- no amps or subs -- so I'm probably not the best person to answer that question.

I'd take a digital photo of the installation to share here, but my car got broken into and I had to use my money to buy the new head unit instead of the digital camera I had my eye on. :-(

-- David
Chicago, IL

 

Hey, I have the same head unit, and love it. Anyway, to set the clock, turn the radio off first, then hold down the function button until the set clock screen apears.

 

Well, the guy who I'm doing some freelance CAD work for took pity on me and bought me a digital camera!

Here's my newly-installed head unit:
<img src="http://www.nthward.com/images/misc/head_unit.jpg">

The only hitch was that the radio pod was very tight going back in, as I think there may have been something blocking it from behind. I shoved it in and it looks okay now, but I think it might be slightly twisted. The upper-right corner of the trim piece doesn't want to snap back in all the way. It's a pretty minor annoyance, but it will be a while before I feel like diving back in there again to fix it.

(The reason it looks skewed on the bottom is because the center console somehow leans slightly to one side, and I haven't bothered to fix it. The radio pod itself is in line with the rest of the dash.)

By the way, thanks for the tip about setting the radio... I got it set the other night. There's probably about a dozen settings on that head unit I'll never adjust!

-- David
Chicago, IL