HI guys,
i have been looking into this head unit for a while and eventually made up my mind to buy it, I see that many people posted on this forum that they bought through internet websites. Please advise is it a good idea to buy over internet as if something goes wrong with the unit no one shares liability and the money we save over net may go in getting it uninstalled and shipping and stuff whereas local dealers charge more but guaratee the installation and if somethign happens to the unit they will take care of it. I am kinda confused what should i do. Should i buy over internet and just get it installed or what.. DID ANYONE FACED PROBLEMS AFTER BUYING THIS UNIT THROUGH INTERNET. PLEASE POST YOUR ADVISE AND EXPERIENCES. THANKS

I hear you man. I'd love to save the big bucks and buy one for like $1,300 from a Internet site, but in the end, with it being an item that is a hard disk drive and probably not that durable in a car environment, I'd suck it up and pay the crazy local brick and mortar store prices to Circuit City or Tweeter, etc, and have the security of them just fixing it. I know most places here in Maryland want $150 to take a head unit out and then put it back in. So, right there, you are out $300 before you even ship the item back to the manufacturer. If you bought it locally, you might find that you can have them just swap and give you a replacement right on the spot. Don't get me wrong, I think it is awful that we even have to choose. I mean of course we want to pay $1,300 (or less) instead of MSRP oif $2,249.99 like we have to at Crutchfield or Tweeter, etc. Just remember this is not proven technology yet. We are out here on the bleeding edge.

hard disks in cars really arent anything that bleeding edge. Many companies have had laptops (panasonic tuff books) with hard drives that have similar specs mounted in their fleet vehicles for years now. I wouldnt be too worried.

I hope you are right. :) I still baby my laptop computers whenever I take them with me on the road. My disk drives don't fair too well in extreme hot and/or cold. I've had no problems at all with my CD/DVD drives in over 10 years. I've had lots of problems with hard disk drives in the past 10 years. While I believe hard drives are not cutting/bleeding edge, they seemed to be inside of cars. Hot, humid, damp, dusty, bumpy vibrations

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Pioneer will warranty any item purchased over the internet unless it's one of their dealers such as Crutchfield, etc. As a matter of fact, I think there's a thread here from someone who discovered that. If this is true, then you are on the hook for any repairs...new or not. That is not worth saving the money...to me at least.

I guess we need to know how much a repair generally costs. If someone can get an AVIC-Z1 for $1,200 shipped via some Internet site. Then the fact that you are covered under a warranty if you bought it from Crutchfield or Tweeter for $2,249.99 is not as important since you have saved $1,049.99. If nothing ever goes wrong with your AVIC-Z1, then that is a REAL savings. If something goes wrong with it and the cost to fix it is less than $1,049.99, then you are still coming out ahead. This whole formula is even worse if you buy it locally and have to pay taxes (5% here in Maryland). In my case, a AVIC-Z1 bought from Circuit City, Tweeter or any mom and pop store that sells them at MSRP (almost all) would cost me $2,362.49. Then one could look at paying anywhere from $250 to as much as $800 to have it installed (depending on how much custom work needs to be done). I guess I need to go back and read the fine print on the AVIC-Z1. What does the Pioneer warranty really cover? All parts and labor? Just parts? 30 days? 90 days? 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? Exchange for a new one? Fixed anywhere or sent back to Pioneer Corporate? Lots of variables. Pretty soon I could see a time where you could buy two AVIC-Z1s from people online for less than one purchased from Circuit City, Tweeter or Crutchfield. If/when that happens, there really is no point in doing anything other than buying on line from the 6th Aves and Abes of Maine type places of the world. All of the P.O. Box drop shipment places littered all over New York and New Jersey. :D