woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (01/22/85)
Absolutely *NEVER* buy a radio from the dealer! They are always a rip-off,
and usually poor quality. I guarantee you can beat whatever they offer at your
local department or discount store, and even at the car stereo specialty
places. Case in point: whan I bought my Toyota Tercel in 1983, they wanted
$250 for an AM/FM radio, no tape deck, and really cheap speakers. The sound
sucked, even if it was stereo. I bought a Sanyo player (not great quality;
no Dolby or CrO2 settings, and only 5 watts, but that's really enough unless
you want your car to be a stereo for a party, and it did have auto reverse
plus an AM/FM stereo radio) and Jensen Triax speakers (which are really good
speakers) for about $175. 10 times the quality at 3/4 the price. Dealer
options are almost always a rip-off if getting the product from an alternative
source doesn't require some sort of redesign. (Air conditioning is a good
example of an option that maybe you should consider getting from a dealer.
I've seen some kludged air conditioning systems that caused major electrical
problems.)
--Greg
--
{ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!stcvax | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!stcvax}
!hao!woods
"...sometimes the light's all shining on me;
other times I can barely see..."doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/22/85)
> Absolutely *NEVER* buy a radio from the dealer! They are always a rip-off, > and usually poor quality. I guarantee you can beat whatever they offer at your > local department or discount store, and even at the car stereo specialty > places. While the above is certainly true, there are a few points in favor of a dealer radio. First, it's there from Day One, no waiting. Second, no "experienced installation personnel" are going to be jeopardizing your new-car warranty. Third, dealers almost always order their in-stock cars with radios, and will not usually take the radios, speakers and wiring out and refund the full difference. But for me, the big advantage is that nobody's gonna bust out my car windows and take bolt cutters to my dashboard in order to rip off an OEM radio. I'm not too picky on my mobile sound system, so the OEM system in my new Daytona is fine, even at $425 (gag!). How about the new GM/Delco-Bose custom-designed sound systems (like in the new Corvettes)? Are they better than discount store stuff? -- Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (01/23/85)
> While the above is certainly true, there are a few points in favor > of a dealer radio. First, it's there from Day One, no waiting. This is true, but I'd still rather wait a week to get a better sound system at a better price. What's a few days compared to the time the system is going to be in your car? > Second, no "experienced installation personnel" are going to be > jeopardizing your new-car warranty. I specifically asked the dealer about this, and was told that if the place is licensed for that kind of work, as any car stereo specialists are, it will *not* invalidate the warranty to have them do the work. > Third, dealers almost always > order their in-stock cars with radios, and will not usually take > the radios, speakers and wiring out and refund the full difference. Not strictly true. They had several Tercels on the lot without radios that they were trying to unload. Also, the same argument as in paragraph one above; even if I have to wait a month to get the car, it's worth it to me. Good sound is *important* to me. > But for me, the big advantage is that nobody's gonna bust out my > car windows and take bolt cutters to my dashboard in order to rip > off an OEM radio. And I doubt if anyone would waste their time on my $175 system either. So far (almost 3 years) no one has. But I get *much* better sound than the shitty dealer radio. You don't need a $1000+ thief-tempting system to get good sound. Those are for showing off, not for real use in my opinion. My 5 watt system gets as loud as my ears can stand it as it is. --Greg -- {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!stcvax | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!stcvax} !hao!woods "...sometimes the light's all shining on me; other times I can barely see..."
heiser@cca.UUCP (Bill Heiser) (01/25/85)
This is a follow up to the article about factory-installed car radios. I agree wholeheartedly with Greg's statements about the virtues of installing one's own car stereo instead of opting for the factory-installed ones. The factory radios seem to be of cheap quality (probably a cost-cutting measure), although they carry a very hefty price tag. On my new Pontiac Grand Am, the AM radio came standard, but the AM-FM version with no cassette, and only cheapo speakers would have been somewhere in the order of $250. Even if I hadn't already had my own Pioneer system to install in this car, I definitely would not have ordered the stock radio. As Greg said, it is possible to find a radio & speaker system of superior quality for a fraction of the price. -- Network: decvax!cca!heiser USPS: Bill Heiser, PO Box 3202, Peabody, MA 01961-3202
doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/25/85)
> I specifically asked the dealer about this, and was told that if the > place is licensed for that kind of work, as any car stereo specialists > are, it will *not* invalidate the warranty to have them do the work. *Licensed*? Car stereo installers? Did I hear right? -- Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (01/28/85)
> > Absolutely *NEVER* buy a radio from the dealer! They are always a rip-off, > > and usually poor quality. I guarantee you can beat whatever they offer at your > > local department or discount store, and even at the car stereo specialty > > places. > > While the above is certainly true, there are a few points in favor > of a dealer radio. First, it's there from Day One, no waiting. > Second, no "experienced installation personnel" are going to be > jeopardizing your new-car warranty. Third, dealers almost always > order their in-stock cars with radios, and will not usually take > the radios, speakers and wiring out and refund the full difference. > The other advantage is that my insurance company does not charge me any extra to protect the dealer installed radio, which they do if the radio is installed after the sale. I had a friend really exploit this. He took a ham radio to them and had them "dealer install it" before he would take possesion of the car. If you can convince the dealer to install the stereo of your choice in the car as part of the condition of sale, you might be better off. They probably can do a better job of getting it in the dash anyway.
mauney@ncsu.UUCP (Jon Mauney) (01/29/85)
> If you can convince the dealer to install the > stereo of your choice in the car as part of the condition of sale, you > might be better off. They probably can do a better job of getting it > in the dash anyway. An anecdote in response to this. Several years ago, a friend bought a new car. After some hard-core shopping, she found the car, a Datsun 510, that she wanted. However, it lacked two items on her must-have list, a radio and tinted windows all around (this was Arizona, where the sun shines bright). The dealer, of course, offered to install both, and quoted big prices. The dealer warned her that installing a radio in a Datsun is difficult, and the first stereo place confirmed this, turning down the job. The second stereo dealer happily quoted her half of the dealer's price; when asked "do you realize this Datsun is hard to install in?" they replied that they knew perfectly well, because they did all the installations for the Datsun dealer. Thus informed, she asked the glass shop that tinted her windows, also for half the dealer price, and they admitted doing a lot of work for the dealer, too. Ever since the bottom fell out of the snake-oil business, those salesmen have been selling cars. -- *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH A HOOK AND SINKER *** Jon Mauney mcnc!ncsu!mauney C.S. Dept, North Carolina State University