Car Stereo Fail

I thought Crutchfield was great because they gave me lots of free stuff with my new car stereo, and they helped me choose products, and they supplied all sorts of literature to help me do the installation.

I have changed my mind. I am feeling a wee bit crabby.

The adapters they sent for the speakers don’t fit. The speakers I got for the front doors are not the ones they should have recommended. The installation information is just plain wrong.

I had a horrible time putting speakers in the rear doors. One is still awaiting installation. I had to cut a hole in the door panel for a tweeter (not mentioned when I bought the speakers), and the bit jumped and gouged the panel. Nice.

They said I needed something called a trim panel tool to pull the center panel off my dashboard. They said this in the installation information they sent me. Not over the phone, when I ordered the stereo. When I could have told them to include the tool, you understand.

I decided to yank on the panel with my fingers. It popped out! Fantastic. But it was stuck at the bottom. I pulled a little more. One side came free. Then I realized I was breaking the little plastic tabs that were screwed into the dash. The tabs the installation instructions failed to mention.

Now I have to get a new panel. I’ll bet that’s fifty bucks.

Yes, I can make a forty-minute drive to the junkyard region of Miami, walk around in the broiling sun for three hours, and hope to find a used one for forty-five dollars. Somehow, it does not appeal to me.

I got a rear-view camera from Amazon. I installed it on the license plate frame, in about two minutes. Then I got under the truck and started running the cable to the cab, tying it to the frame with cable ties as I went. I got to the cab…and there was no place to insert the cable. I poked around under there for quite some time before I concluded that Dodge was against me installing my own camera.

I quit. I gave this the old college try. I called a stereo place, and they’re going to do this for me. It will cost a fortune, but I’ll have my stereo.

I’m not a total idiot with tools. If this was as easy as Crutchfield said it was, I’d be done already. But it’s not easy at all. If I gathered all the parts and did the job myself, it would take two days, eight hours a day, minimum. And I’d ruin the truck in the process.

The speakers, I can do. Thank God for that.

Why didn’t I learn from my last Crutchfield experience? I got a stereo for the T-bird, and the website said, “It Fits!” What it did not say was that the T-bird’s computer was integrated with the factory stereo. It’s nearly impossible to remove the old audio system. People who put new stereos in Thunderbirds routinely leave the old stereos connnected to the computers and put them in the trunk. The T-bird’s new stereo is still here, waiting to be installed. I’m donating it to my dad’s ancient Explorer.

What was I thinking when I decided to try Crutchfield again?

I can’t be too hard on myself. Circuit City is gone. Best Buy’s service is not good. Sound Advice went out of business. That means I have to go to a boutique to get a stereo and have it installed, unless I want it done really badly. I was hoping to avoid boutique prices.

Until I started looking for a new stereo, I didn’t realize Miami only had one major car-stereo retailer. That’s pathetic.