posted by
someone claiming to be ugly duckling
on
Tue May 24 14:30 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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the radio itself is a sony priced at $99.99 plus free installation. the sales guy said that he can give me radio and parts all for--gulp--$170+! he said the installation is free for the initial 45 minutes and that I will have to pay for the additional minutes my car will need, seeing that it's an older model. he also said I will need some radio antenna adapter because it's a foreign car. circuit city said they will need to frabricate a wiring harness because their sales guy said they don't make one for a car that old. this translates to spending more $$$! basically, these places have used the "it's old" and "it's a foreign car" reason. can someone verify, please? thanks!
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You did not mention the year/model/original-radio-or-not info in your first post - hopefully you did later on.....
Have an 85 240DL wagon and had gone over to XM last summer. When Best Buy had a sale on AIWA AM/FM/CD/MP3 units (with an external aux plug) a few months later and I had the extra cash, I went and got one. I took advantage of their $1 install.
It did take a couple of hours (no mention of any extra cost though!) and it was a whole $6 to install (couple of extra wires). The previous owner had installed an after-market radio before so BB's tech didn't have to hassle with Volvo's way of doing it.
I am happy with them - at least with the store in Albuquerque!
michael
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A final (!) tip - I saw an ad for a good price on a fairly high-end discontinued JVC unit at a big-box discounter with "free" installation. After confirming that they still had a few in stock I negotiated them down on the price, by insisting on just paying for it and walking out the door to do my own install. I think they knocked off $20 from the ad price of $269. You won't get $20 off a $99 unit - they're not making enough margin on it as is, but see what they'll do.
If they won't take any money off - it's obvious that they were planning on MAKING some money on the "Free" install.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar 77 MGB, and a few old motorcycles)
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posted by
someone claiming to be ugly duckling
on
Wed May 25 13:51 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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thanks, guys, for all the helpful info. heartotemptyou, you brought up questions I hadn't even considered. I did go to crutchfield and saw some units I liked priced in the $99 range. unfortunately, the free install kit is only for units $129 and up! thanks for steering me in the right direction and the good info.
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I didn't read the other Posts but he's full of Beans. The Antenna is identical to Domestic cars. The harnessing and instalation time is probably less then some of todays "take the dash off" installations.
What year is your 200? They sell DIN Front panel adapters for all year 200's.
Radio Bezel: Metra Kit 99-9222
Radio wire: Metra" brand name,
"INSTALLERWORKS(TM)" line,
Part # 82-9100,
"VOLVO 200 SERIES 81-94[sic] FRONT
SPEAKER ADAPTER PLATE
ADAPTS 4" SPEAKER TO DOOR"
and if you know the original wiring it's very easy to adapt to the wiring of the new radio. I'm 90% sure they DO make an interface harness with the Stock Volvo connector on it. just mate it with the one-ended harness that come with the new radio. Certainly now more dificult then any other car.
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me
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A professional car stereo shop owner tells me that you will get about one year of life for every $100 you spend on an aftermarket head unit. OK - that's a bit harsh, but if you can possibly afford a better unit, you'll be better off. You don't want to be tearing the dash apart again soon to pull the unit and try to get Sony or whomever to honour their warranty when it craters.
Confirm with the seller that the warranty will still be honoured if the unit is not installed by a "professional" shop - ie: it's installed by you. Then read the fine print and make sure.
I've been buying Sony home stereo gear for decades, but in the past few years it's gotten really cheesy (their ES line excepted). It all seems to be made in China or Malaysia or Phillipines now, and the Japanese quality control guys apparently aren't being allowed into the country. My last Sony car stereo was installed by a pro - a real pro, they don't sell anything, just do custom installs. The guy looked at my Sony and said "You sure about this?". Two years later it was dead. $180 unit.
Pay heed to the consistent advice below to avoid the discount electronics "free installation". First they may never have seen a 240 so will have no experience with disassembling the dash and with the wiring layout. But this won't stop them from either (1) rushing through the job and abusing your car, because there are other jobs waiting, or (2) because it's a slow day, taking their time to learn how 240's work, while the meter is running at your expense.
In short - stay away from Sony, (I've had good luck with JVC and Panasonic), buy the best you can possibly afford, install it yourself with the help of this BB.
Oh - and buy the model with an ordinary dot-matrix or LCD display and don't pay extra for something with leaping porpoises, or 'spectrum analysers'. First, it's ghetto; second, who's got time while driving to look at that foolishness, anyway?
