How to spend $41 for radio removal tool
 

I contacted Becker and explained my stock radio with amp and door speakers and asked for the cable to install rear speakers and the radio removal tool - Total cost of $89.98 including $16 or so in shipping. The parts arrived but the cable was not the correct one (if there even is a correct one), so I got permission to return it and spent $6.50 for Priority Mail insured to get it back to them and they received it on December 8. I ended up wiring the rear speakers with some Radio Shack connectors.


After several requests for a credit, Becker credited my card today (11 days after they received the returned part) in the amount of $55.25. A 15% restock fee I guess.

Voila - Total spent was $89.98 plus $6.50 minus the $55.25 credit = $41.23 for the radio removal tool that I could have gotten on ebay delivered for $6.30.

I'm thinking that this is the required hazing from a Porsche part supplier for a newbie Porsche owner. Sure gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.:mad:

So Becker the company is as bad as their radios.

Wow, I got mine for free from Crutchfield.

I got my tool free to. The first thing I did is pull that sorry excuse of a radio and speakers out and replaced them with some nice Focal speakers and amp. Gota wonder why Porsche would ever stick such a sorry excuse of a product in their cars.

When I got my car it came with a Pioneer double DIN unit. The only feature I liked about it was that it would pair with my phone and pull my music from it. Unfortunately I couldn't make it pair. It turned out to be because the idiot switch that prevents you from watching DVDs on the road was never hooked up.

Long story short, I had to pull my unit out. My friend suggested that I just drop into Car Toys and ask about the tools because they come in the box with every stereo. He did it once and they just gave them to him. Well I dropped in and asked and they told me flat out that they don't give those away and that the techs tools cost $100, and that they don't sell them to the public.

Out the door I went to Best Buy. I wandered around the car stereo section looking for the tools. The salesman asked what I was looking for and when I told him he said "just pull your car around back and I'll pull it for you".

Zero cost. I wired in a switch that allows me to fake the parking brake action (Apparently the Porsche parking brake switch isn't a simple binary switch, so wiring into the brake switch isn't an option).

+1 on Crutchfield. Great service.

As to the quality of the original radio and speakers - everyone's ears are different. I personally like the sounds coming out of the BOSE system (admittedly, I do have the upgraded stereo and speaker configuration). And I know at the time when it came out, many car reviews talked of the good sound for a convertible.