Vehicle Info
Page One - Exterior
Page Two - Interior
Page Three - Performance
The interior was beige cloth for the last five years. Well, it was beige for about 2 years and then it was brown, black, orange, red and then some kind of funk color. My wife and son had their way with it. When I took over as the full time driver I put leather in it and installed my 10" down-firing sub from a previous car. In the open air cargo area it offers plenty of bump, even with the factory stereo. I installed the amp in the cargo tray to get it out of the way. Pictures of the install to follow after I re-carpet the sub box from gray to beige to match my interior. Here is the leather installed by ViP in St. Louis. they did our Sportage in 2000 and I had to go back. they do a great job and do it fast.
The stock pedals were small and the rubber was wearing off a bit. I was able to grab some cheap pedal covers that actually some what matched the interior. Easy installation and they are mesh aluminum so they are not slick when wet.
The stock radio was actually pretty good. It had a CD player, a tape player I used as and Aux audio input and decent radio reception. With the stock amp under the driver's seat the polypropylene stock speakers sound really good. I did ad another amp and a 10" sub but the Head Unit just didn't have enough fun stuff. I found the Jensen VM9022 DVD player and put it in to replace the stock unit. The Jensen impressed me in the store with its quality. the feature set is off the charts for a unit in its price range too.
I got the 6.5" Touchscreen, DVD, Full iPod interface and control, RDS radio, Bluetooth interaction and functionality with A2dp audio tranfer, SD card reader, USB input, Backup camera input, SAT radio ready, Navigation Ready and two Aux audio and video inputs. This unit is unreal. It has full Dolby Digital 4.0, 4.1, and 5.1 output capability.
One of the added bonuses was the ability to bypass the parking brake activation via the setup menu. It installed in no time and looks really nice in the Sorento. I added a backup camera just because it's really cool to have and it was cheap on eBay.
Once I drove the Sorento at night with the new Head Unit I realized I need blue dash bulbs. The Jensen only glows blue and it was driving me crazy having the dash lights green and the HU blue. I grabbed some bright blue replacement bulbs and went to town on the dash and gauge cluster. The thing is, the back of my speedo and gauges have a green tint to them. The blue is true on the digital odometer, but a little blueish green on the rest of the gauges. I still think they are a big step up in color from the original setup. The bulbs I replaced were white bulbs with a green rubber boot on the tips. Go figure.
I am still working on re-covering the sub box. Here is my amp install though. I put it in the cargo tray in the rear hatch area of the Sorento. Nice and out of the way without any wires cluttering things up. i don't run it hard enough for it to heat up and cause any heat issues.
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