DIYbanter - Auto Company bailout--not political

....or at least not 'too' much so.

I picked up a CD player from an '02 Scion the other day on Craigslist
for $20. My thought was to somehow adapt it to fit in my '90 Corolla.
To my surprise, when I researched the cable pinouts, they were exactly
the same. That was one big problem solved, although the radio/cassette
unit (single DIN sized) was high up in the dash, and I needed to mount
the new (double-DIN) unit in a package shelf several inches below.

I attacked the venerable old Toyota yesterday, hoping to get done with a
minimum of drilling/cutting. To be sure, there is a lot of unscrewing
and finagling involved in just getting the old unit out.

My second big surprise was finding that the new unit fit almost exactly
in the space previously occupied by a package shelf; although I knew
that various upgrade audio options in 1990 had been available for that
space. Another problem solved....

My third--and biggest, most pleasant surprise--was discovering that not
only did it fit the hole; but the brackets that came off the old package
shelf *exactly* fit the new stereo! When removed from the shelf and
fitted to the stereo, they positioned the new unit almost exactly where
it needed to go, making the installation a matter of a bit of minor
grinding, bolting everything up and plugging it in. There was even
enough slack on the original cables.

The political part:
IMHO, this is symptomatic of what's wrong with American car companies.
I can't imagine that I could take a radio from an '02 Chevy and simply
bolt it into a 90 Pontiac or Oldsmobile. I used to do this for a living
(car stereo sales and installs), and everything was so brand/model/year
dependent, we had to stock (or order) hundreds of adapters and
model-specific supplies. When the next model year rolled around, we had
to re-order/restock, because the makers would redesign everything every
year.

I attended an auto industry gathering a couple of years ago. A
spokesperson from Chrysler spoke on how they were 'turning the company
around' by simplifying the parts catalog. He said there were something
like 33 different door handles for the current model year.

Obviously they were getting a clue; but why the hell has it taken them
so long? We don't need money spent redesigning the door handle (or the
radio connector) every year. Research/design money should be spent
making the product *better*, not just different.

I'd have thought that would be obvious....

jak