Taylor,

When I had mine installed one installer told me $350 to install my $300 head unit becase the OEM HU would have to remain in the vehicle, and the harness costs $X blah blah. The installer I finally went to said that it varies from year to year and he was'nt going to know until he got behind the radio what would happen. $75 later everthing is fine, but I would'nt take that quote with a grain of salt.

the type of radio you have is what determines you will have to keep the radio in the car. if you want to keep all of the car functions you will have to relocate the head unit and mount a speaker under the dash for the door chime and low fuel chime. i just pulle dth deck and lost the chimes but some cars will loose more then that and if that is the case i would just relocate the deck to the trunck. the harness to relocate is about 100.00 but i would not pay 300.00 for it to be done, the people i bought my headunit from would have done it at 75.00 with cost of the relocation kit.

Who needs door chimes? Not me.
I hear there is something called GM Chime that can re-activate it with out the stock HU in the car. Never really looked into it.

I have a 2000 Bonneville and I recommend relocating the factory stereo to either the trunk or under the passenger seat to anyone who has a 2000 or newer Bonneville. I first purchased the GM07 and GM07R Scosche wiring harnesses. The first harness is the one that plugs into the car and the second harness is the one that plugs into the factory stereo. Basically you can make your own relocation harness for real cheap. I took some three foot lengths of cable and connected the two wiring harnesses and made them into one big relocation harness. I then cut a flap in the carpet under my front passenger seat and tore out the foam under the carpet, set the factory stereo in the little hole I made and connected the home made wiring harness. The carpet flap covers the front of the stereo enough so that no one can see it under the seat. Then (the hard part) I had to replace all my speakers with Rockford Fosgates and added amps, an XM tuner, and my Pioneer head unit. The draw back to all of this is, I had to run power and ignition wire up to the front of the car to hook up to my new stereo (not to mention the three sets of RCA cables, two sets of speaker wire for the doors, IP Bus cable for the XM tuner, etc.). To retain your door chimes and warning tones, I just taped into the factory speaker wire going into the drivers front door and attached a cheap CB external speaker. It'* pretty simple to explain. The hard part is actually doing it and finding the time to do it.

Sounds like a lot of work for chimes... glad I did'nt do that...

The work I did to relocate the factory stereo was not just to retain the door chimes and warning tones, but I really wanted to keep the factory stereo hooked up to the Class 2 Data BUS system in the car. Without that factory stereo hooked up to the system, the system may malfunction when something goes wrong in the car. It'* a big safety issue in that your airbags MIGHT not inflate at the time of a crash. That'* what GM told me, thought I don't know how much I believe it. Also, you can look around all you want, there is no Class 2 Data BUS OEM interface box to hook up to the car so that you don't need to relocate the factory stereo. I looked all over and talked to many-a-tech support. They all told me the same thing. All 2000 and up Bonnevilles are an exception to GM'* Class 2 Data BUS system. Bonnevilles use a 32 pin computer chip-type plug. All other GM cars pretty much use a 24 pin wire harness for their Data BUS system. I spent days researching this with numerous manufacturers and all said the same thing. But hey, the work was worth it for my peace of mind.

im not arguing: Do you think if there was a problem with any other system that was depenand on the GM-IP bus system there would be some error indicator, idiot lamp, SES, anything? I have had a Pioneer HU installed in my car since early 2003, no problems, no warning lamps, and no codes (according to the scan tool). I have'nt used the airbags yet, so I am not 100% sure.

I was told the same thing by different shops, never contacted GM directly (did'nt think they would be too keen on helping me replacing my OEM radio), that if there is going to be a problem you will get some sort of SES/SEV light within 30 days or there abouts: never did.

I think it would be a foolish design flaw to incorporate life saving features (SRS) into the factory radio...but hey, it is GM..

No, it'* OK. I wasn't implying that you were arguing. As far as the warning lights, here'* the thing that happened to me. Normally, with everything good in the car, when you crank the car over, no lights come on. But, when it'* done cranking and the systems are all initializing, all the dummy lights come on. However, I removed my radio once and started the car without the factory radio plugged in. Apparently, this is a big no no which I found out too late. Now, even though the factory radio is still technically connected... When I crank the car over, the Service Engine Soon light comes on. And when the car starts and all the systems are initializing, all the dummy lights come on EXCEPT the Service Engine Soon light. In other words, the Service Engine Soon light comes on when you crank the car, but goes out when the others are supposed to come on. When the car is running normally then after the start, no lights are on as if everthing is normal. I took the car to a dealership and told them the problem. They hooked it up to a code reader and said everything was fine. They look up the light'* behavior in a tech manual and supposedly the manual says it'* normal for the Service Engine Soon light to do that. So, either the dealership is lying, or Pontiac is retarded which that feature. I just want the Service Engine Soon dummy light to behave as it did before.

I have never experienced any of the ailments you are referring to. With the factory radio, with the aftermarket radio, and with no radio.

Must be trim level specific, or specific to certain years.

i have never seen any of this either