I think im leaning toward the pioneer 4200, It can be upgraded to navi later. anyone know if you can change the backlight colors on this one?

 

One thing to keep in mind on that Pioneer is that it won't scroll text. It will clip it at 32 characters. I'm not sure about Alpine but the Kenwood units scroll text. While this may seem like no big deal, I find it annoying and it's one of the reasons I replaced my existing DD HU.

Any of the 2010 Kenwood or Pioneer DVD HUs are nav upgradeable. This is done via an add-on module. I personally went with a Kenwood DDX616 because I already have a great portable NAV device and I prefer having a physical volume **** as opposed to +/- keys. I figure if my portable NAV dies, then I'll just add the NAV module. Also, Kenwood NAV is done by Garmin and that may be an important factor.

 

Sounds like you like your Kenwood!

 

The truth is I've always been more of a Pioneer fan. After comparing everything and going back and forth a million times, I ended up choosing Kenwood for a few reasons. The only reasons I could see on the Pioneer side were the 4-volt preouts and the somewhat more optioned EQ section. My existing HU didn't scroll text either and that was really something I wanted to avoid again.

The Pioneer is actually cheaper than the Kenwood but I still ended up choosing the Kenwood. I even looked at the 4200 but the add-on bluetooth is very outdated. Bluetooth was a necessary feature for me.

 

Ok Im bumping this because I finally got the pioneer AVH-4200DVD for xmas from my loving wife, Now the only question is how do I do the parking brake bypass?

 

Search YouTube for "avh-p4200dvd bypass" and detailed instructions will be presented.

 

Thanks I did find that and it worked perfectly!

 

AVH-P4200DVD and loving it - I did the same emergency brake bypass and works perfectly

 

Navigation installed!