Remote mount head unit
 

I have seen a few things like this done in the past and wanted to get some peoples insight on it for the 8. Basically you would mount a head unit with a removable faceplate in the trunk, under a seat, in the glovebox, etc... and then get computer ribbon cable designed for hard drives and make a custom wire to connect the two(probably can be bought in bulk somewhere). By doing this in the 8 you could leave the stock stereo where it is as nothing more than a cosmetic piece. I was trying to figure out where to mount the face plate though. I was thinking about custom mounting it in the sunglass holder, but where else should I explore as far as custom mounting it? The access problem of the head unit would also not be a problem as I would most likely get an XM tuner as well as a 6 or 10 disk mp3/cd changer. By doing this it would eliminate alot of wiring problems and long wire runs. Food for thought and nobody better steal my idea until after I do it.

great idea, but most of us are concerned more about the dashboard display and the steering wheel controls.......

Well, with a remote mount head unit the dash display would still work like stock, but would not display any of the stuff from the real head unit driving the stereo. You may be able to get the steering wheel controls to work with a new head unit via one of the many interface modules, but I have not looked into that, but I do believe it is possible as somebody on here has done it I believe.