Crutchfield is a bit pricy, but supply a lot of extras that save hassles, and provide a toll-free tech line to customers and are very helpful. The car stereo market is so competitive that new models come out every second week. Watch Crutchfield's website for specials on superseded models.
(signed: Volvodad...who has installed a ground-pounding system in his son's 81, so the entire neighbourhood knows when he's leaving for his golf course maintenance job at 05:20.)
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar 77 MGB, and a few old motorcycles)
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posted by
someone claiming to be ugly duckling
on
Wed May 25 13:58 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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that's some great tip! yeah, unfortunately, I don't have money to throw around, so I'm more looking at the $99 to $130 price range. the silly thing is that installation and all the--now confirmed--BS the places I've been to are throwing at me really isn't good economics. can you believe a $99 unit ends up being almost $200! grrrr!
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I bought a Pioneer DEH-P6500 used for $150 almost 3 years ago, and it's still going strong. I moved it from my '85 to my '89 a year ago.
--
Michelle -'89 244 GL auto 197K / '86 240 auto 155K
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What a load.
Stay away from those places.
How are you with wiring? Installing a radio really isn't super hard. We can walk you through here. I'd be happy to help as best I can (I sure have installed many a radio in my various 240s over the years.)
What year is your car?
What do you want from your radio? What I mean is, is the CD player more important to you then a quality AM/FM radio?
Do you listen to more AM then FM? Vise Versa?
My dad's '86 came from the people we bought it from with a Sony CD player. It was one of those $99 deals like you describe.
That radio was one of the biggest pieces of crap I've ever had the displeasure of hearing, and I've sampled a TON of radios (I'm a radio engineer).
When it got stolen, I was actually some what relieved, since I now had a reason to replace that piece of junk.
It played CDs okay, but if you want to listen to any actual radio, it was just horrible. The FM radio was full of static and never seemed to want to stay in Stereo, while on the AM side of things it was ridiculously super narrow-band that sounded worse then a telephone (and AM is not suppose to sound like that, believe it or not.)
For my dad and I, AM radio is the most important factor when it comes to the radio. FM is nice, but I could live with out it. My dad never listens to FM. Neither of us used the CD player much at all.
If it turns out that you want to listen to radio more then CDs, you may consider putting an older Volvo radio in the car, because they are of a much higher quality then that Sony piece of crap (and sadly, most radios on the market today) was/is.
--
If you listen to the radio in Portland, OR, you may know me as 'Portland's Favorite Soul Brother!'
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I also had a 100 dollar CD player in my old volvo, and I wish I'd just bought the 200 dollar one that I had to buy a year later in the first place. The 100 dollar version would have assorted error codes and refuse to play cds, and the buttons and dials were set up very oddly, which I didnt notice till I owned it. You may want to consider stepping up to the next radio, sometimes you really do get what you pay for.
Also, like many others here, I bought the 17 or 18 dollar faceplate, ran new wires to my front speakers and did it all myself.
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More than the mounting kit and harness adapter, Crutchfield includes instructions too.
Just as I do not entrust my car to any quicklie lube places, I would not trust those kids at Best Buy/Circuit City/etc. to do any installation in my car. They will find a way to screw something up.
-- Kane ... whether that means they break something or forget to hook something back up, presuming they even put everything back in the first place!
--
While I would never deliberately mislead anyone, take into consideration that any information and advice provided was at no cost to you.
6 Volvos in SoCal, from '64 to '94. See profile for fleet infomation.
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Buy the face plate installation kit from Best Buy for $18 and do it yourself.
It is easy even with a factory amp. Remove the radio, amp and wire harness between the two. You will have 2 connectors left over in the car that connects to all 4 speakers, various power and ground.
Cut off the 2 connectors on the harness you removed and hook (splice or solder) it up to the new radio's harness, then your new radio plugs right into the original harness in the car, it doesn't get any neater or more professional than that! I just did it to my 91 and 92. Dan
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Free installation huh?
I recently had a stereo put in my 1990 244 - they had
the wiring harness and everything that was needed -
the previous post is correct - it is a standard antenna
lead, if you have the power antenna it would have to
be wired, but that is no big deal. There are a lot of
240's out there yet, there are several places where
you can get a wiring harness.
If you happen to have a 240 with a factory amp it
is true that this will take longer for the install, the
wiring process is a little more complicated.
If you don't want to do the work yourself, I would
find a reputable car stereo shop - stay away from
the big chains. There are a lot of good shops out
there that do outstanding professional work - sure it
may cost a little more, but I think you will be happier
with the end result compared to your "free" installation you mentioned
earlier - good luck - hopefully you'll have tunes soon.
