OV9

This was the one - i have no idea what half of the buttons do even now when i can actually see them up close - SRC? PTY? and i’ve no idea why the most prominent button on the whole thing (and the only one you can see at night) is “extra bass”?

integrale_evo wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2025 10:44 am I’ve always hated Sony car stereos because of the really annoying

De do de do, de do de do

Noise on the 90s ones when you turned off the ignition to remind you to take the faceplate off

I don’t know why, they just felt a level down from pioneer / alpine at the time even though they sounded decent.

I'd forgotten that noise and I don't thank you for reminding me of it. They definitely felt less well designed even though they sounded fine.

Don't remember the exact machines I had but they were from these eras:
Crap little knob for the Megabass, buttons on the left too close together so it was easy to press the wrong one. And who thought volume could be changed with just buttons?


And this one with more buttons and a sort of ugly bloated roundedness to its face:

I still have one similar to the second one. I’ll have to dig it out. I bought it around 1995/6 and IIRC it was £300. A lot of money ! CD players were out of my budget.

Src - source?

Pty - program type. That’s been around since rds radio signals became a thing. Program type, so you can select radio station based on genre. Not really applicable to the handful of stations we have in the uk, I don’t think anyone in the history of car stereos has ever used it.

No @mitoboy I never bothered because like you say they don’t seem entirely compatible, even just upgrading the cd player to the widescreen one from a later car seems impossible / a nightmare. I don’t want to lose the mpg displays or steering wheel buttons. Plus mine has the tomtom go add on so if you stick the tomtom on the dash you can control it through the wheel and display some car functions on it. I don’t like messing up things like that.

Same with the e53, it’s pretty easy to stick a double din in, but they mostly look crap and you lose the obc functions, and can’t even set the vehicle clock, which would drive me mad. So that’s still got the original setup too. I just stick a phone on a vent mount if I need to use satnav.

Anyhoo, my AliExpress unit has arrived, quite impressed, the buttons and particularly the volume knob feel way more solid and higher quality than expected. Came with the iso adapter plugs, a remote and even a small roll of electrical tape and a plastic pry tool! To be honest I don’t think it would look out of place in the dash of my older BMWs, it’s quite a simple satin finish, no shiny chrome or bling.

Wanted one with a bigger knob as I plan on having it semi hidden. Plus cigarette socket usb adapters don’t really work on the ‘sud very well so this gives me a couple of usb charge points too. It’s very shallow which will help the mounting options.

At 2.15pm today, I ordered some wiper blades and Adblue from ECP on 'standard' delivery at £3.95.

The parts arrived at 4.45pm today

That's unprecedentedly fast service

integrale_evo wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2025 11:19 am

What happened to the back half of it

GG. wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 5:49 pm

integrale_evo wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2025 11:19 am

What happened to the back half of it

look at all the function your phone can do without even that much!

I can understand why they used to be deep in the days of cassettes and CD's, but even now they still are. Space for the amp? Radio reciever? Why are the AliExpress ones more shallow, and what are they missing?

Also, Sony? Pioneer? Pfff. All the cool kids fitted Kenwood.

Matty wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 7:41 pm I can understand why they used to be deep in the days of cassettes and CD's, but even now they still are. Space for the amp? Radio reciever? Why are the AliExpress ones more shallow, and what are they missing?

Also, Sony? Pioneer? Pfff. All the cool kids fitted Kenwood.

All they need is a basic screen function and room for a couple of big plugs and an old school aerial plug, thick is probably the main restriction for “thin-ness”.

they could probably be <10mm thick if there was a benefit to being 10mm thick - most modern cars have a thin screen doing most of the function.

Yeah but the amplifier is normally elsewhere now when it used to be in the head unit.

Dave!

V8Granite wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 8:41 pm Yeah but the amplifier is normally elsewhere now when it used to be in the head unit.

Dave!

This is probably something to do with it plus also that I expect these modern units have moved to Class D amplification which means that you switch current rather than have large caps and transformers to drive the speakers so takes up a lot less space.

Matty wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 7:41 pm I can understand why they used to be deep in the days of cassettes and CD's, but even now they still are. Space for the amp? Radio reciever? Why are the AliExpress ones more shallow, and what are they missing?

Also, Sony? Pioneer? Pfff. All the cool kids fitted Kenwood.

I had a Nakamichi. Gutted I never kept that tbh.

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:30 pm

Matty wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 7:41 pm
All the cool kids fitted Kenwood.

I had a Nakamichi. Gutted I never kept that tbh.

Ooh - everyone wanted Nakamichi tape decks.

I got a Becker Mexico (with volume up/down toggle rather than a knob - that was stoopid - as per @jobbo comments above ) but I was so chuffed with it. I paid decent money for it from a reputable car audio place in town who told me it had been removed from a 928 they were fitting a big system upgrade into. Lasted about 6 weeks before it and my MDF parcel shelf containing a pair of new 6x9's was stolen from the car

mik wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:39 pm Lasted about 6 weeks before it and my MDF parcel shelf containing a pair of new 6x9's was stolen from the car

Desirable.

mik wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:39 pm

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:30 pm

Matty wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 7:41 pm
All the cool kids fitted Kenwood.

I had a Nakamichi. Gutted I never kept that tbh.

Ooh - everyone wanted Nakamichi tape decks.

I got a Becker Mexico (with volume up/down toggle rather than a knob - that was stoopid - as per @jobbo comments above ) but I was so chuffed with it. I paid decent money for it from a reputable car audio place in town who told me it had been removed from a 928 they were fitting a big system upgrade into. Lasted about 6 weeks before it and my MDF parcel shelf containing a pair of new 6x9's was stolen from the car

Mine was CD. Had such incredible sound quality, even for what I think was just the base model (I want to say CD-35z or something like that). Bought from what I'm sure was a Dimma store in the Trafford Centre

Company I bought the wipers for the Zoe from sent out a new set after I emailed them about the juddering. Quick win.

Galaxy has had its annual service and as planned both front springs and dampers replaced. For reasons the fronts cost more than the rears, which is odd. I would have thought the rears would be more as they're beefier.

Both dampers were sort of ish still working just about. They were definitely too soft and rebound was slow, so at least that's been dealt with. Springs weren't strictly necessary, but given their cost compared to the labour it made sense.

Didn't do the oil as it was changed last September and we've not done much more than 6k since. Will get it done later in the year.

Legal numberplate day for the 360 and we have what I believe is called "flying colours". 377 miles since last year.

Although about halfway through the guy came into reception and wanted me to come and have a look at something on the car. <concern>. He'd noticed that I'd not fully tightened the locknut on one rear tie rod when I did the shock bushes. He'd nipped it up and wasn't putting in on the MOT but wanted to let me know

And then later I did my good Samaritan bit. Elderly neighbor with elderly Defender 90 needed towing back from Crowthorne. The car had conked out and wouldn't restart. I towed him home and once we were back - Sod's Law - it fired up perfectly

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jul 11, 2025 11:21 am And then later I did my good Samaritan bit. Elderly neighbor with elderly Defender 90 needed towing back from Crowthorne. The car had conked out and wouldn't restart. I towed him home and once we were back - Sod's Law - it fired up perfectly

Who knew the 360 was such a good towing car?

/s

There’s a kind of aerofoil thing in the rear diffuser that’s ideal for attaching a towing strap.

Bet that turned a few heads