Hi there

I'm new here so sorry if this has been asked in the past...

Anyway... I just got my new Grande Punto and am considering replacing the OE radio/CD with something aftermarket, probably Kenwood. Now looking at the OE radio it looks a bit oversized so I'm wondering would an aftermarket radio look out of place? I assume there are frames or something you can fill the empty space in with but what I'd really want to see is how an aftermarket radio looks like when it's fitted before I go and buy one.

Has anyone got a photo of one fitted to a Grande Punto? Could you post it up please?

Would help me immensly making up my mind

Cheers
Thomas

I take it you don't have a Sporting as there stereos are good and are required for some of the Blue&Me functions.

As for someone fitting an aftermarket stereo it has been done and requires a facia adapter. DeL has done it this is his GP Active with an aftermarket Stereo:



Hope that helps!

Thank you very much! That's exactly what I was after

Yeah, I have the 1.2 Active only as it's a 2nd car and I have a motorbike too.

Anyway... looking at the photo I think I'll stick with the standard radio. Looks better in my view and I'll just get the iPod cable to have my MP3s

Thanks again! Was a great help

tbh from an ipoding point of the view the standard blue & me stuff looks a bit pointless. it doesn't play files brought off the itunes store! how stupid!

samdavis said:

tbh from an ipoding point of the view the standard blue & me stuff looks a bit pointless. it doesn't play files brought off the itunes store! how stupid!

Click to expand...

:whogives: Offtopic anyway as he doesn't have B&M

To set thing right its not stupid at all, AAC format is a stupid useless format and is proprietary to Apple which means Micrsoft systems (i.e Blue&Me) wont play them specially when they are licensed from the iTunes Store. This is why it will only play Mp3 / Wma's which doesn't make an iPod pointless at all as its a one click operation to convert files. iPods are gimmiks in my opinion and would far rather get a non propriatory Mp3 / WMA player with 2gb of memory for £28.

ThomasG said:

Anyway... looking at the photo I think I'll stick with the standard radio. Looks better in my view and I'll just get the iPod cable to have my MP3s

Thanks again! Was a great help

Click to expand...

No problem good luck getting your iPod working

ChrisUK said:

iPods are gimmiks in my opinion and would far rather get a non propriatory Mp3 / WMA player with 2gb of memory for £28.

Click to expand...

it seems most of the adult consumers are finally realising this too, but schoolkids want an ipod or nothing, bless them they're not very bright.

samdavis said:

tbh from an ipoding point of the view the standard blue & me stuff looks a bit pointless. it doesn't play files brought off the itunes store! how stupid!

Click to expand...

You are so wrong - the guy is going to buy an ipod cable from Fiat (so he probably does not have or need B & M )- this will play any format on his ipod and you do not need blue and me to operate it. the cable has its own interface system so you can control the ipod by selecting any track off the iopd screen or by setting up playlists.
As for itune you can convert these to mp3 if need to anyway.
with programs like alcohol 120 you simulate burning these tracks to cd then rip them back in any format you want.
As for the other responses about kids wanting ipods i am 39 years.
All you need to do is know how to get the best out of them.
I used to have archos 20 gb but like most windows products they crash often.
That went back and replaced by ipod - best thing that i did for sure.

This thread has developed strangely indeed

No, I don't have or need B&M. I even have just the standard CD radio. All I want is play my MP3s and stuff on the radio and seeing that Fiat does a cable that connects to my iPod and is cheaper than the Ice>Link Plus from Dension I thought I'd get that.

As for the iPod... I've also got an Archos AV400 which I use like a digital video recorder hooked up to the telly. The iPod (Mini, 4GB) is purely for music when I'm on the go. It does the job and I got it cheap 2nd hand.

Will this cable work on my Punto Mk2B stereo or is it an 'exclusive GP thing'

The Trooper said:

Will this cable work on my Punto Mk2B stereo or is it an 'exclusive GP thing'

Click to expand...

No idea, but if it's a Blaupunkt radio this one might work!?
http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/ipod_cable.asp

Then again I might be wrong...

The cable used on the standard GP stereo for ipods, is for the GP and the Panda only, i have the box for it upstairs somewhere...

Its about £67 or something from the dealer... There are some threads in this section that have the part number for it in too!

SORRY JUST SEEN ALL THIS INFO IS IN A THREAD OF ITS OWN!

Still off topic if anyone is having trouble wit the AAC files bought from iTunes there is an option in iTunes to convert your AAC files to MP3 quite easily. Go to preferences > advanced > Importing > then change the import using to MP3 encoder and below set the quality you want (i'd go for atleast 192 if you play your music loud and it is bassy). Once you have done this you can select the songs you want to convert in your track listing, go to the advanced menu and select "convert selection to MP3" This will create a duplicate of each track in your library so you will need to make a new playlist called 'XXX album (mp3)' or delete the old AAC files and put the MP3 files in your original playlist.
I work on a Mac so if you use a PC the options may be arranged slightly different but they will be there.

Makes me a bit sick to explain this because when I bought my Sporting I thought I was getting Blue & Me but have since bought an iPod and found that I had an earlier version of the sporting that does not have the MP3 player USB, only the diagnostics USB port.

Anyway hope this helps someone.

ChrisUK said:

iPods are gimmiks in my opinion and would far rather get a non propriatory Mp3 / WMA player with 2gb of memory for £28.

Click to expand...

tbh
I thought a similar thing for sometime. I used to have a creative zen touch and was a staunch WMA user. One day a mate of mine showed me his ipod video which he recently got. After using it I instantly felt it was better. The interface was slick and painless! I bought one myself and haven't looked back.

I admit that the ipod needs a case and protection and has a few "quirks", but overall its a good machine and there some good accessories around for it. I started downloading music from iTunes as well which seems painless and the sound quality is good through average sound systems.

Granted but that doesn't change the fact its an inferior product for alot more money in most cases. And thats not mentioning the most annoying media player software which you have to use (iTunes) to transfer music :yuck:.

Thats unless your clever enough to use linux of course and then theres one called GNUpod which painlessly copys music over .