What opinions on best buy install or any ideas on installers for new navigation etc? Free install but OCD is killing me on damage to anything. Will probably do it myself - lots of help with the forum and you tube available.

 

If you're worried about it, do it yourself.

Best Buy has some of the most skilled installers in the country. They also have some teenagers that are very green. If you don't know who works at the store, you won't know who to have to the work and who to avoid.

That said, Best Buy has insurance and makes it right if stuff goes wrong. Hell, they make it right if customers say stuff went wrong and it wasn't their fault. I had a guy whose AC went out in his 90k mile Tahoe after a radio was installed. Best Buy paid to have his AC fixed because they don't care they just turn it over to insurance. They're normally pretty hard on installers for stuff that gets broken, so I was pissed when I found out, bu they never held that one against me.

Anyways, if you're not comfortable with it, do it yourself. Pros have time standards to meet. Diy doesn't.

 

Do it yourself. Order everything from Crutchfield including their pre-made wiring harness. Even taking your time, it shouldn't take you more than 2-3 hours. I've done plenty of car stereo installs and the one I recently did on my 2012 was the easiest of them all. As mentioned, I got everything from Crutchfield including the pre-made harness, and it was all plug and play except for one wire I had to tap for power for the backup camera.

 

great point on the time element and its time to play catch up.

 

psyched up ready to jump in. yehaaaaaa! I'm the one to watch for damage. thanks

 

This is basically true for any audio shop. You can go to the most highly recommended audio shop, and show up and there might be some kid working or learning on your car.

To the OP, a head unit swap in a C6 is pretty simple. You can do it yourself, or stop in and talk to one of the BestBuy installers. Asking a few questions may go a long way in making you feel comfortable with their work or not. My only experience with BestBuy, I walked into the install section at my local BestBuy once to see if they had a part I needed. The shop was very clean and there was 2 guys in their 20's working on a car. My quick first impression was they seemed to know what they were doing.

 

You'll be fien doing it yourself, pretty simple to do, plus there's plenty of people who are more than willing to help you with any questions you may have in the Audio/Electronics forum. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lectronics-20/

 

Agreed. I worked at best buy in college in the install bay. The stores I worked at were good overall.. My first store was the best in the area, probably from Tampa down to the bottom of FL on the west coast. We cleaned up a crap load of mistakes from other stores and other installers. One of the other stores was a complete mess, constant turnover, constant issues, that deal.. One store had a single old guy who was good and a series of part timers that weren't. One had a long timer who wasn't very good. My second store, went through some struggles we will say. They had bad installers before me, got a lot better while I was there, but by the time I graduated, they only had 2 guys that were good, and one guy left shortly thereafter. They supposedly shelled out big bucks to lure a good installer from a nearby store after I left, not sure how that went.

But yeah, there's a lot of variables there. I will sa, all the mom and pop shops near both stores were great friends of ours cuz they sucked and we made a lot of business fixing their crap.

 

Like anything it all depends on the installer. If you get a good one who knows what he's doing and pays attention to detail you will be satisfied. If you get a rookie who is learning you won't be as satisfied anymore likely to find fault in the slightest thing. Basically it's a crap shoot.

 

now the million dollar question. car is mint. pay the money for the whole front or install navigation? can't drive it for fear of God knows what. how good is xpel for lasting,? years.

 

I'd do nav personally. Xpel is good for preventing small rock chips, but most of those can be touched up easily for less. Anything real bad will go through the sheet.. Plus it has to be replaced every few years, and it yellows over time.

You'll still be afraid with xpel. You'll just be afraid of other things. Just my take.

 

that's what the wife says!

 

I agree with Fauee. A new aftermarket head unit is a must do mod for C6 owners. It improves the sound of the factory speakers and gives you all the modern day features to bring your car up to date. As far as Xpel, my car is mint but I only have 9k miles on it. I don't have Xpel and I don't have any rock chips to the front of the car or bumper. Front bumper does kill a lot of bugs though, but they wash off easily.

 

sounds good. so far all bugs. previous owner really took care of this car. have to stay back and away from construction and after all its got to be replaced.

 

At a minimum I would recommend getting the front bumper cover and mirrors done. These are the areas that take the most abuse. If you have the money, the best value is PPF on the entire front half (bumper cover, mirrors, full hood, fenders, lights), but that's a big jump in cost. If I had to choose between PPF and new headunit, it would be a hard choice. For me it was PPF first then headunit.

Good PPF will stop a lot, yeah if you have a semi have a blowout in front of you and you get hit by his road gator, you're probably just SOL. But that's not typically what's going to happen. Good PPF will stop pretty much anything you're going to collect in regular driving. I didn't do it on my previous 2013 GS because I knew a guy that would repaint my bumper cover for $300. That was cheaper than PPF, but what I didn't think of is that I'd end up repainting it multiple times (I love doing back road drives with buddies and you'll collect a lot of road rash from that), that's it's a pain to have to deal with the repaint (getting car to shop, not having the car for a week), and finally that it looks like crap in between repaints. PPF makes life a lot easier as I just don't have to worry about it.
As to needing to be replaced every few years and yellowing over time, this is completely inaccurate for modern PPF. Maybe for PPF of 10 years ago this was true, but good modern film will not yellow or need to be replaced (most are self healing and will heal nicks/scrapes with mild heat). The PPF I have has a lifetime warranty against discoloration, fading, cracking or bubbling.

 

One other great thing on PPF is ease of maintenance. I live on the edge of the metro with good access to 2 lane country roads, which is nice for fun drives, but sucks for all the bugs I collect at night. With PPF and good ceramic coating on top of it, I can just use a microfiber and quick wash/detailer spray to simply wipe the bugs off the front with zero issues when I get home. Literally takes just a single swipe and they are all gone. With my other cars that are bare paint, even with ceramic coating it is nowhere near as easy to clean the bugs off.

 

I used Best Buy for install on my Corvette, the tech I spoke to said he worked on C6 before and familiar in the center console removal, left the car couple hours got text that car was ready.
They installed Kenwood, with Sirius receiver and hid the antenna inside rear facial on the steel bean out of sight, and works great, wish I would have thought about rear camera.
No scratches and or damage I looked closely being 05 and plastic gets brittle.

I would have no complaints having them update this time with Apple Play and camera.

I wouldn't get GPS, your phone is much better and always updated to the latest maps.

 

I only use a spray waterless wash and microfiber towel to clean my car. Bugs come off pretty easy imo. That being said, OP get both, a new head unit and Xpel the front bumper. Install the head unit yourself and the money you save goes towards the front bumper. The rest of the front end is not considered high risk in my opinion.

 

gotta mull this all. great info. thanks everyone the. old dollar and cents game.

 

There is nothing wrong with Best Buy but as with anything (dealerships, advance auto installing a battery, etc.) you have great people who are knowledgeable and care about their work and you also have people who are less knowledgeable or just don’t care. If something goes wrong they will likely make it right but I’m OCD about my cars too. And if it’s something that I’m capable of doing I’ll just do it myself since I know I’ll take the extra care to make sure everything is correct. As someone else said headunits are pretty straightforward on the C6 and really should just involve removing a few trim pieces.