I have a 2000 base.
the head unit is the factory CDR220 unit. I have speakers in the dash, doors, and also the former owner added rear speakers in the storage areas taht are to the rear /side of each seat.
Honestly, the sound quality coming out of the rear speakers is not all that great. I have no idea exactly how it is wired in, but I have used the fader feature and faded them out, and they don't really add a whole lot of sound/fullness/richness when they are on or off.
I find the front dash/door speakers provide most of what I can hear.
I have also noticed that the knob on the stereo that controls what CD track is playing is screwed up. that right knob, which you twist to advance from one track to the next on a CD - it has osmethin gwrong with it, and when I twist it, sometimes it goes the wrong way, doens't do anything, or does more than I try. LIke I rotate it one click to the right, to skip tracks, and instead it reverses tracks, or sometimes it advances two tracks...
i only use the CD player now, however, because I don't have an ipod interface. once i got that working, i would use the IPOD exclusively, and that defective knob wouldnt' really be an issue. although i'll have to buy the ipod connecter cable, and route it through teh back of the stereo... there are several threads here detailing how to do that.
another option i've considered is to just replace the stereo with something half way decent - nothing extravagant..but in the 2-300 range. i believe some of these newer esystmes have front mounted aux inputs so I could use a cheapy cable and just plug the ipod right into the front of the stereo... that would avoid having to muck up my car with some weird mount system and run a cable around the back... i could just put the ipod on the passenger seat or in teh cubby and let the wire run up to the stereo.. wouldn't look as clean when i'm driving - but when i park, and pull it all out - it would look clean.
my big question is this - i have very little knowledge on stereos...and I have no idea how this head unit stacks up to other stuff out there for sale now that is in teh pice range i'm considering. i know i don't want to spend $500+ on a head unit.... but i can see spending a couple hundred. maybe 300 max. for that price, i don't know if i'll just wind up with someting no better than the stanrdard head unit i have in terms of sound quality, power, etc... or if it would be twice as good and it woudl sound better.
i suspect that the stock head unit doens't have a lot of power b/c the rear speakers don't sound that loud...and i'm guessing there isn't much power pushign them and maybe an aftermarket head unit would send more power to them and it would be better.
so i can just buy the ipod wire and spend about $50-100 on that, maybea mount...
or i can spend a few hundred and get a new head unit that woudl make plugging in my ipod easier via a cheaper front mount aux cable...
woudl I get a lot better sounding music/cleaner sound, more power form a 2-300 aftermarket head unit or would that pice range give me somethign no better than what's in teh car already? (aside from my knob being on the fritz, the rest of the radio seems okay..although i've noticed my FM reception seems crappy, maybe an antenna wire came undone??)