I've read up on the Z1 - it's going to retail for $2250 or so and have all kinda good stuff. I also just heard about the D2 though and it looks pretty nice. No hard drive, so you can't store your music (I don't care too much) and you have to use DVD based NAV, which doesn't kill me, but does anyone know where to find real specifics on it? It's supposed to be $1,500 retail though, so that's a pretty decent price difference. If they threw in bluetooth on it, I might go that way instead. Too bad they don't have a little bit of internal storage (like 512 megs of ROM or something) so you could have a map DVD and then load little updates into ROM instead of getting a whole new one. Oh well... I love CES every year, but I hate waiting for the full specs and for people to actually get the units.

I wonder if these will all be too smart to trick - the old NAV units could all be fooled into letting you use the NAV and DVD anywhere. The newer ones seem to know if you're moving regardless of what you ground.

 

If they D2 has DVD movie playback (Which the D1 Doesn't) and a much cheaper pricetag, it may be tempting... but the Z1 is a REALLY nice system.

 

Sure the Z1 is really nice system. And the Pagoni Zonda is a really nice car, but it's also really expensive. You know we're rocking <20k cars and we're talking about a head unit worth 10% of that. I get the vibe that Pioneer knows that if they don't put DVD playback in a unit that already has a DVD player and a perfectly good screen in it, they're just shooting themselves in the foot. Eclipse isn't going to let them get away with it. So I guess we just wait. I think the press release I saw said the Z1 would be coming out around March or April 06. The D2 will probably be about the same time.

 

Pioneer has 2 other screen units out, one w/ an indash 6 disc changer, and there was one more. Both are nice units.

I guarantee you can get the Z1 for less than 2200. I'm telling you etronics is sweet.

Also, I saw the eclipse stuff at ces, wasn't too impressed, but they do have nice stuff.

 

In general I just like Pioneer better than eclipse, but I don't know why. I'm not sure how impressed I am with the 3D route mapping on either of them but if I was going to shell out for one, I'd go play with it in a store somewhere first. I'll be sure to check etronics if and when I'm ready to buy - I've bought from them before. Good install instructions are going to be really important though. There is the standard headunit install info, plus placement of a GPS antenna, possibly an XM antenna (not for me though), and at least with the Z1 there is an additional kit you have to buy for bluetooth that has at least the placement of a mic, plus tapping into some additional speaker wires probably - what fun! My wiring harness is going to look like a total rat's nest.

 

Install in a tC is really easy for stereos.... It's a cavern back there.... the guides that come a pretty nice as well and if you buy a harness for the stock plugs, you'll not have any huge issues for sure.

 

I haven't yet swapped head units in the tC but I've been back there probably 10 times replacing bulbs, wiring the subwoofer and adding a switch to that wire. I've got no problems that far. The problems I have are running wires from there to other places - placing a GPS antenna I've never done before. Clipping into all the speed and reverse wires, adding microphones - things like that. Hopefully one of these units will get really popular and someone will do a good writeup on it.