geagle.2001

Just bought a 2005 coupe with the base radio/cd player. No XM, no nav. No auxiliary jack I could find, either. I've scoured the boards and it appears there was no USB jack until 2008, but the 2005-2007's with XM or NAV had some wiring options to get iPod compatibility. However, I couldn't find anything for the base radio. Any thoughts? Also, does anyone know if I just went ahead and bought an 08 radio unit with the USB port on the front, if it would fit in my o5? I don't see why not. I presume it fits in the same size opening in the dash, but I'm no electrician so I don't know if there are any other compatibility problems. The radio would probably be $300-400 bucks, but the USB port might be worth it, as it would also charge my phone and other devices.
thanks for any responses.

1bdvet

I also was in the same boat with my 05, just remember when you replace your radio with another year Corvette radio, you will have to have it programed at the dealer cause it's not going to work.
I went with Kenwood and I use my garmin to Nav, radio has all the bells and whistles.

geagle.2001

That looks awesome! If you don't mind me asking, for the Kenwood, and the reprogramming by the dealer, about how much did it all cost? Are there any disadvantages to a non GM radio? Did the reprogramming mess anything else up?
thanks again.

spdkilz911

My 08 has nav, so no aux port. I bought the PAL2. It worked okay for a while, but then just didn't work well enough for me. There are a few cheaper fixes to get the aux port. They will pop up in a search. I ended up replacing the stock head unit with the Kenwood a few days ago. Better all around unit plus the nav actually works. I would call Dennis at Double D Mods and he can tell you what your options are. The dealer or someone with a Tech 2 may or may not have to program a different stock unit to your car. I have heard different stories on swapping stock units in and out????

1bdvet

I can tell you not cheap, if you break it down between parts which is expensive and labor which is cheap, and you need antenna adapter, and another adapter for the radio that is made not to effect any functions of your car. I had them install XM Radio receiver with Antenna so I can listen to satellite radio.
I would call Dennis at DDMods for all your questions.

http://www.doubledmods.com

geagle.2001

By the way, did you happen to install a back up camera on yours? I looked at this ken wood online, and you can add one for like $80.

1bdvet

Sorry to say, No, it never crossed my mind. Now I think I could of since they had to put the satellite antenna in the rear, and had to run wires.

technolady

I just got an '05 and went through a similar thought process. I decided to completely replace the OEM radio (even though it had NAV and SAT) because the OEM radio NAV is not even close to comparable to what you get in even one of the cheapo Garmins. Also I really liked the feature set of the Pioneer NEX-4000 which has really really great bluetooth phone compatibility.

So I bought a lot of stuff and am going to be ready to install it next weekend (I love to do the installs myself because then I know it gets done correctly and I just like to do it ) . I decided to go Pioneer based on my experience with one of their '11 model radios in another car I have as well as a lot of bad Kenwood reviews on Amazon (sorry Kenwood guys) saying that the '14 year full-feature (sat-nav) Kenwoods were slow and buggy.

I also opted to get a non-Nav radio because the in-radio NAVs cost so much to keep current (Garmin comes with free-for-life updates) and because Nav tech changes so rapidly that your radio NAV is going to be hopelessly outdated in just a couple/few of years whereas you can always easily replace a dash-mounted external NAV.