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Thread: Help me find a car for my new stereo?

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    Help me find a car for my new stereo?

    CAJ Community,

    I am shopping for a used, Mercedes E-Series Wagon for a new daily-driver. I want to get an "end-game" system installed. I am struggling with model years right now. I know electronics integration gets more complex with later year vehicles. Crutchfield's has NO research on E-Series after 2009. If you enter a later-year model, you get this...


    ######

    Sorry, we haven't researched your vehicle yet, so we are unable to confirm which products fit at this time.
    Some reasons why we're coming up short:
    *We haven't yet found installation gear for your newer vehicle that meets our standards.
    ...
    *We haven't yet found an example of your vehicle to research.
    *We know that it's extremely difficult to install a car stereo or speakers in your particular vehicle.

    Whatever the reason, we are always keeping an eye out for new installation parts and more vehicles to research, so keep checking our site.

    ######



    That is a pretty intimidating message. It reads to me like, "You can go there if you want, but you may not live to tell the tale."





    Do any of you have advice about where (other than Crutchfield) to research compatibility and integration for later model vehicles like this?




    Thanks in advance!

  2. Back To Top    #2

    Re: Help me find a car for my new stereo?

    Quote Originally Posted by BartStephens View Post
    CAJ Community,

    I am shopping for a used, Mercedes E-Series Wagon for a new daily-driver. I want to get an "end-game" system installed. I am struggling with model years right now. I know electronics integration gets more complex with later year vehicles. Crutchfield's has NO research on E-Series after 2009. If you enter a later-year model, you get this...


    ######

    Sorry, we haven't researched your vehicle yet, so we are unable to confirm which products fit at this time.
    Some reasons why we're coming up short:
    *We haven't yet found installation gear for your newer vehicle that meets our standards.
    ...
    *We haven't yet found an example of your vehicle to research.
    *We know that it's extremely difficult to install a car stereo or speakers in your particular vehicle.

    Whatever the reason, we are always keeping an eye out for new installation parts and more vehicles to research, so keep checking our site.

    ######



    That is a pretty intimidating message. It reads to me like, "You can go there if you want, but you may not live to tell the tale."





    Do any of you have advice about where (other than Crutchfield) to research compatibility and integration for later model vehicles like this?




    Thanks in advance!
    Have you tried a local stereo shop to see what integration products they use?

  3. Back To Top    #3

    Re: Help me find a car for my new stereo?

    you keep the head, and go back from there. Only other alternative is to install a system on top of the system in place, and just using the existing screen for vehicle functions. Which is cumbersome IMO.

    With that in mind, your best bet is to pick the model that has the best head unit possible, since you'll be working with it. Then deconstruct the signal from there and clean-slate it from that moment back.

    Biggest "risk" with that plan assuming the head is up to the task, is if the head uses MOST instead of analog. In that case, you will need a MOST converter, which gets challenging because it needs to be tailored to the generation of protocol in the car. From that point, I am not the expert. Obviously, analog is a slam dunk given the products on the market today.

    The next thing to consider are the NTG replacement screens available on market. For my 2015 GLA 45 AMG, I have my pick of 10" screens that have carplay, MP3, CD, nav, etc etc etc etc etc. I just pick the one that is based on my NTG version (NTG 4.5, 4.7, 5.0. My car is 4.7). An older Merc will be an older gen (NTG3? NTG2?) but the principle is the same. No comment on the audio quality of such a unit.

    For the record, I have found the head in my AMG to be of sufficient quality for source playback, and that the main source of loss of fidelity remains at the speaker, where the rubber meets the road of translating electrical energy into acoustic. Because my car has the MOST decoder in the back, I elected to keep that part in the signal chain as well and start the full do-over from that point on. It was straight-forward and surprisingly quick for a complete install.

    good luck. It's slightly more complex than a typical American/Japanese 90's early 00's car, but not all that crazy once you learn the design intent.

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