--
1990 240DL - 185K, 1994 850 Wagon - 140K, 1989 Ranger 235K
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Just installed a Blaupunkt Casablanca in my "new to me " 91 245. Tore it out of the Porsche 912 that I seldom drive as it rains all the time here lately. I have considerable installation experience ( not necessarily expertise)and found it to be challenging. The original radio had terrible reception and worse sound quality. It was also a bit** to remove. Getting the connector off the 4 channel amp was nearly as bad. Happily there are proper interface adapters and dash kits. Go to Metra.com .
The speakers will be another story.
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as I'm 'across the pond' I'm wondering if you get a US version of the european Volvo radio cassette - where I am it would have been a CR701 or CR901 - both of which I've found to be quite good?
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Glen ... I see no model # but V part #1398464-1 . It is a 14 pin.
Jim in Ma.
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The part # will be US market specific, as the tuning frequencies differ in europe.
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Factory head units (CR7xxx series) were ok-good AM/FM reception but the tape decks were trash in 3 years. They couldn't stand up to dashboard heat from sun in the South and West.
Blaupunkt 34 series gives decent bang for the buck, Pioneer is good. Sony has become a POS. Kenwood is close on Sony's heels.
Becker is only unit worth looking for in the boneyard. OEM Mercedes head unit from mid 90's were VERY good.
Alpine is worth the $$$. but crackheads/methers know it too...
Wiring is easy. 30 min job if you prep the head unit with a harness adapter from Metra/Scosche. Disconnect the amp and leave it in place. Disconnect the 9 or 14 pin at either the Y connection (9 pin) or at the amp (14 pin) and thread the harness back up to the radio.
On the 9 pin the fronts backfeed from the amp to the 9 pin while the rears use a separate 4 pin connector. 14 pin uses a set up with 2 14 pin connectors in a Y config. If you need a source email me as I can steer you to a shop in Texas that can mail oder you the 14 pin set up.
The only butch is getting to the radio support in the rear and unhooking it from the bracket at the back of the radio. Its nice to have as it supports the ass end of a CD equipped head unit and stops the unit from bouncing and cracking the dash faceplate adapter.
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I sell all this stuff and agree with you. Panasonic has some good equipment now also. I'm still needing factory speaker replacement. Really don't want to cut the doors!
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posted by
someone claiming to be brickster27
on
Tue May 24 15:25 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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The antenna adaptor is a lie, 240s use a standard antenna plug. The "older car" bit comes from the fact that it doesn't have a standard DIN stereo opening. The fit kit is about $17 if you buy it from the Best Buy installation desk, and it includes plates for upper and lower mounting. If you have a late 240 with the factory amp, you'll have to either bypass the amp or run wires directly to your speakers (which is what I did).
Your best bet would be to buy your stereo from either crutchfield.com or sounddomain.com . Either will give you the mounting kit and wiring harness for free with the stereo. If you have a non-amplified 240, all you have to do is crimp the adaptor harness (everything's labeled), mount the plate, install the mounting cage to the plate, plug in the stereo and antenna, and slide it into the dash till it clicks. You'll have the satisfaction of doing it yourself, and some idiot at Best Buy won't be looking through your stuff while he "works" on your car.
If you were close to me, I'd install it for about 20 bucks if you brought me the stereo and mounting kit. What Best Buy suckers people into on their free install deals is just short of criminal.
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And from some of the other stories I've read here, you'll be lucky if all they do is "look through your stuff" while they butcher your car....
--
'81 GLT 245 @ 259K; '83 DL 175K
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I think Crutchfield will give you a free wiring harness and mounting bracket/faceplate for your 240 when you buy a radio from them. Heck, I may still even have both when I had to recently replaced my headunit. It should just be a crimp, splice, and connect, and you should be up and running.
--
Regards,
Eric Staufer,
1989 244DL 131k,
My 240 Page (opens a new window)
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Crutchfield has the adaptor. It's all you really need. That and a head unit. Stay away from Sony. Jenson and Clarion are fairly good. I have had a 99$ Clarion in my car for the last year and I have never had a problem.
Before that I had a 120$ Jenson in the car for 6 years.
--
85 240DL 189k; 91 240 169k
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I think that Jensen and Aiwa and Clarion are all owned by same congomerate that owns Audiovox and Recotron-I was out at the Recotron offices here in LI and saw all of the above being unloaded into the main warehouse.
Same outfit owns Metra or Scosche and Stinger (AAMP was the old conglomerate name)...
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