Newer radio in older car.

You will have to look for a radio from a Lincoln Continental for an '89 model... but they are so finicky (they were even at the time) and getting so old, you may want to re-think this plan, unless you are not going to use it. The CD was first offered in the Mustang in 1994, from what I can remember.

Rob

The CD was actually introduced in the Mustang in 1993...

-- Mike

Wasn't there a CD mounted below the radio in the 80's or am I thinking of an equalizer?

Iron-

Also, note that CD-R's and CDRW's WILL NOT work in a CD player from that era.

Carl

I think I saw it shown in a repair manual but I've never seen one in real life. I'm not sure they ever actually installed them in production. It's easier to just use an aftermarket radio.

-- Jim '88 LX 5.0 (now in car heaven) '89 LX 5.0 vert '99 GT 35th Anniversery Edition - Silver Mods to date - Relocated trunk release to drivers side, shortened throttle cable, PIAA Driving lights.

There was a factory CD in 1993 in a single DIN unit. A friend of mine just sold his 93 LX 5.0 vert, cherry, stock, with an in-dash CD player.

I second the argument for the aftermarket radio. Unless you're trying to look stock-as-a-rock, it doesn't make sense to buy a factory stereo. You can get a lot more functionality out of an aftermarket stereo.

JS

"JS" wrote in news:UUkYc.9142$Yo2.6247@trndny01:

Indeed. But once you get the aftermarket unit in, you'll realize how crappy the speakers are. It never ends... ;)

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

No, not a CD, but possibly the optional graphic EQ. The EQ was offered in Fox Body Mustangs during model years 1987/1988/1991/1992. For whatever reason, they appear not to have been offered during 1989/1990 and 1993...

-- Mike

This is where I disagree, the stock player has features that the after market ones don't. i.e. the stock player has a compression feature which allows you to listen to softer passages of music with losing the sound to the ambient road noise. Having a readable clock is nice, and so is being able to dim the radio display with dash lights at night. The last after market sound system I had had this really obnoxious turquoise colored display that was painful to look at at night.

"KEITH MCCUMBER" wrote in news:CbJYc.276511$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

Aftermarket units have this as well.

Aftermarket units have this as well.

There are many aftermarket units with different displays to choose from.

Unless you absolutely need the OEM appearance, the bottom line is that an aftermarket unit will beat any OEM unit feature for feature for the price. The single exception to this might be ergonomics.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

I sure haven't seen any units with either the compression feature or display dimming. Can you point me in the right direction?

The Pioneer DEH-P8600MP has what they call an Automatic Sound Levelizer. It's not compression per se, but it automatically adjusts volume level based on vehicle speed. This is actually better than compression.

The Pioneer DEH-P6600 has fifteen brightness levels for its display. I'd think that would be enough to satisfy most people.

Not that I'm a Pioneer advocate, but these were the first two I came across in a search.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

"Ironrod" wrote in news:WIKYc.276903$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

I have a discontinued (unfortunately) RioCar that runs Linux and plays MP3s. they're still available online for the techno geeks. I have compression code that lets me do just what the stock radio does, only it's adjustable.

I realize that not everyone has one of these players. However... I usually don't use the compression code. The only time I can remember using the compressor on the factory stereo was when listening to comedy or musical/classical stuff. The compressor actually makes the sound a much lower quality by reducing the volume of the highs and increasing it in the lows. While it makes listening at a normalized level possible, it drives me up a wall to have it automatically adjust the volume.

Almost every new aftermarket system has a dash light dimming feature, and most new ones have multiple colors to choose from. Almost every new aftermarket system also has a clock display mode that lets you just look at the clock unless you've hit a button in the last 5 seconds or so. Functional for those cars not equipped with the little clock pod. (oddly enough, that's one feature the Rio's lacking in - the built-in clock barely keeps time)

Joe's right about the ergonomics though.. most of those features are packed into smaller units with less buttons. Good luck finding them all.

JS