So here's what happened....

my car rides like $hit. I'm pretty sure my tires are hit, but I'm also thinking the rotors need turned. So I go to the dealer, mainly because I'm lazy. I go in and just pose it as a "rides rough" complaint, to see what they'll do (play dumb). I drop it off late in the day so I can scam a rental.

Now the problem....

They give me the loaded up TL SH-AWD as the loaner while my "clunker 2008 TL-S gets looked at. I get in... holy crap, that's a nice seat. Wow, didn't need the key. Whoa... that's a nice dash. HUH.... 2 functional cup holders without losing an arm rest??

OK - love the car, but I'm a sound freak. I've ripped out all the factory amp and crossovers, redid all that. I've got all wires after stock HU run back to the trunk, running into an AudioControl LOC, then to a JL Audio 4300 for the mains and a JL 500/1v2 for the 12W3 sub. Sounds pretty good (although I need a little tiny JL for the center... any recommendations? It's gotta run off the HU loooooowwww voltage w/o benefit of LOC, that's the kicker...)

Anyway, so I'm in love with the 2009 stock HU. I've been looking at Crutchfield catalogs thinking "man... it would be cool to have a nicer interface... even considering trading the wheel functionality for a while to see if I like the nice new Pioneer gear and see if it's any better than stock. Then I sit in this big bad beast....

So either I trade in 2 barely 2 year old "baby" (2 more years on the lease) which already has more miles than the lease called for... set it on fire, after removing the JL's, of course, (joke, by the way...) OR.... find a way to get the stock 2009 HU into a 2008 (w/NAV).

Anyone even remotely thinking about this?

First thing I did when I parked in my driveway was open the drunk to see what color the NAV disk is - no drive in trunk. Then I see posts that suggest it might be on the HDD. Great. But then... won't there be a USB ISO somewhere to flash it???????? Maybe that ISO will burn to a DVD+DL?

Needing to satisfy the itch for gadgretry... I did Peripheral's iPod integration, works pretty well, although a little slow... I think I need a firmware update somewhere along the line, but that was like a year ago, so couldn't blame them guys if I'm out of date.

Need mah "cool dash" to seem cool again.

 

What you are inquiring to do is probably pretty near impossible as I am sure the 2008 controls will not work properly in conjunction with the operation of the 2009 setup. Not to mention. Now I'll just say, and I am probably not alone on this one, be happy with what you have. You have a fully loaded TL Type-S with a very nice sound system, and it's only two years old. Enjoy what you have, don't let the automotive sickness get to you so much that you would go upside down on a lease or on the car all together with what you have put into it just because of a flashy interface and some gadgets on a slightly newer but different model.

 

I was also given an awd sh tl as a loaner while my car was in for service. very nice...

i was wondering if the back up cams are the same? i know they have the yellow back lines now which helped a lot compared to not having them on my 06. Since i converted to the 07/08 nav system i have the oem cam but would like to use the 09/10 cam... anyone know if it would be a direct swap?