I have bought an 88 trans am gta. The previous owner did not have the radio with it. I have heard this year of GTA had the radio with steering wheel controls. However the steering wheel in the car does not have controls. It is just a regular steering wheel without any buttons.

I want the car to be as original as possible. I guess the short question is what kind of radio do I need to put in it.

Other question is if I could track them down would it be recommended to find a steering wheel with the controls and the radio that goes with it? Because I do thing that steering wheel and radio do look the coolest.

 

Keep in mind that in order for a SCW radio to function you will need the proper Steering Wheel, Control Pad, Radio and Steering Column. All those parts are Steering Wheel Radio Control specific parts. If the car is an 87 ( maybe 88 too ) than you will probably also need to replace the actual dash harness radio plugs from the ' old style' to the 'new style' radio plugs.

 

How do I get those things?
is the best thing for me to do is get the radio that didn’t require steering wheel controls?

 

Like finding any 30-40 year old car part,..... You're going to spend some time searching - everywhere ! Best bet is to BE SURE about what you have first & then decide what you need vs. what you want.

Checking your RPO tag is the first step to find out what was original to the car. You can also check for specific wiring/plugs to verify part compatibility. The SWC radio option Steering Column should have specific wires & so should the radio; for future readers: This is a picture of the factory original SWC radio plug found at the back of the "GTA" radio:

 

You can plug a non steering wheel control radio in and it will work fine, the main radio plug is the same. The GTA specific parts are the single wire plug in Johns picture that goes in to the GTA specific radio, that's wiring from the turn signal switch. These parts are discontinued, to answer your question, put an after market radio or different factory radio in it. If you dont like the streering wheel control wheel not working there after, put a different wheel in it.