Swapping a factory touchscreen radio in place of non touch

[Twiggy2cents]

Is it possible to swap a nav touhscreen in place of the standard cd-6 radio? Of course it would be of comparable years. (older than 09) What functions would there not be? I imagine there is no gps antenna or does it use the sirius?

[JOEHIO]

I wanted to do that when my wife had a Ford Five Hundred, the dealer said it couldn't be done because of a difference in the wiring. Maybe it was bullsheeeeet, maybe not. Wound up getting her a new MKS, and that was 2 years ago.

Edited August 25, 2010 by JOEHIO

[rwbronco]

In all honesty - I've got a friend with a 2002 Lincoln LS. Everyone in his online communities suggests going with a double-din aftermarket unit. They usually have more features and things like that... DVD playback, Sirius/XM, USB, etc. Do you have Sync and are wishing to retain it?

[Twiggy2cents]

Yes I have sync and I want to keep it. From what I understand If I go the touchscreen route the sync voice is then the nav voice and is much more un appealing

[rwbronco]

I'm pretty sure if you went aftermarket Nav/DVD unit in the dash you'd lose most of your entire Sync abilities. I'm not 100% sure... I know a lot of times people lose their steering-wheel controls on most cars (some manage to retain them through fancy wiring) and I'm pretty sure the Sync system is going to only be retained by staying with a Ford headunit. That said your only option would be to get a quote from a dealership on it.

 

It IS possible but they might try to tell you it's not. (I'd go see them instead of calling them so they might not just try to shrug it off and say "you can't do that".)

 

You might have the sirius antenna already, i'm not sure. If not you'll have to pick one of those up to get that feature working. It's probably not going to be too cheap considering it's a pretty hefty costing option from the factory as-is.

 

If you want it for the nav only and want to keep Sync then a TomTom or something is much more practical.

[wkevingossett]

Not only is it possible to swap out headunits, but it is possible to retain all sync functionality too. Of course, there is extra hardware you will have to purchase, but if your goal is to go oem and retain sync, it is possible. It would probably be easier and less expensive to go aftermarket, though. Many headunits offer all the same funtionality of sync, and some do a better job too.