I will settle for nothing less than a holographic display and a food replicator so I can get my morning cheeseburger.. *doh*

Seriously though all I care about is the ambient temp display because I actually use that. The clock I could get from the radio itself (not to mention it would be a PITA to set the factory clock without the buttons being there )

 

dang man, wanna' place a wager on how many people think you're being serious?

 

Well, after reading some posts in this thread, nothing would surprise me

 

Just stumbled on this thread today and in good time, I was about to give up and buy a Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2 unit to fill my craving for aftermarket audio as I was just not going to pay a $700 entry fee to aftermarket audio.

The 3sixty unit would have made an interesting middle ground but this just sounds like the solution from this point on.

Thanks for putting up with the haters, e-thugs, and providing us with this information. There is hope for these forums after all....

 

well the good news is you'll have both clock and ambient display, plus a little something extra to boot.


No worries man, just trying to do my part to help a few people out here and there

 

little something extra? like a custom welcome message?

 

hmm, very interesting.

 

 

Now we're talking! I for one am PO'd about having to spend $400+ for basically a piece of plastic when it comes to building a custom nav/umpc setup.

Now that ya'll have provided me some "boundaries" it's pretty clear this doesn't help me... although it is nice to see $200 plastic vs $400+ plastic

 

not that i am happy with the price of the corksport kit, it is not a $400+ piece of plastic. there is a bit more to it that justifies the price

 

I like the fact that for around $200, we get everything the Corksport offers plus more AND with better radio fitment (I sure hope you are right on this Canary haha).

With some of the responses on this thread, it seems like there are some who have already made their purchase (good for them, best of luck with it, yada yada) and feel like it is their duty to uphold the good name of their product, regardless of how much they overpaid for it, by bashing ANYTHING that might actually be better.

I am really excited about this kit and can't wait. Again, thanks for all the updates Canary!

 

Since everyone came out of the woodwork to shill their alternatives to the Metra with the super-dash and kanatech, I'll mention the one I can't wait to get rid of too.

I'm using an audiolink right now, which to be honest is pretty nice as far as "aftermarket" goes for the 8, since it actually plugs into the OEM radio and doesn't replace anything. It's funny to show my friends my whole car music collection is a small stack of SD cards. But the thing has some serious limitations including only supporting 600 songs per disk and crappy mp3 decoder (lower quality sound than the OEM CD player). It's really nice to have in place of the 1989 CD player, but the sound quality really leaves me wanting to get rid of it.

I'm one of those people who's been waiting for a metra kit too. Lucky for me I've only had my 8 for about 8 months, so the wait hasn't been that bad.

But I hope metra isn't going to be using these forums as a guide for what their customers want, with all this "man I would pay even more than $200 if they do that" or "For those features I'd definitely pay more than $200."

First, canary said it would be under $200, so I really don't understand why people are basically saying "yeah 200, >200, etc." Yes being lower than the kanatech is good. Being much lower is even better.

 

This is the $400+ one I'm referring to.. granted, it's not a DIN replacement, but it is more along the lines of what I'm looking for...


From mazdaparts.com

 

That one is indeed just a piece of plastic... whereas the Metra (and the Kanatech/Corksport) kit contains a lot more than just plastic.
Apples vs. oranges. The above plastic is way overpriced for sure.

 

don't wanna take us too far OT, not like I've done that already , but getting an actual PC running Linux or even Windows in nav area is really where I want to be. New dash panels and adapters is nothing more than lipstick on a pig IMHO.

That'd enable me to tie into the stock stereo's changer port, as I do now with my USB/SD/Stereo plug mp3/wma box, use the EX port on the existing stereo and go hog wild with something embedded, either mini-itx or eeepc based with bluetooh, iNav iGuidance, hell, you name it.

Anyway, thanks for the patience with me. I hope I'm not being perceived as one of those naysayers... just a late entrant trying to get caught up.

Shell

 

yikes, not only is that way overpriced, but it doesn't get you anything other than a pretty place to add a radio, in a really bad spot in my opinion. If you really want to mount a radio up that high more power to you, but I think it's easier to operate and a little less obvious having it lower in the same spot as oem. in any case, the Metra won't cost anywhere near 400 bucks, otherwise it'd be pointless to release it.


Yup, you nailed it, it's all good though as I love proving people like that wrong
It's going to be pretty sweet to see what kind of doors this opens in regards to in car electronics for the 8, no more having to rig stuff to make it work etc, should make for some really nice installs

 

Yeah, that's the big disconnect... I'm not trying to replace my Bose system. I'm trying to tie into it and add a UMPC. The most logical place for a UMPC display is the existing NAV area.

I've got the input covered with a USB/SD/Stereo In converter box that plugs into the external CD changer port on the existing "radio".

Hope this helps,
Shell

 

ohhhh okay, got it. So you're keeing the oem radio in place and adding something on top of it then? Why not have the pc run everything and have a nice 7" touch screen where the oem radio now sits? or? I guess that would probably start to creep up in cost as you'd be replacing speakers and probably need something to power it all etc. like a nice 4 channel or something.

 

Okay all, I got word this morning from the good folks at Metra that I can let the cat out of the bag completely now (woohoo!) so no more secrets or having to keep things under wraps anymore.

For starters, here's a link to where it's featured in installer central:

http://www.me-mag.com/installerCentr...y.cfm?nid=1450

this is very similar to the press release/ad I'm attaching as well, along with an early prototype pic. The pic is of the double din mock-up in a brand new Rx-8, keep in mind this was only during the development stages of the kit and they were checking for fitment etc., the good news is that the "rough draft" piece already looks better than anything else out there, and I'm sure they've refined it and such since that pic was taken.

Some additional information:

kit is shipping the end of July (eek!)

Price is expected to be around the same as their G-35 kits (G35 kit (99-7604) so if you call your local installer and ask them how much that kit is (or look it up online like I did) you should get a pretty good idea of what the final price is going to be. (from a few random sites I saw it hovering around 160-175ish)

pics are below, so much for this being a "useless thread", a "tease", or "bullshit" I suppose





They've been pointed to this thread previously, and I know they're anxious to hear/see people's reactions so feel free to share them here, or shoot me a pm and I'll direct whatever you send me directly to them.

About another 1.5 months and this is out

 

HOLY CRAP!!! I am so excited about this! This kit is going to be bad ***! Just the rough draft of it looks great. and that price....thank you Metra for FINALLY stepping up to the plate!

I do have a question, do you know how you would be able to input your own text exactly?

thank you SOOO much for sharing this with us! Maybe you can move the pictures of this to the first post? possibly make this thread a sticky?

 

Actually I don't, the Mazda 6 kit has the same functionality so I probably just need to go take a look at that and see

 

reading the link you provided it seems like there is a way to do it using the HVAC controls.....guess I can check out the Mazda6 one or just wait to get my hands on this one at the end of July.

 

Nice! I would really like to see a pic of the piano black finish.. Also the custom text should be cool.. And best of all... Great price. (But this means I have to spend more money on the car )

 

That looks way nicer than the Mazda 6 finish (sorry 6 owners)!

I too jumped on the audio link about two years ago and am wondering what to do with that now. I currently have it hooked up to a Scosche bluetooth kit so I have MP3 player support and ipod support already. The 3Sixty would've made for a stealth install, but man seeing that double din opening.....

A quick google search on metra 99-7604 yielded some very good prices too. As for car pc options, I saw this all in one prebuilt option for a good price http://www.vic-ltd.com/navisurferII.html . Never thought this day would actually come to be!

 

This unit is gonna kick ***! Can't wait.