For anyone interested here are the details.

1. Placement - As Jason said, it fits very well in the dash...vertically. There is about a 1/4"space on each side of the bracket. Some shimming might be necessary. There is a slight gap after the trim is replaced but it is not obvious. The DIN can tabs only grabbed on the bottom. Looks great.

2. Electrical - Bought a Metra 80-1771 harness at Circuit City. The "hack" on this forum regarding enabling Nav and DVD functions works and was validated by local installer. (I asked them to move the pin from auto-antenna to the unused connector hole so I didnt ruin anything.) I crafted a nice harness grounding the parking brake and "hack wire" (see above) I found but did not connect to the VSS wire. (very difficult and worried about impact on vehicle warranty) Unit seems to be functioning fine and really accurate. It just plugged in and worked.

3. Antenna - placed on inside rear deck and routed up under the passenger side headliner trim piece (did not have to be removed) The connector fit fine going into an existing hole at the base of the "A" piller. Removed glove box and routed wire to unit. This was MUCH better than going the low road removing side, kick panel and sill plate.

I also bought the XM Nav-traffic receiver. This is a rather large unit that does not fit behind the dash. This will require removing passenger seat and mounting it beneath it. Seat removal is not obvious. So, until I can unlock the mystery of the seat removal this will have to wait. The unit will be mounted under the seat. For some wierd reason, the unit needs its own power and does not get power from the IPBus. I will bundle the two data cables and power and rout under the carpet to the head unit.I will tap into red and yellow on my harness. Antenna placement is up in the air. I might put it beside the GPS antenna on the rear deck so it is not exposed. The XM reception is more finnicky than GPS and may require either trunk lip or roof mounting to get an appropriate ground plane. This will be tested on the road prior to final installation.

All in all this took 6 hours.(including trips to get pin switched in connector.)

A great project. Hope this can help someone.

 

I also bought the XM Nav-traffic receiver. This is a rather large unit that does not fit behind the dash. This will require removing passenger seat and mounting it beneath it. Seat removal is not obvious. So, until I can unlock the mystery of the seat removal this will have to wait. The unit will be mounted under the seat. For some wierd reason, the unit needs its own power and does not get power from the IPBus. I will bundle the two data cables and power and rout under the carpet to the head unit.I will tap into red and yellow on my harness. Antenna placement is up in the air. I might put it beside the GPS antenna on the rear deck so it is not exposed. The XM reception is more finnicky than GPS and may require either trunk lip or roof mounting to get an appropriate ground plane. This will be tested on the road prior to final installation.

The NavTraffic Reciever fits fine under the D1. Near the 12 Volt socket. I think you may have a defective reciever, it should get ACC Power over the IP Bus, but I guess if it works hardwired, no reason to return it.

This is new information. were you able to MOUNT the traffic box under the D1 or is it just laying in there? Also, I only assumed it needed the power wires. Since this is a Pioneer only radio, if the IP bus had power why would they have the other power wires....well anyway it will be an easier install.

Thanx

James

Disregard post above. I misread instructions. Only IPBUS and data are required. Also, looks like it fits under D1. Back to work...

I'm hoping to install a D3 with the iPod cable, rear view camera, and the new bluetooth module when it comes in from CF.

I already have a Pioneer DEH-7600 in there but will take plenty of pictures for reference.