Just upgraded the factory music system in my 2004 sonata gold since it did not handle mp3.
the pioneer was the cheapest one with remote [i’m a back seater], mp3 and usb
the card sized remote does not fit comfortably in your hand since its almost a square profile.
the older sonata remote was more rounded and rectangular so it sat snugly in your palm as opposed to balancing on your finger tips like the pioneer.
the biggest problem with playing mp3 is the wide and uncontrollable variation in quality and volume.
a built in volume balancer would have really helped and I would have paid more for it gladly.
there is no ’power’ button on the remote or stereo which is rather stupid - you have to press the SRC button to power on and hold it down for a few secs for OFF.
it would not have been that hard to have the power button a different color like red so it was obvious to a new user.
for premium cars that have power antennas for radio use, instead of having a dedicated power output wire to extend the antenna, it always goes up whenever you switch it on even if you are listening to CDs which is annoying enough that I had it disabled so it never goes up now.
the majority of cars that have manual antennas will not have an issue with this lack of feature.
you maybe be wondering why this is a problem - when you are stopped at traffic lights, 2 wheelers or pedestrians often fiddle or touch the extended rear antenna which can bend it out of alignment.
this might only be an issue in navi mumbai but its an avoidable aggravation.
please don’t ask me why they mess with it - maybe they are bored or just curious, I don’t know and don’t care either!
again, I would have paid more to retain the feature that was present on the 8 year old original system!
if you listen to mp3 that have been downloaded for free, you would notice that most don’t have all the artist / album info and the file name has the song name instead.
the DISP button goes through all the names until you reach file name last which is bad usability design - it should either detect ’no name’ which is displayed on screen and automatically switch to the next label or simply start with file name first when DISP is pressed.
overall I did not care for the red highlighting since it would clash with most car interiors - a plain silver / chrome trim would have been much better ...
the removable face plate is a good security feature that i’ll never use since thefts are very rare in my complex but the additional cost of providing that feature would have been better used to get the basics right instead.
in the last decade of living in mumbai I have not had anything stolen my either of my 3 cars that I have progressed through [not owned together!] since we have always stayed in gated societies with security and always keep our cars locked with alarms.