Known hardware issues?

[Nevadadrifter]

I have been shopping around for a new F900BT for a few weeks now. It looks like the economy has taken it's toll on many of the smaller car audio shops, as several of my local shops are now out of business. The only local shops that carried the F900BT were Best Buy and a local chain called Audio Express. I played around with the display unit at Best Buy, and spoke with the sales staff for a few minutes about prices. I am ordering the head unit itself as well an XM receiver, iPod adapter, and all the necessary components to retain use of my steering wheel controls. With a fistful of papers showing prices from online stores in my hand, Best Buy refused to budge on their prices for the unit, additional components and install. They even wanted to charge me $50 for "installing" the iPod adapter, in addition to the price of the adapter itself. I argued that I should not be charged an install fee, when it's really as simple as plugging the cable into the back of the head unit. I had never really planned on using Best Buy to begin with, but their business practices just irked me.

 

So I drove down to Audio Express. I went in and asked the salesman if they had an F900BT in stock, as there were no AVIC units on display. The clerk ran into the back of the store, and came out a short time later with the sales manager. He proceeded to tell me that the store usually stocks the F900BT, but "recently had to send all of their stock back to Pioneer due to multiple glitches in the system." He then said they were not expecting any units back into the store until around the first week of June. I asked if the units were sent back to receive a firmware upgrade, and was told "no, the store would have been able to perform a firmware upgrade to any existing units as they were sold." The sales manager was apologetic for not being able to remember exactly what the hardware failure was, but he was certain it was due to a hardware issue.

 

I was certain at this point that they were going to try and steer me towards a more expensive nav system, but they made no effort to do so. He offered to look further into the problem and give me a call back, but I declined. We did discuss installation prices, and agreed that if I purchased all the needed installation hardware myself, they could perform the install of the head unit, XM, and iPod controls for around $200. I am completely inept when it comes to electrical work, so I think that's a fair price to pay for an install. I went home that evening and ordered everything I should need from Crutchfield. Still not the best price out there for the unit itself, but I have purchased plenty of components from them over the years, and am happy with their service.

 

So my question to everyone here is; are there any known hardware issues with the F series that I need to keep an eye out for? I am aware of the somewhat buggy nature of the unit, but it seems like most of the existing problems should be able to be solved with further firmware updates.

[Newman]

other than the buggy nature of the F-series there arent any hardware issues. i work for an electronics shop and we have not heard anything of the sort. it doesnt sound like the sale manager was lying to you, it sounds like it could have been a misunderstanding on his part. or maybe we are the ones who are misinformed but i seriously doubt that. we are a very high quantity pioneer f-series vendor so we are in constant contact with our sales rep.