Well, finally got the car back.

Installed:

Fabspeed Maxflo Valvetronic muffler/exhaust
Escort 9500ci
Kenwood DNX6990HD (head unit)
Alpine HCE-C300R (rearview cam with object tracking)
ProClip iPhone swivel Mount
Xpel Ultimate clear wrap on the entire front, hood & sides up to the doors with a polish before the wrap

Backup camera works well day/night and has plenty of view modes like fisheye, straight left and right of rear, overhead, and object motion tracking while reverse is activated. I can turn on the camera in silent, non-tracking mode anytime while driving. The 9500ci is stealth and already showing radar behind me, anywhere, painting the car while remaining completely hidden and out of the way...its nice.

I was uncertain about the Fabspeed Valvetronic muffler install, but am more confident after two days of listening: it doesn't drone on the highway, it sounds guttural and awesome, and its the perfect loudness open and closed.. an absolute delight. Nice exhaust, Fabspeed. Very nice. Planning to add the black tips when Fabspeed has more in stock.

 

which double din did you use? also did you have the bose system?

 

hi, yup the car had pcm 3 with bose. The kenwood is a double-DIN unit, if that is what you mean

 

So you didn't have to buy a separate bracket called a double din. A plastic cover. Also did you use the BOSE amp or replace it? If not i guess you bought the fiber optic connection to connect the Head Unit to the BOSE amp.

 

yup, a nav-tv harness is connecting to the bose amp and speakers. the sound improvement with the 6990 is remarkable even with the same speakers.

 

how much was the harness and where did you get it at if you don't mind me asking?

 

I believe this is the harness. It can run five or six hundred dollars.

I'm not sure if this is the exact same we used, but Autotoys has one.

 

Oh wow.. thats not to bad. I have seen that at 850. I was like.. yea right. What about your cover plate. Do you know where they got the one your using? I have seen them go for 250

 

Dunno on the plate - they probably had some spares laying around, they do a lot of these installs. Just checked and I was charged 650 for the harness.

 

So many options lol. Yea i guess it would be cheaper to just buy a new amp and then fun everything. Yours came out really nice. I cant wait to get home and get mine done.

 

thanks a lot man, wife says I'm done for a while now heheh

 

Yea i hear that. My girl is pissed after the GT3 kit and she said this is it for me lol. So I'm in the same boat brother.

 

Can you tell me more about the Passport? I've already gotten 2 tickets....one for over 100 and that should be something I get before I upgrade my headunit.

The installation looks very clean and well done. I like the radar hidden away.

I have a Pioneer unit in my truck and I'm considering the Kenwood..how is the navigation ease of use and also the ipod function or are you using just your iphone?

 

That's really nice. Where'd you get it done?

 

I wish I could tell you more about the 9500ci but only driven with it for about 250 miles now. The gps in the unit has already locked out the grocery door x-band near home though, as well as a few other "misc" radar signals. Basically the speaker is loud enough to be heard over the radio, which is good. I keep driving around muting the radio next to parked cars or road side-walls to hear the exhaust rev, and then un-muting the radio and well, the 9500 just gets heard when it needs to (and seen only when it needs to)..so that works out so far.

The iPod (and every other) function of the kenwood is so far, exactly what I was hoping for and more. I did not even explore the Pandora connectivity or show the pretty 3-d terrain of the nearby mountains in the youtube video. When we drove the car home from Arizona last month, I actually used the PCM Nav to find hotels at our next stopover. The kenwood makes finding *anything* pretty easy with its included Garmin (industry-standard) navigation and lifetime traffic is included. It's really, truly, a great upgrade sound-quality-and-placement-wise also using just the bose wiring and speaker setup in the car. I wish I could use voice-entry for the garmin navigation functions though, that is unfortunately restricted to the touchscreen input in this model. Benchmark in Seattle handled this, they do a lot of these and have on-site fabrication machines, everything. They designed the readout display over the rearview mirror. Metropolitan Detail handled the Xpel clear protection up to the front doors and front polish under the coating, it looks simply amazing in person.