Originally Posted by PNA

Those of us that chose this direction likely want to maintain the OEM look of the dash. Many of the new head units, while may be an upgrade and look OK, don't match well in color of the unit and color of the lighting in the radio. I've yet to find one that is a great match. I have considered installing a close match aftermarket but given my desire to keep it OEM match, I opted for a plug in FM transitter that offers many great functions without having to swap out the unit.There are a ton of option out there to choose from in all cost ranges. I don't like the something sticking out from the lighter with a long extension either, and mine doesn't. Mine comes out about 2 inches. The facing of the unit is an exact sillver match to the console too. And it does it's job well, with many options as noted in my preivous post. It does everything a new unit would do and all for 50 bucks. I can also take it from car to car, which is a nice bit of flexibility for use. Anyway, there are likely lots of reasons people may choose this route instead of getting a new unit. Heck, I had an early production 04 that had the LED radiio which is hard to see the readout in sunlight and instead of getting a new head unit, I purchased a LCD readout (backlit) from a wrecked 05 that had the newer radio and installed it instead of getting a new unit -- because I wanted to maintain the OME look. For now, I'll still with what I've done because it works well and still looks good.