Gen2 Stereo Upgrade questions

Kumba

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I'm going to be upgrading the head unit so I get something with Bluetooth A2DP. That's my primary goal. Maybe a back-up camera if I get bored too. I don't care about Nav at the moment cause my phone does that and more. Most of the head units i'm looking at have a direct nav counterpart should I change my mind.

Phone is a Motorola Droid4. Car is 2006 Lincoln LS with the base-model radio (cd/cassette).

Parts list looks as follows

Pioneer AVH-X2500BT or Kenwood DDX419 or JVC KW-AV60BT
Metra Axxess ASWC for steering wheel controls
Metra 95-5000S double-din dash piece in silver
Metra 70-5521 Harness

So, is that Metra dash piece the one I want? Or are there better suggestions? Did some searching and there was mention of it having plastic brackets but it didn't sound definitive.

Is that the correct LS wiring harness? And do I need an extra harness for the ASWC?

Any objective opinions on the Kenwood vs JVC vs Pioneer? I kind of like the utilitarian look of the Kenwood. The Pioneer looks too busy or something. Other then that I don't have much else to go off of.

Can you do much by throwing door speakers at it or is it pretty much all or nothing as far as that goes?

I'll probably ask a few audio shops what they can do for me on pricing and such but I know none of them are going to have the dash piece so I might as well order that myself. Might as well know what part numbers I need for the rest of it as well. From experience I know that the less guessing that is involved the better.
 
I just went through this and installed a cheap 2 din unit into my 05 LS. I had the same factory setup (CD/Cass).

I used the exact same metra dash piece and I can confirm that everything is plastic. Depending on where the mounting holes are in your new head unit, you can re-use the sturdy metal brackets that hold in the stock head unit.

As for the wiring harness, I only needed the 24 pin connector (large one), not the small connector with the RCA plugs. So I unhooked 3 plugs from the rear of the factory head unit, and only 1 of those is currently hooked up to the new unit.

I can't speak to the steering wheel controls as I am doing without for now. Maybe come summertime I will purchase the interface unit. Hope this helps a little.
Brandyn
 

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