Alpine Chevrolet Camaro at CES 2011

The following was written by Amy Gilroy, the Editor of CEoutlook and a Contributing Author to Market Playground and Satellite Radio Playground;

If CES was any indication, Chevy Camaro kits for replacing the factory radio may be a nice seller this year.

Alpine Electronics announced its second car-specific kit to date will be designed for the Camaro. Phoenix Gold showed a car-specific Camaro amp, and Scosche and Freeway showed new radio-swapping kits.

The radio for the new Camaro is difficult to replace as it’s tied to the AC/heating controls and the seat heaters, hence the need for kits.

Alpine’s Camaro kit is due this summer. It comes with a plug and play harness that will allow two Alpine AV/navigation radios to drop-in to the car. The kit is offered in two versions: one with steering wheel control capability at $149.95 and one without the steering wheel control capability at $79.95. The kits work with two Alpine AV/navigation radios: the INA-W900BT and INA-W910.
 

Scosche showed the first kit that lets you swap the radio but keep full color touch screen AC control in a Camaro, Mustang or Taurus—all cars with radios that are bundled with air conditioning controls, it said. The kits, at about $300 each, include the GM5201B for the Camaro. The kit plugs directly into the factory AC harness for simple installation.

Metra said it was the first to supply a double DIN Camaro kit: the GM3010S released last spring. Although it won’t divulge sales figures, the company said the kit is selling well.