Dead CD on MY01 Liberty RX2.5 Sedan

[Squire]

Hi. Been a while, I know Just had $2,600 of work done to my car... new disk rotors & pads all round, front wheel bearings, front shocks, 2 CV boots, and the 150k service. And a few other things. It drives like a new one, now. I was iffy about speinding that much on a ten year old car, but hey, I love that car. And my budget doesn't extend to a 3-year old RB 3.0 - yet.

To the root of my problem. My CD player is cactus. I put a CD in, and most of the time I get 'Er 6', sometimes 'Er 3' coming up on the display, and no play the CD. Ejecting the CD a few times sometimes fixes it. It's been getting worse, I've pretty much given up on CD's. I can't listen to the radio, cause I HATE most DJ's, and don't wanna listen to ads or talkback. Ewww! So I've got this little thing that takes a USB stick loaded with mp3's and broadcasts it to the radio. Sound quality sucks, and it dies when I'm in the M5 tunnel.

I want to replace the entire head unit. My budget isn't huge, especially after that big service hit, and now it's due for rego.

What can you recommend? My mechanic (Auto Spot, Alexandria) reckon if I buy the head unit that they can fit it. Anyone have any favourite brands? I'd like something that can play mp3 CD's - maybe even mp3 DVD's. And I'd like change from $500.

See you all soon.

Paul W

[Squire]

Well. No one has answered. Anyways, I'd like to go with an Alpine double DIN so it fits nicely into the big gap. Pity Alpine don't make the units that have programmable indicator colour in double DIN - it'd be nice to match the green lights of the rest of the dash. But... if I get one that has white LCD display, maybe I can just put a sheet of green cellophane or something over the indicator panel. The Alpine CDE-W203E looks like a good fit... for around $500. Anyone have any experience with this model?

[KWICKS]

Not the model, just the brand. Alpine still does research and development the other mobs can only dream about, the brand is well respected for this. My (waaay old) Alpine units have been excellent in previous cars.

[LibertyGT]

Our MY01Lib RX with 220k on the clock still has a functional CD player, unlike my MY04 Lib GT.

I use one of those cheapy USB thingies and the quality is about the same as AM radio, but better than nothing

Mine is tuned to 87.9 which seems to work the best, no issue in the M5 tunnel with it

[Squire]

Thanks LibertyGT - I have mine tuned to 103.5, but I'll try 87.9 - mine plays up a bit when I'm driving in the country, clashes with regional FM. KWICKS - I'll definitely buy an Alpine, when my finances improve. I'm thinking of using Cronulla Car Audio and Security, they come well recommended and they're about the closest Alpine dealer to me - I'm in Oatley. I'll give them a call closer to the time I want it done.

It'll be nice to listen to music without the hissing and crud that I get through the FM re-transmitter. Although suddenly my car becomes a thief attractor ...

PW

[Scyfer]

My Alpine units have been great, except for iPod compatibility. When it works, it goes a treat... But when I used to have my WRX, it used to error out like a biiiiiitch.