Cheap Ass Car Stereo (iPod + Car)

daroga

daroga

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Alright, here's the deal. I've got a 6 year old JVC CD deck in my car. I just got an iPod for Christmas and want to be able to use it in the car without having to use an FM Transmitter.

Figuring I was going to blow at least $30 on an iTrip or some other transmitter that would've been terrible considering the large amounts of traveling I do through big cities in my car, I want to just use the money plus some extra to get a new deck in the car that can hook the iPod into it easily and I'm looking for suggestions.

At this point I see that I want one with either a tape deck or some sort of audio input jacks on the deck. Either is fine, though I think retaining a CD player in the car would be a good idea (so I *might* want a CD/Tape deck). It's a 93 Ford Escort with stock speakers, so we don't need anything with a lot of power. I just want something to play the iPod for the few years that the car still runs.

Any suggestions on models or places to find a deck cheap? I'm not the most savy person when it comes to cars, but I can probably install it myself (with perhaps help from a friend here), so online places are fine. Just looking for some ideas (or if you can think of a way to fix my current predicament without getting a new stereo, let me know!)

Thanks!
daroga
 
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I was at Best Buy today, looking for the same thing. There are a few JVC models with an aux input on the front that were about 150-200. A lot of sony's coming out have an aux input, but it is on the rear. Depends on if you want the cord hanging always, or if you wanna unplug it from the front.
 
[quote name='Sleepkyng']crutchfields.com


great site, worked well for my cheap ass.[/QUOTE]

its www.cruthfield.com and they are expensive. Get your info from there then buy the deck from ebay or BB or Circuit City. I think what you need is an auxilary input and you could probably get like a $100 deck that has one. They will most likely have them in the rear of the unit.

I'm also in the market for a car stereo and I'm going to get this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5765093889&fromMakeTrack=true
 
Thanks for all the replies, everyone! I'm leaning towards the Aiws CDC-X204. It's $89.99 at Crutchfield. I'm getting weird results from different sites saying that the narrow units won't fit in my car, whcih doesn't make any sense as that's exactly what I have in my car now. If I needed a spacer/adapter for my current stereo, would that also work with a new one?

Any coupons out there for Crutchfield?

thanks!
daroga

EDIT: PA133 for $10 off of $50, PA166 for $20 off of $100
 
I work at a CC and I would say beware of Aiwa car cd players. We saw a lot of problems with them.

You won't need a dash kit for your car, just a wire harness to hook it to your car's factory plugs nice and easy.
 
[quote name='rmewpm']you can keep your current stereo and add aux inputs with this for 50$ http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Audi.../sem/rpsm/oid/80974/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do[/QUOTE]

That's an interesting option! Am I understanding this properly that it works somewhat like an RF Switch for a game console? In that the Modulator plug inbetween the antenna and the stereo. So, as long as my antenna is hooked up to my stereo now, it shouldn't be more than pulling out the stereo, plug the thing inbetween the current Antenna/stereo connection, and put the stereo back in?

Would I need any other tools or know-how other than the tools to pull out the stereo? Seems like $5 for the DIN removal tools from Crutchfield maybe the way to go for that little thing.

Bottom line, anyone use this? How does it work in heavily FM-saturated areas (Chicago, LA, whatever)?

daroga
 
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