I had been looking for a relatively inexpensive setup to hook into my factory stereo. After looking at several offerings from Brandmotion, Blitzsafe, USA Spec and iSimple I ended up going with the USA Spec PA15-FORD1 for my '06.
The Brandmotion wouldn't charge the newer iphones, etc unless you got their $30 adapter and it didn't have direct input. The iSimple said it wouldn't work with the '06. The Blitzsafe looked pretty good and the features were comparable to the USA Spec. Both had RCA inputs for an additional accessory input and charged the newer gens. Both had text display, direct input ability from the iPod/iPhone and similar menu abilities, including utilizing last song memory. I had heard a little more about the USA Spec brand (it also had a 6ft connector cable vs 4ft) and couldn't find the Blitzsafe at any familiar online retailers, so I went with the USA Spec from Crutchfield. I found a $20 off coupon for them so it was only 129.99 with free shipping and also came with a master sheet for radio and speaker removal on the stang...which was nice.
Here's some links to the all of the interfaces I was looking at:
blitzsafe
brandmotion
usaspec
This is the link to it at Crutchfield:
USA Spec PA15-FORD1 @ crutchfield
Coupon Code
Anyway, I installed it this weekend and it works like a champ and charges my iPhone4. The harness was perfect, just unplug the factory harness from the radio, plug it into the new harness and plug the new harness into the back of the radio. It took maybe 1.5 hrs to install, only because I'm anal and cleaned everything before I put it back together, wanted to make sure it was easily accessible for updates to the unit, and I had to pull the contol panel off 2x during reinstall since the AC connecter didn't get seated all the way. Anway, just thought I'd share in case anyone was looking to do something similar.
The Brandmotion wouldn't charge the newer iphones, etc unless you got their $30 adapter and it didn't have direct input. The iSimple said it wouldn't work with the '06. The Blitzsafe looked pretty good and the features were comparable to the USA Spec. Both had RCA inputs for an additional accessory input and charged the newer gens. Both had text display, direct input ability from the iPod/iPhone and similar menu abilities, including utilizing last song memory. I had heard a little more about the USA Spec brand (it also had a 6ft connector cable vs 4ft) and couldn't find the Blitzsafe at any familiar online retailers, so I went with the USA Spec from Crutchfield. I found a $20 off coupon for them so it was only 129.99 with free shipping and also came with a master sheet for radio and speaker removal on the stang...which was nice.
Here's some links to the all of the interfaces I was looking at:
blitzsafe
brandmotion
usaspec
This is the link to it at Crutchfield:
USA Spec PA15-FORD1 @ crutchfield
Coupon Code
Anyway, I installed it this weekend and it works like a champ and charges my iPhone4. The harness was perfect, just unplug the factory harness from the radio, plug it into the new harness and plug the new harness into the back of the radio. It took maybe 1.5 hrs to install, only because I'm anal and cleaned everything before I put it back together, wanted to make sure it was easily accessible for updates to the unit, and I had to pull the contol panel off 2x during reinstall since the AC connecter didn't get seated all the way. Anway, just thought I'd share in case anyone was looking to do something similar.
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