New Radio
 

After years of struggling with the Becker radio in my '87 190DT, I finally decided to hang it up and go with a new radio. I didn't decide this lightly: my shop is packed with scrap radios that came and went. I did track down a schematic and alignment instructions for a 780, but not for a 754. So it was time to throw in the towel.

I bought a Blaupunkt Madrid 120 from Cr_tch_f__ld. Came with an adapter harness for free. Dropped it in, and I finally have FM and AM reception, no interference, plus a CD player, bluetooth connectivity for my phone, USB port and Aux. It even looks nice. That's a lot of thumbs up for less than $100. The only downside is that the instructions are in Spanish, but that's ok. Real men don't need instructions.

Before anyone gets all "oooo...german quality"...it's made in Asia, like everything else. The box has no COO marking, but instead says "Established in Germany in 1923". The radio itself is marked "made in China". Not only that, but I would bet a Uro brake cable that it has exactly the same insides as Continental, JVC, Dual, Boss, Kenwood, Alpine and a host of other low-end aftermarket radios. All of these have exactly the same features, menus, harness, case mounts, and similar key layouts. I'm just glad tho finally have a fully functional radio.


https://images.crutchfieldonline.com...23MADRiD-F.jpg

Nice move. I know that I struggled for years in deciding whether or not to replace my Becker 599 in my 1982 300CD I probably spent close to $600 between the radio being repaired and the antenna but still poor sound . Finally bought an Alpine with CD player and everything is good.

I was not a real fast learner though and did the same thing on a 57 Ford Ranchero that Intestored a few years ago

Was the Cruth.....d freebie harness a true plug and play? Or did you have to reconfigure?

Funny, I was literally looking at that unit last night as the only one I can find, anywhere, that isn't ridiculous looking. Weighting spending as much or more to fix the volume or whatever else on a 1492 and then spending almost as much as that Blau unit to get an aux in that doesn't involve me opening it up and soldering. How do you like the menu setup, brightness, etc?

That radio / headunit is known as a Clarion CZ200 series in Australia.
My instruction book is in English, Cihinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and a couple of Sanscrit languages.
The book covers two or three similar models

The adapter cable is plug and play. It has a socket that exactly matches the loom side of the Becker harness, and speaker adapters as well. The wires are all properly color coded, so you just match with the radio harness and crimp.

I just attached the front speaker connectors, so the rear fader works as normal. It shouldn't be too hard to tap into the fader switch so that the radio directly controls the rear, but I see no reason to do so. the adapter kit contains no hook up to the factory alarm system, but the radio isn't wired for it either. I just taped off that connector, and done with it.

The menu set up is mindless. As I said, I didn't have English instructions, so how hard can it be? There are three FM bands, and two AM, each with six pushbuttons. Select a band, scan to a station you want to keep, press and hold a button until the face shows the number, and you're done. Just like any other radio. To use the CD, just put a CD into the slot, it's automatic. Same with a thumb drive, just put it into the USB slot and it plays sequentially. There may be options for shuffle play and so on, but I haven't gotten there yet. Haven't tried AUX yet, but I'm sure it's just as intuitive. To mate your phone, you use the phone's bluetooth menu and select the radio. It asks for a pin, and I guessed 0000, so smart.

I think the dial lighting is fine, I could live without the blue light around the volume knob. I'll get used to it. The radio has a remote, which I tossed in the glove box and will never use.

Don't go into this expecting super high fidelity or thumping bass, it's not that kind of radio. Just clean sound to drive by.

The adapter wiring harness is a Metra 70-1860. It's available separately, and should work with any radio.

Since I don't have separate feeds for the rear speakers, I only used two of the supplied speaker leads.

I made the mistake a few years ago of thinking Blaupunkt=good German quality when I put one in my 944. What a piece of junk that was. I've only bought Kenwood ever since.

Blau is about like Bosch and a zillion other brands, the name became a commodity and the quality went away, least in the low end. But cheap crap is surprisingly good often times these days as luck would have it.

That's ok. I recently got rid of my 944. What a piece of junk that was. A VW with an expensive badge.

One issue with this is that you're only using 2-channels of the built-in amp, so you're only using half the available power. If you don't hear any distortion at the levels you listen to, it's not a big deal, but you're giving up 3dB of clean output on a stereo in a noisy car environment.

Other than that torque tube and fragile engine they were ok. Early 924 was way cooler, much more unapologetically VW. Least the engine was in the right part of the car :)

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

20W per channel, same as the factory radio. It should be no worse than the Becker in this regard.

Ouch! I liked my 944, very reliable, but also very dull. Too easy to drive fast. I like a little challenge.

Here's some of that old world craftsmanship - https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/pts/6128047547.html

Sixto
83 300SD for sale
98 E320 wagon