iSimple? not so simple…

the one gripe i have about the new ride is the same gripe i’d have about almost anything i looked at…

…the iPod thing.

the “iPod thing” used to not be that big a deal. in the past it was nice, but not “required”, per say. it’s not like i had an iPod that could hold my entire iTunes collection – but then i got one that WOULD. now things were difference. the whole music library (minus the vinyl i haven’t gotten to float over yet) all there. VERY nice. this is the kinda shit that can spoil ‘ya.

and it did.

so, when i went looking for new rides i actually focused on what kind of stereo came with it – bonus points for actual MP3 hookups, still working if there was a cassette deck (i switched the in-dash CD player for an in-dash cassette deck in the camaro when i put a cd changer in the trunk specifically so i could use a tape deck iPod adapter).

so when i ended up taking a trip into foreign car country i was a little nervous – until i was told about the “iSimple”. hooks up where the cd changer should go, turns it into an iPod plug, even comes with a twenty foot cord to run up front – PLENTY of room, right? it should be BEYOND (i)simple!

i ordered one for about half off retail on amazon. came in late monday, but i just through it in the trunk of the car (boxed and all) until last night. finally unpacked it. looked to be pretty dang simple. found instructions online that were deceptively simple.

step one was removing the floor of the trunk – like all the detail it gave was “remove the floor of the trunk”. the part over the spare is simple, of course…the rest had me baffled. but this at least gave me access to the plastic tray in the trunk you have to remove to get to the cd changer cord, which i got to, and hooked the thing up because, as my online guide and common sense told me, make sure the fucker works before you rip apart your car and run wires under everything…

…the fucker didn’t work.

that was THIS fuckers fault. see, it comes with various “dip switches” on the side that you set to certain up/down patterns depending on the car it’s being installed in. i had flipped one wrong one, so it didn’t “see” it. but i caught that, flipped it right, and we were in business. left-o-phonic business.

yes, it only played through one side. and it was the same shit i had to put up with in the camaro when i’d blown the speaker…difference was, this played just fine for radio and the in-dash cd-player. just sucked balls on the ipod adapter, which means one of two things…

1. the adapter is fucked.
2. some wire, some where, is fucked going back to the trunk.

i called the people i got it from via amazon and they said they’d be happy to set up a return, and i’d get a call from their warehouse to arrange a new one being shipped out ASAP. they verified my email address and phone number.

that’s as far as that got.

i figure i’ll wait and get a new one from them and see if all is well…and if not, i get to start tracing wires. not so simple anymore, is it? hell, at least the new emblems went on smoothly and i got to drop this ridiculous monitor to the proper height…

(and thanks to shane for suggesting i use my “spare” 40″ lcd tv as a monitor rather than a guest room tv, which as my most frequent guest room resident i found odd, but he usually only goes back there to pass out any way…)