Hi, have any of you installed the Panasonic Strada?

I used to have the Eclipse AVN-2454 and loved it but I sold the truck it was in. I was looking at the Eclipse 6610 to replace it mainly because it has a 7" screen and Sirius Traffic, similar to Alpine. However, it's over $1,500. The Strada has all of the same features plus a 30gig HD, and over 12mil POI.

Have any of you purchased/installed it? Have any of you looked at it and decided to pass up on it?

I found it for $899.99 and it seems to have as many features as just about any other GPS on the market.

 

I'd be interested in hearing about this as well....I've pretty much decided on the Kenwood 7100, but only because I've heard nothing at all about the Strada.

 

I also checked out the strada, I needed the bluetooth phone option , the strada does evrything else that the kenwood dnx 7100 does with the exception of how the blue tooth works , it will only let you receive incoming calls and will only let you dial out to the last number that came in as an incoming call , I guess thats some kind of safety issue but it turned me away from the strada to the kenwood.

 

Well I went ahead and ordered it. The only downside is that the Sirius Traffic tuner isn't due out until this fall. Can't wait to do the install

 

Please post some pictures/comments after you've done the install. I'd love to hear more about this unit!

 

I wasn't home to get it when UPS came by so I'm picking it up tomorrow after lunch. I'll either do the install tomorrow night or Friday. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

What tuner will you need to get the sirius traffic? I thought the sir-pan1 will do it. Im looking to buy this also. Please let me know how the install goes, I'm wondering if you even need to use the vehicle speed sensor wire. I've heard it works with out it.

 

From what I've been told by Panasonic the sir-pan1 won't do traffic. They're introducing a new tuner sometime this fall. By the way CircuitCity has the Sir-pan1 on sale for $79.99. I just picked up one tonight. I think I'll probably go ahead and hook it up with the speed wire. I don't want to skip that step just to have to pull apart the dash again. Besides, the unit uses that along with it's gyroscope/compas to detect it's position when it's out of signal.

If you're going to get the unit i'd go to buydig.com. That's where I found it for $899 plus about $20 shipping.

Oh, don't forget you'll need the hub if you want to have more then one input ie. ipod, or sirius, or camera, etc.

 

I found it at soniceletronix.com for $849. The only thing I was going to hook up was the Sirius and sirius traffic. As far as the speed wire goes, I was having a difficult time finding it in my Semi-truck. LOL Hopefully it works without it. Let me know how it works for you. Thanks for the info.

 

Well I got the unit and it's kind of disappointing.

1. There's no remote. What sort of stereo that retails for $1,799 has NO REMOTE? It's not that it didn't come with one, its that there isn't one at all. Yes, there is an IR sensor on the front of the unit but that's only for pass through to the optional TV tuner. It won't control the unit itself. This means no steering wheel controls. LAME

2. The Bluetooth is only used to answer calls. You can't place calls. To install it you have to mount another button that you press to answer the call. This means another hole in your dash. Why on earth would they make one that cannot place calls?? Why not make it so that you can interact with it using the touch screen?

3. The Sirius Traffic doesn't work with the Sir-Pan1 tuner that's currently available and Panasonic has no idea what the time to market will be for a working tuner and what the price will be. They're advertising something that doesn't exist.

Bottom line....this unit sucks. It's a cheap immitation of the Eclipse that was rushed to the market with no thought for real world usefulness. Don't buy it.

 

You should return it for the Pioneer AVIC-Z2. It retails for 2199.99 but you can get it for $1500. i bought mine for $1450 cash. Let me know how it goes