Stepson is determined to upgrade the stereo on his Grande Punto.

With a total budget of £300(ish), what should he buy?

Speakers are 5.25"/13cm front and rear, HU needs to be single DIN.

Refreshingly, he wants quality over massive wattage.
I'm guessing at this level, he shouldn't be spending on an amp/subwoofer?

My inclination would be around £200 on the HU and £100 on 2 pairs of speakers, but - as usual - I know nothing!

Help!

Edited to add: He would LOVE a slide-out touch-screen, but I think they are a gimmick. What do you reckon?

Too late, he's bought this:

Cheap but cheerful head unit!

Going to be fun fitting it!

You have to give it to him, he is decisive!

I was going to say take a look at the Panasonic range and Focal speakers.

I like the look of those Focal speakers. Probably wasted on the questionable quality of sound produced by the mighty Pumpkin! We would be looking at the cheapest of them, but they might do a decent job.

It's probably going to be a little meh in the sound department. 45 watts a channel isn't much these days, especially from an unknown brand.

If he hasn't already it'd be worth checking that the speakers have a conventional 4 lug mounting;The earlier mk2 punto doesn't. It'll add to the cost if not.

It's a bit late, but some puntos came with a subwoofer and better head unit as standard.

I'm not sure where the sub-woofer would be located, which probably indicates that it doesn't have one... It does have quite a complex Windows Mobile/Blue&Me set-up. However, I don't have the time and Stepson doesn't have the patience to find out how it works...

Normally in the boot on the side if it's got the subwoofer.

I put the inexpensive ISS 570 in the front and the ISC 570 in the back of the S-Type recently just connected to the "Premium" head unit and they are not at all bad. Very clear and easy to drive. Noticably better than the 15 year old Infinity coaxials which were dramatically better than the stock Ford ones. The other difference though is that the tweeters are better positioned and that does help a lot with the imaging - there is a little now

I am absolutely no hi-fi buff (my ears were ruined long ago by a youth mis-spent at gigs), so I only have rudimentary skills when it comes to sound quality. But I can't bear distortion when it isn't deliberate! Hopefully, the lad will restrain his volume control. He is into grime, which is heavily lyric-based, so there's no point in having it so loud you can't hear the words.

Typically, he also bought an aftermarket exhaust yesterday, so maybe he won't hear anything anyway.

Shpoaholic!

I have good hifis at home but in a car you can only go so far. The law of diminishing returns hits early and hard so I look for good mainsteam if the car does not already come with a good system. The XKR has the B&W system which was said to be pretty good and it seems to be. But the fairly standard system in the S-Type or the Coupe are not that much worse in practice. They do however have subs which for me means that I don't have to use as much volume to hear the bass frequencies which pleases the wife

I think a reasonable budget amp plus a less gimmicky head unit and some decent speakers (like the Focals you suggested) would have been a more sensible approach. But sensible and 17-year-old boys are seldom on speaking terms.

He now wants to get his wheels refurbed and powder coated...

I know that one only too well!

How is it that they have expensive tastes too? Ah yes, because it is not sensible ...

Well, the unit has arrived. Looks like it might be an interesting install, requiring splicing into a power cable to circumvent the CANBUS, a facia plate, an ISO adapter harness and (if we really push the boat out) a steering wheel control harness. And plenty of time and swearing...

I hope you will be producing a how not to guide with full pictures?

There hasn't been a decent sitcom on the telly for ages...

Not going so well so far...

We got the facia plate, aerial adapter and fuse holder (for the ignition live) from the excellent Sextons of Gloucester. They said that with a no-brand Chinese HU, there was almost no prospect of being able to get the steering wheel controls to work, so that was one less thing to worry about.

I removed the OEM unit fairly easily and set about wiring up the new one. With the ISO connectors in place and the aerial, I was expecting some kind of life from the HU when the ignition was on, but it remained silent, dark and mysterious.
A quick call to Sextons revealed that there wouldn't be any sign of life until the ACC live was correctly connected. So, round 2: yesterday, I managed to get the new power wire down behind the facia and (after disconnecting the battery) splice it to the cigarette lighter live (access by lifting the gear lever gaiter). I fitted the facia place and then spliced the new power wire to the appropriate cable on the HU ISO block and reconnected the battery.
And...


Nada. Nothing. Ignition on/off/engine running. Not a sausage.

