archemedes

Adaptation
By Krisa Bortz
Posted on Aug 1, 2004

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Yes, you can upgrade a system in a Mazda 6 — it'll take time, talent, and a whole lot of patience.
One of the first things that happens every time I sit down to write this column is that I ask myself a question — the same question that I ask when working on redesigning my system, and one I often hear from people getting their first aftermarket system: Where to start?

Obviously, when it comes to incorporating your aftermarket equipment in your vehicle, you’re starting from scratch. If you have any pride in your vehicle, you don’t want to just tear into it, cutting holes and force-fitting things. Ok, you ask, how do you fit what you want into a car without doing that? OEM integration.

Let me start off by saying that not all stock speakers and stock locations are “bad” just because they’re stock. With the right aftermarket equipment, you can take something simple and make it special. Case in point — a fellow competitor, and 15-year installer, spanked me in sound scores at last year’s SLAP Nationals using his stock VW GTI speakers in stock locations. They were amplified, time-aligned, and crossed-over with aftermarket products, but his sound scores outdid everyone in our pro class as far as tonality and imaging. He was so surprised, that he insisted to the judges that the scores had to be wrong. His “right mix” of aftermarket, education, and skill turned those stock speakers into the best sounding car in our class.

This is not to say that OEM integration is easy. The same guy as above, Jason Ewing, installs for Tweeter in the Philadelphia area.

“It almost seems that new car manufacturers are trying harder to make it more difficult to integrate aftermarket into stock locations,” he explains, noting the Mazda 6 as a prime example. The heat and air conditioning controls on the 6 are wired through the radio. This is something that caused at least two people I know to not buy a Mazda, but not everyone buys a car based on upgrade capability.

“Most customers believe that if they change things in their car, it will void their warranty, like the car dealers tell them,” states Ewing. “The transmission isn’t connected to changing speakers, no matter what the service tech tells you.”

He’s right — the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 (and it’s a Federal law, so that’s anywhere in the U.S. or its territories) prohibits dealerships from voiding your warranty just because you change non-mechanical things, including seats, radios, and speakers.

“We do OEM integration all the time, but it can be time consuming with some vehicles,” Ewing adds, referencing a BMW that took several hours to add an aftermarket head unit to, because of factory navigation and GPS, individually amp’d speakers from a six-channel factory amplifier, and the customer wanting everything stock. “It can be done, it’s just starting to take more time. A deck and four just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

The same tools are available to both DIY consumers (who know where to look) and professional installers, alike. (This is not to say skip having professionals do it. If you want it to stay stock on complicated newer vehicles with the minimum of personal hassle and frustration, see a pro.) Adapter kits are made by several companies including Metra/Tsunami and Scosche.

“There are very few vehicles, if any, I’m aware of that we don’t have a kit for, or aren’t working on one for,” states Tom Reece, product specialist for Metra, which has been making OEM integration easier for installers and consumers since 1948. Reece sites his vehicle as a perfect example.

“Stock is boring,” he adds. “There are no real pros to keeping things stock. Some would say they can’t because of a lease — they can’t do it because the car can not be cut or altered. That’s not the case when using Metra’s product. When using our products, you can always go back to factory.”

Metra spends hours on R&D, sometimes renting and occasionally purchasing vehicles so that components can be made to fit perfectly for adaptation.

“(R&D time) varies between cars,” explains Reece. “There is no real average time — the only thing is to take as long as needed to present the customer with the quality that has made Metra the installer’s choice.”

In addition to dash kits, integration accessories also include wiring harnesses, amplifier bypass harnesses, OnStar modules, CD-Changer adapters, antennas, and data modules. And not that any of you need or read directions (right?), but most pre-manufactured adapter kits include them, making them virtually idiot-proof (that’s something I need...but, I digress).

So, where do you start? Anywhere you want to. The products are out there, the professionals are out there, and no, it won’t void your warranty if you want to change the speakers or add a different head unit. When you’re looking at the average cost of the “upgraded” system in a new vehicle, you can often get more, for less, by buying aftermarket and having it installed yourself, if not installing it yourself. Because as Reece and Ewing both state — and I agree: “stock is boring.”