Buick Rendezvous audio options?

this new car intergrated with everything sound system onstar stuff has my head spinning.

yesterday we bought(well, signed a paper that said we would pay every month for way too long and drove home) a 2005 rendezvous for carli. she liked them, wanted something the size of a small SUV but more carlike in ride and mileage, and they were in the right price range. plus it is a colossal step up from her 2002 cavalier with 140k miles.

so anyway, this thing is nice. but the factory stereo has a button that is worn out. the volume change with speed annoys the crap out of both of us because the car(wtf is a rendezvous? is it a car, suv, crossover, whatever) is too quiet to even need it. plus she wants an aux input jack for her mp3 player.

i am confused. i was looking up wiring harnesses to change to an aftermarket HU, and also at things that supposedly will let me add aux input to the factory radio.

the vehicle as well will call it, has factory cd player and on star, which is not subscribed to and will never be. we do not need or want it, nor do we want to pay $200 a year for it.

2 questions-

1 what options and products do i have available to add aux input to the factory radio?

2 what wiring options would i have to install a normal 2 din receiver and eliminate the factory head unit altogether? i was checking out the all in one receiver/nav deals. while they seem expensive, when you add in buying a head unit and buying a gps, it makes them seem like a good option since you do not have a stupid gps hanging off your windshield and cords everywhere.

right now i am broke so i am exploring options. maybe by june i would like to do this, for her birthday present.

check out Metra's website to see what kind of adapters are required.

Also, Crutchfield is a good website to research what will fit.

The volume increase with speed is a menu function and the feature can be turned off.

Did it come with a cassette player? If yes then...
This is how I ran XM radio in my old Volvo wagon for years with great success.

$50 bucks and in your neighborhood.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Buick-Rendezvous-Regal-OEM-Cassette-CD-Radio-LKQ-/200567045205?pt=Car_Audio_Video&hash=item2eb2ba3c55

I think it has several other functions besides just onstar on it.
does yours have bose?
Personally I prefer to stick with OE radios whenever economically possible.

Looking at my AI catalog I show w/onstar only using a nc-osgm2 w/onstar and bose being a nc-osgm2b

k, just checked. if you don't use the adapters mentioned above you lose your "chime" and you will set a fault code in the class2 databus.

find an OE replacement that is compatible and be happy

no bose, no xm ready radio.

i wish i could just add the aux input jack but it appears you can only get one if it has cd changer control or is xm ready, and the aux input thing fools it into thinking the cd changer or xm button is being used to control one of those instead of having input from something else being put in.

i miss the days of picking up a gm install kit and harness for $10 and being good to go.

That cassette above has a 3.5mm jack. Plug that into the headphone port on a portable XM, a MP3 player. an iPod, etc. Place the tape in the deck and whalla, music comes out of all the car speakers.

*voilá

There was a thread here in the last 8 weeks or so about a mod to input ipod....

Do you feel handy, Punk? (Channeling "Dirty Harry" )

patgizz wrote: no bose, no xm ready radio. i wish i could just add the aux input jack but it appears you can only get one if it has cd changer control or is xm ready, and the aux input thing fools it into thinking the cd changer or xm button is being used to control one of those instead of having input from something else being put in. i miss the days of picking up a gm install kit and harness for $10 and being good to go.

do you have a pic of the radio? you may have the input ability and not realize it.

+1 for Crutchfield. Great guys.

I will assume for the moment this is the last of that crap GM thought was a better idea. I know on my wife's 00 Monte SS, that you had to keep the factory radio to keep from having a xmas tree cluster. What most of those guys did was to mount the factory radio in the trunk under the package tray and run a harness just to make sure the module was on the bus. If you deleted the radio, you ended up with a no start condition.

I have to assume you will end up with the same thing. You just have to keep the factory radio in the vehicle somewhere. It's a PITA, but really no too bad.