The cigarette lighter works, so there is power to the point of connection of the cables. My next step was to remove the fuse in the cable to see if that was the issue (though at 7.5A, it might have been obvious if it had blown...). However, I proceeded to drop the fuse behind the centre console, so that halted play for the day.

I'm still rather glum, as I believe that there should have been some response from the unit once the ignition was on, regardless of the supplementary power supply. I guess I'll confirm that today once I've bought some more fuses.

If not, back it goes to the shed in China.

Check that the earth connection is good. My HU didn't work despite power to the right leads in the ISO block and an earth too. That's by simply testing for volts across the connection. But what I found when using the continuity tester (looks like .))) on the meter in the sector that measures resistance IIRC) I'd get an initial beep but then nothing, whereas it should be a continuous beep. So I trace the earth back to the body and all looked good, but after I cleaned it up and remade the connection, it worked. It could be that the new HU draws a bit more power and/or is a bit more fussy about a good earth...

Can you not take the wires from the back of the unit, and connect the two lives (permanent and switched) direct to + and connect the earth direct to - on the battery?

Most HU's need a permanent live (for memory) and switched live (so it's not on all the time) so have you connected BOTH, it probably won't work with just one of them connected.

I'm fairly sure the punto is ISO. It'll have all the wires you need right in that connection block, no extra wires needed. The issue will be that despite a standard block connection, the wire positions seem to be less universal. You need to check with a multimeter which wire does what. Your headunit should list which wires are which. You should just be able to connect them up then.

Find an earth point on the chassis for the negative lead of the meter when you're testing for volts. It'll save you accidentally measuring the difference of 2 +ve wires. I'd also avoid measuring continuity of a wire unless you are 100% sure what the wire is connected to. Lead acid batteries don't like having their resistance probed.

Well, after losing yet more skin to the razor-sharp edges of the head unit tray, I've won a partial victory. I bought more fuses. Then, through misuse of the multimeter, blew the 15A fuse for the whole stereo loom. Off to Halfords for more daylight robbery in the form of even more fuses.
Still nothing.
But you can't accuse me of quitting...

Turns out the useless fake scotchloks I was using hadn't cut the insulation on the wires I had spliced into! Binning the ridiculous things ("one job..."), I opted instead for cable-tying all 3 bits of wire together and tightening them into a single terminal strip. Lo and behold, it all works. Or most of it.
The slide out screen slides out and works surprisingly well. The SatNav looks pretty good (antenna supplied), though I haven't been out on the road with it. The radio works and the Bluetooth paired with my phone and was able to play music (stepson's preferred method of accessing his grime) and make calls.
I couldn't get the USB connection to work (I only connected a cable to one of the 2 outputs; it recognizes when my phone is attached, but after that, it gives an error message). I didn't try either the CD/DVD drive or the micro SD slot. I also didn't attempt to connect the steering wheel controls.

The most annoying thing (apart from the bacon-slicer on the metal frame) was that the location of the GPS antenna output on the back of the unit is directly in line with the metal bracket at the back of the slot for the head unit. This means it sits about half an inch proud, though much of this is compensated for with the replacement facia panel.

It needs more work to make it a proper job, but at least he has tunes, SatNav and phone...

I hope you negotiated a favourable labour rate...

I opted to do this while stepson is away with his mates; last thing I needed was his "help"...

These units (many supplied as Oem too) often didn't recognize phones as data storage device, so the usb only works with usb memory stick, if that serves as small conciliation��

I did wonder if that was the case. Thanks for the tip...

It's more of a shame that it doesn't charge devices, but he can always get a twin USB charger for the ciggie lighter.

If the phone is Android, you could try enabling usb debugging in the developers tab. Hopefully you can then select the connection type on your phones notification bar. I sometimes have trouble getting my computer to recognise my phone and the above usually works.

good effort Jim-

quite a journey

I was installing a SONY DAB HU for someone a wee while back and despite voltage presence in the loom, the HU would not power up until the case was slid into the slot in the dash.

which I took to be a deliberate grounding functionality-interlock of some kind. (it wasn't a coupe)

Thanks Dante. When I was a kid, I used to install car stereos for mates for beer money, so I was prepared for some of the issues - though obviously CANBUS and other joys have served to complicate matters...

Yes, it did read like you had a bit of experience under your belt

I've run a few CANBUS vehicles (got one now in fact) and I never mess with the stereos.

Or anything else on the car for that matter

I don't find them as friendly as the FIAT. I've come to realise that. 90's Italian car electrics is 'my area' and anything more recent is sci-fi...