I know there's an aftermarket board, but I was hoping an 850-ophile (is that a word ??) might have already gone before me on this one........

Considering putting an aftermarket radio in the '94 854. Probably a Kenwood EZ500. Where is this on the "doable" scale ? Any insurmountable obstacles ? Most apparent to me, where can one get a face plate to mask the large amount of space made available when the head unit comes out ? Will the aftermarket radios even work in this car ?

Any help most appreciated..........

I picked up a Pioneer MP3 capable CD player not to long after getting my car. It's an easy install, and decent car audio stores will have the filler panel/cubby box for the open part of the mounting hole and the wiring harness. Most of the aftermarket head units are standard DINN size, and the stock Volvo 850 stereo is double DINN size, basically just two DINN sized holes on top of each other. When you get it apart you'll see what I mean. Get the wiring harness from the store, this just plugs into the factory harness and has open ended wires at the other end that connect to the stereo's wiring. This enables you to do all your cutting and soldering on the aftermarket harness and not cut up the factory one, in case you ever want to put the stock stereo back in, like if you sold the car, etc.. You'll have to pick whether you want the aftermarket stereo to be on the top or the bottom of the opening, and the shops sell little filler panels to cover the remaining DINN sized hole. I got one that is a cubby box that has space for 3 CD's in jewel cases, and the whole thing looks like the factory put it in. If you have some basic tools and a little know how you can put a stereo in one of these cars in 30 minutes, took me about that long, very easy DIY job.

I just recently changed out my factory radio for an Alpine XM radio/CD player. I decided to let the store (Ultimate Electronics) do it because they had all the connectors, face plates etc and the installation only cost $70.00. Some places will do the installation at no charge, but I haven't cost compared the price of the radios with this feature.

It took them 30 minutes to change out my radio and I am delighted. The Alpine has much better electronics (I'm a high end home audio freak), and I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the stock Volvo speakers actually are, now that they are driven by decent electronics. The Alpine keeps the antenna down for CD or XM and puts it up for AM or FM.

Check out a few of the electronics stores like Ultimate, Best Buy, etc. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I wonder why I waited so long to do this.

96 850T