I can confirm this. I got a Sony MP3 deck about 4 years ago. It's been in for repairs (cough Circut City cough) several times. Damn thing locks up when ever it's slightly cold outside. They "clean" most of the time. The first time they rechiped it because of design flaws but had no clue why the deck needs to be reset only during cold mornings. (once it locked up while scanning the disc TOC on my way home and I ignored it. Turned the car off when I got home and next morning I had a low battery, Deck was still searching!)
I know your going to asked "hey man it's been 4 years why haven't you got another head unit." I just haven't and besides when I purchased the Sony, mp3 decks had just started to show up, so I paid too much for the "new techology". and funny thing is... even though the deck locks up most every cold day, the damn thing doesn't skip. Even with hard 4xing. I'll never buy another Sony deck. And I hope it does die soon. It will make me do out and buy a real deck.
I'll only put it in the Sportage (I had it originally installed in a Pulsar) was that it came with a horrible sounding Jensen CD player. (that skipped when I crossed every brige span seam on the freeway)

I whole-heartedly agree. I'm not a fan of SONY ANYTHING, but they do have tons of mids... actually makes the speakers sound pretty crappy... but if crappy's your thing - go for it! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I recommend Eclipse for the head unit. I have one and love it. The best part - it's made for ADULTS - NO flashy, useless graphics crap - just pure Japanese engineered perfection.

Good advice, though, Nuke. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

WOW Tons of useful info here! Thanks guys! Me... not a big fan of sony either and I've heard of their bad rep. Although... I do have an 200w explod amp in my mirage. Why? cause it was dirt cheap lol. The only thing I wish i would have waited for was the MP3 technology. When i bought my alpine 7893 head, the mp3 stuff was just coming out. Oh well. I'll just use my IPOD. Tell ya what though, I've only ever bought 2 after market heads and they're both great. My alpine is my newest one and my kenwood with the auto flip face is in my beater car. I'm still learning on all this stuff but with you guys around, i'll be a pro in no time lol. Thanks!

Oh.. and Sorry Bamma for hijacking the thread!

It's cool. I got what I needed...

With just a little bit of trimming, and some new wooden baffles i got a Pionner 6.5" mid-bass driver into the front door. My '98 had 5.25" from the factory. I can't remember now, but the baffles i built were about 1.25" thick. I took the pocket off temperarily to be sure they were mounted in the right spot, the removed the door panel and re-attached the pocket. I replaced the factory tweeter with some carbon dome pioneer tweeters, to some slight trimming of the dash with a dremel and flexible shaft. In case anyone questions my brand choice I have them left over from when i worked for Pioneer, loved them and will keep them until i kill them, but they've lasted thru 4 vehicles, and 12 years so far. And as much as this pains me as a former pioneer employee i am still using the factory alpine built unit, but had one of my friends who services all brands of mobile electronics wire in a set of RCA's in the pre-amp stage bypassing the internal amp, sounds as good as anything alpine has ever built, except for the old 7909 (we'll see if anyone recognizes this model, as it is more than 10 years old, but still a common competition piece, and infact alpine re-released the mode about 7 years ago for a higher price than when new) I do need to get my Pioneer/Premier unit back from my Brother as well as my 50 disc changer soon.

Yeah I have a '96 which has the 4" speaker holes in the doors and I managed to squeeze 6.5" Eclipse speakers in there

I didn't mean to say ALL pioneer speakers suck... Just the ones I have seen. They have always been from Best Buy or Wal-Mart etc... Low-end cheap stuff, you know. I think the moral here is you get what you pay for. I'm sure your good Pioneers were NOT their bargain model.

Certainly Pioneer produces some cheap awful speakers, primarily becasue walmart and best buy are large chains who want something dirt cheap to use for promotion. Like you said you get what you pay for. I realize that i bought these speakers years ago, and pricing has gone down significantly, but i invested over $350 at cost not retail on these, so you can understand why I've kept them. But I didn't start this reply to defend my choices, especially since they were not actually attacked. I suppose it is from often defending the brand as an employee. I haven't worked for them for 6 1/2 years. I meant to say that it is good to see that someone else is willing to take the time to see what can fit. Any body else got some interesting electronics? I always enjoy reading and chating about mobile electronics.