So George Hotz, a teen from New Jersey, unlocks the iPhone and is running it on T-Mobile instead of AT&T. A little soldering skill and software know-how and boom - you have an iPhone off the farm. This isn't exactly the kind of upgrade we were thinking of when we started brainstorming on this step-up guide issue. I mean, we don't want people to buy a new head unit and modify it to somehow grab satellite radio signals for free or add on hardware so as to get online while roaming and anonymously hack into various places on the Web. We were thinking something less extravagant but quite essential. Like using re-Q for better bass or employing Kenwood's KOS-V1000 interface to serve as a new multimedia hub, enabling you to have access to your media files via, say, a hard drive.
I'm reading the latest SEMA news report and I see that vehicle sales are down. GM is down over 20 percent from last year. Ford sank almost as much, while Chrysler, the smallest of the big three, fell about 8 percent. Go down the line - Honda, Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Toyota, Volkswagen and so on - and all the numbers are in the red. Only BMW has shown an increase, a stout one at that with a 20 percent rise, about 5,000 more vehicles. New car sales may be slowing, but car enthusiasts are modifying or accessorizing more, at least according to another SEMA survey. Products and techniques, such as those featured in this month's issue of CA&E, definitely play a major part in many enthusiasts' upgrade plans.
As things change they remain sort of the same. Sales may fluctuate in all markets, but the constant is that people who appreciate what they have always want to personalize it to varying degrees. So maybe CD players in cars are now pass, as Siemens VP Frank Homann claims, but an enthusiast's desire for custom audio is unlikely to fade. It may be the phone that will be the all-in-one source for a car, or maybe a mobile A/V system will be almost completely hard drive based, like the Altima featured in this issue. Whatever the trend of the moment, people will always want something better, something custom. The Altima now has Kenwood's 702 touchscreen instead of the stock radio. There will be no head unit, just a Tivx and a CD changer, and all of it running through the V1000. It's the aftermarket's superior version of what the OEs are doing with things like MyGig, which is found in some Chrysler vehicles.
Take a look at the Top 10 selling cars in the U.S. You have vehicles like the Corolla, CR-V, Accord, Altima, Civic and F150, etc. These are affordable, reliable and, practically as a consequence, fairly utilitarian rides that beg to be upgraded, improved. The vehicles, priced as they are, give consumers a chance to get into a car that represents good value and that they can change over time, as budgets allow. For instance, check out the upgrade on the F150 on page 42.
On the flip side, for consumers with expensive vehicles who don't want to cut into them, for obvious reasons, you can follow the example provided in our feature on the Mercedes Benz S600. Leave the stock radio and use Rockford Fosgate's versatile interface, the 3Sixty.2. Add amps and speakers and you have a radically different vehicle, even before the other upgrades.