Well, I'm new to the 500E club, and my whiskers, what a car! I love nearly everything about it.

"Nearly everything" because I'm not overfond of the Becker Silverstone in it (car is a '93), and the Becker was the first thing to break. I'm trying to repair that but am juggling upgrade options, either in case repair fails or if I just decide that it's time.

The specific failure on the Becker was the trunk changer failing to eject on command. I removed the unit and called Becker; they quoted something like $200 to repair, realign and clean. Yipes! Spendy for something I may not keep.

Dove in myself and finally got to the deep heart of the unit (it is -very- German: heavy, overengineered, hard to service, matte black and with a huge ACHTUNG sticker on it :-)

There's a little worm drive gear that has slipped off of its shaft, which is the obvious source of the eject failure. Not in an easy spot, but I think I can weasel it back in place, cyanoacrylate it on, and re-grease the gear teeth.

Assuming this works okay, the Silverstone is still nearing ten years old, so even if it's fine now, I need to think on alternatives. (I'm also covetously eyeing the trunk space that it consumes.) I understand that the 500E Becker system is kinda odd, and that piecewise upgrades aren't going to work.

I'm not a superduper autoaudiophile intent on recreating my living room system's capabilities in the front seat, nor do I require the sort of deafening Hoover Dam wattage that goes into many car systems these days, and which doesn't do much beyond annoying people on the sidewalk a block away. I would prefer to not spend $2k on audio (that money is for gas and tires! :-)

So with those thoughts and budget in mind, the line I was thinking along was to remove the two main components of the Becker, along with removing the speakers. I'd then think about installing a competent mid-priced CD/MP3 head unit with reasonably good quality speaks.

Couple of issues here, most of them fitment related. I am sure I can get the old Becker headend out, but the eccentric large hole it will leave in the dash will be an issue. What does one do when dropping a standard small DIN chassis headend into such a big space? Get custom burlwood to fill in around it?

Also, it seems from prior posts that the speaker dimensions can be a challenge and that direct aftermarket fitments aren't easy to find. Any specific recommendations or measurements which people can offer would be very gratefully received.

Cheers,

s/b