So, I was thinking of upgrading my stereo to the Harman Kardon system. I figured the best people to contact would be Mid City Engineering here in Chicago. Here is their response :

We would be happy to upgrade your system for you. We would probably need the car for roughly a week and a half to 2 weeks for the installation. Parts and labor would come out to roughly $10,000-$12,000 installed. If you have any further questions or would like to make an appointment please feel free to contact us.

Not even sure what to say at this point...

Nick

 

wow, thats something. For that price I'll just kidnap the singers and have them sing for me in the back seats lol. Thats ridiculous

 

I'm not surprised with the figure. The HK system is a $15000 SGD option here in Brunei Darussalam.

 

LOL I'd be speechless too! For that kind of money you could get a "pimp my ride" type stereo with all the monitors and nintendos and big speakers, etc. Not that you might want that stuff, but still.......

 

Did you originally contact them on April 1st?

 

In other words they don't want to do it...but what a way to say it! Funny guys eh?

 

So....a $800 option.....costing THAT much? Might I recommend just going to another audioshop and having them fabricating their own custom system for you?

 

Not to mention, 2 weeks for what I would assume to be a plug and play installation?

 

My thoughts exactly...

I would really like to know what their labor rate is and what the installation entails since total retail cost of parts is around $5000 ( which is primarily the control assembly / radio which I do not believe needs to be replaced ) :



Prices from Mercedes Benz of Ft. Lauderdale

( left is retail / right is their online price )

 

that was a "WE DONT WANT THE JOB" price

 

I believe that they are a vendor on this board, perhaps they can explain the pricing?

 

You assume wrong. WAY wrong.

 

wow. really ? i had equipment already but ihad a quote out in long island, ny for 200 us and they keep the car for a day. ijust DIY it

 

Sounds like they're taking it to somebody else and then doubling the price.

 

How so? It's all factory parts.....I'm not disagreeing, I just figure that everything is supposed to work together, so why can't they remove everything that is existing and plug all the new equipment in that is meant to be there anyhow when the H/K option box is checked?

Maybe plug and play is oversimplifying it but what I meant was that nothing had to be fabricated as it's all OEM equipment.

 

Kevin,

I would love to hear more about your experience with upgrading you stereo. How much did it cost you to acquire the parts ? Where did you get the equipment ? What installer did you talk to that quoted you $200 ? Is that for just the speakers or the entire HK system ?

Any details you can provide would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Nick

 

You hit the nail on the head with the title of the thread

 

Harnesses will most likely be needed also.

 

nick sorry for such a late reply.

One thing that i like about the HK system, the music is LOUD. very loud. All i needed was bass. i didnt switch out any of my HK speakers. All i did was throw a box in the trunk ( my box is so big i have no more trunk ) added 2 12"s, an amp and a JL cleansweep. Theres a thread someone made, a DIY for installing subs, just do what he did. The amp i had was an old amp from my brothers old system but it works fine with me its a 1000 watts amp. the Cleansweep was used so i can control the bass using the HU. so i dont need any bass control knob. i simply go to control the bass from the Settings for audio. im constantly tinkering with it. Overall i spent almost $600. 200 for the Cleansweep (something along those lines) and 400 for the Subs (gotta great deal) Amp was free. and a few extra dollors for small materials like splicing wires and what not. I finallly fixed the rattling. (DAMN THAT LICENSE PLATE !!!) and the last thing i have to do is make the bass come on and off with the car because for now i have a switch. so yeah . i hope i answered your question if you have anymore just let me know. message me if anything

 

There are posts on this forum that tell you how to do the install. You can get the parts from a dealer, and perform the installation yourself. If you don't think that you're up to it after reading the how to, I'm sure that an install shop will be able to do it for you a a significantly lower cost.

At $10000, you can get a much better system than the HK from an install shop.

 

wat a load of crap........ with that price my car better float on air too