[rael]

O.K. I purchased and installed the iPod integration kit about a week ago and I must say I'm fairly disappointed. First, the kit for the 06 installed fine in an 07 with Rockford Fosgate head and the install is extremely simple as has been mentioned before.

Now for my question; Am I missing something here? or is it really that bad of an interface? I really don't want or expect much from a factory designed integration kit but there are some very puzzling choices that seem to be made here. (and I'm not even going to go into the basic settings, control and display issues)

First, I really do not care for the fact that it turns off my shuffle every time the ignition cycles. With 15,000+ songs, I do not want to listen to them sequentially and I don't know why that choice would have been made. This one truly seems like a "choice" because there really isn't a satellite function that compares to the iPod settings. My (somewhat acceptable) workaround for this is syncing with the computer more often and making sure I shuffle the playlists in iTunes which does work. This is better than alphabetical but still not the best. I know I can get into the settings and change it from the head unit (every single time I turn the key) but the navigation is less than intuitive and much more of a pain than the press enter on the NAV every start.

The second issue (which I haven't found a workaround for) is the total lack of useful steering wheel control. The volume works, but the seek/tuning switch does nothing useful at all. I know this is probably a side effect from hijacking the satellite radio interface, but it's still aggravating. To change tracks, you can use the tuning knob or the seek button, but in "iPod mode" the switch on the steering wheel does neither of these things. It only cycles through presets which initially, for me, meant every time I bumped it I changed to FM or AM. I had a great (I thought) idea this morning and I set my presets for track 50, 100, 150, 200, etc. thinking I could at least jump a bit from the steering wheel, but this does not work at all. At least now if I bump the steering wheel control it doesn't switch out to radio, but it also doesn't try to change the track either. So I'm still resigned to reaching over to the head unit for the seek button or the tuning knob to jump forward a track which is annoying when I have that nice (useless) switch at my fingertips.

I guess I'm posting this for two reasons. One to give some potential customers a little warning of what they will get. And two to ask if anyone has any suggestions or tricks that make daily life with this thing a bit better.

Sorry my first post is a little negative. This is by far the best truck I've owned (Dodge Ram and Chevy Z-71 before) and I'm learning to live with even this, the only flaw I've found. If I didn't have an hour and a half drive in and an hour and a half drive home this probably wouldn't be as important for me. And I've done several custom installs in the past and even used the aux while I was waiting for the kit, but I really want to keep this truck looking "stock" so wires everywhere and the iPod sitting out is not what I'm looking for. I also haven't found much for aftermarket interfaces for NISSAN yet but I'm still looking.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.