Car Stereo's from the USA?
 

Have noticed some keenly priced Headunits being sold on a certain web auction site. I am sure I have heard that the radio's won't work properly in the UK as they use a different frequency or something? :confused:

Can anyone shed any light on to why I shouldn't buy one from another domestic market??

Ta :)

i recently had a pioneer x1 fitted and they are about 6-700 cheaper on the net!!! but apparently i have found out that a)they are either american,therefore no gaurantee,or b)alot of these units are apparently "repaired"units from the usa ,therefore if u have problems pioneer would not cover the warranty,and the retailer will just dismiss you towards pioneer the whole time!!!!therefore your stuck with a broken/faulty unit!!! not to say of course that all units are like this.In addition for alot of the expensive units they also have to be installed by an approved supplier/fitter so beware!!



needless to say i paid the extra and now have a unit with gaurantee from pioneer for 3 years,if it breaks they replace the unit,inc fitting costs,also have an updated european navi disc this yr for free,and there is no subscription to the gps every year,its all included with the original price.

goodluk,but check it out thoroughly if ur spending lots of money:)

A friend on mine had one when he was over here that he brought from the states when he moved over here and the radio was next to useless :( The tuner goes 95.7 -> 95.9 instead of 95.6 -> 95.8 so most radio stations aren't accessable :(

As paul says, the frequency spacing is 200KHz in the USA, we have 50KHz spacing over here... So you stand a chance of missing half the stations you want to hear.

It could be worse; the Mini Disc player in my RVR only gets Classic FM and Jimmy Young!

..
 

Pioneer 9600 mp3 players have the option of changing FM spacing from 100 to 50Mhz, but a BIG problem with buying a foreign unit is the lack of RDS & TA support, its non-existent!!

I bought a pioneer 9600 and couldn't pick up a thing, if you look around there are good deals to be had on the internet.

Try Guardian 0500525620 they do mail order and are very cheap

I got a Pioneer 8600 that's US/Canadian spec. I got it for £250, a saving of £70 on the cheapest I could find it, and £300 on the most expensive (Edworthys).

I get all the radio stations without any problems. You can even change the frequency steps if you want.

No RDS though. But I didn't buy it to listen to the radio so I couldn't care.

Was looking @ the Sony CDX-F7700/7710's (The 7710 seems to be the USA version)
Haven't seen them for under £200 In the UK yet.

Someone was selling one for £109 on *-Bay :eek:
This was one of the USA versions though.

I have just purchased an Alpine 9833 for £156 from Crutchfields in the states. Had a friend bring it over so no duty or carriage. The radio has an option to set tuner to US frequencies or UK. It does not have RDS but picks up all the UK stations. Pretty awesome unit. You get an installation manual for the Scooby which covers door removal and stereo installation guide. You also get a complete install kit with an assortment of surrounds and facias.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-RxBTSQN...*zN*Dii2K-9oNN