Now thats what Im talking about Nelson, I want to do a system upgrade like you did but with different equipment, I am now willing to keep it around 1000 watts but I want a gps headunit with bluetooth because I dont think I can afford to retrofit and would like the options the headunit has to offer Anyone know any good shops like Nelson had but around the NJ area to get this done right?

 

good luck in finding a head unit that does gps, navi, and then getting it installed in your car. Going to extremely expensive for all of that!!

 

good luck in finding a head unit that does gps, navi, and then getting it installed in your car. Going to extremely expensive for all of that!!

 

if you INSIST on changing your head unit, you will cause a world or trouble, but the only thing fitting would be a Alpine 740BT touch screen (you can buy an i-drive like controller for it) and the Alpine vehicle hub. this is still a terrible idea, as your car will have no way of displaying error messages, and god knows what else that i am sure is far more detrimental than that

 

I've seen people not replace the factory headunit but do a headunit that plays through factory headunit aux. Because of idrive you will have a hell of a time replacing the factory headunit. For a cleaner look and still using factory unit but having all the aftermarket control I would suggest going with a unit like the JL audio clean sweep. This piece will take the signal from the factory headunit and clean it all up and then output to low level rca outputs which you then hook to your amps then subsequently to your speakers/subs I think this is the best compromise for factory headunits.

 

I am one cheap ass bastard. LOL. I spent $100 for my amp, sub, wiring, and hi low converter. But i did end up spending several hundred in materials for my custom box.

 

You guys make it seem like I want to remove the iDrive, this is what I want to do, but I was thinking of a better aftermarket unit, might even possibly go the same route....

 

That looks sweet!

 

I've seen an e60 with a complete aftermarket stereo system installed. It doesn't integrate or replace the idrive system, its just an additional head unit, amps, and speakers. Actually, not really a big deal at all...just keep in mind you won't be able to control it with the idrive. You'll be stuck with head unit and steering wheel controls.

 

I dont have an aftermarket unit, what you see down there is the controller for the alpine pxa-h701 processor. The alpine vehiclehub was a PITA to install, you will have to remove both the passenger seats and rear seats to run the cables. You will also need a nav-tv interface($350) to see video thru the idrive screen. A lot have changed since the alpine vehiclehub and cleansweep came out. Theres better options out there.

Heres some more pics of of the install.