Pioneer AVIC-Z1

After what seemed like an eternity (more details below), I finally got the Pioneer AVIC-Z1 installed in my car. Initial impressions on the unit after a few day's use and a trip to Napa Valley is that it's quite good. The navigation is clear and accurate, the Bluetooth paired very easily with my BlackBerry and all incoming and outgoing calls are very clear. You can also control dialing, answering and ending calls from the touch-screen. The DVD player is adequate for what it is (a DVD player in a car) and the iPod connection is decent (although the navigation of songs is slower than I'd like). The unit also has a 30gb hard drive to store music, photos, movies, etc.

The AVIC-Z1's menu screen.

Split-screen navigation.

3D route guidance.

DVD player/photo album viewer.

Not my car, but close enough (another E46).
This is what a good installation would look like.

I took some pictures of the unit in my actual car, but Sarah H. (a.k.a Gansta Hwangsta) decided to steal my camera this past weekend, so I'll have to wait until she returns it to post them.

I'll make a very, very long story short here; do not go to Bay Car Stereo in Mountain View to get anything done on your car. In retrospect, I wouldn't want these morons installing new windshield wipers on my car, let alone a dual-DIN integrated navigation, DVD, iPod, Bluetooth system, which is exactly what I asked them to do. It took them well over 20 hours (for a five hour job at most), three return visits (by me) and many lies, deceptive business practices and lost hours and dollars (on my part) in between. If you want details, you can read one of my seven reviews below.

I'm usually not a malicious person, but I'm very serious about steering people away from this shady, unprofessional establishment (and I'm being fairly generous in even calling them an establishment). I've gone out of my way to protect other consumers as well:

• Yelp (1)
• Yelp (2)
• Yahoo Local
  
• Citysearch
• E46F
  
• Yellowpages
• AOL YP
  

*Don't ask me why Google Maps/Local isn't listed here, because I can't tell you.

Total cost: Approx. $3,500 (parts and installation)
Rating: A- (product), F (installation/service)