No, the Mazdas are even WORSE than the Ford ICU... the Mazda actually breaks the radio into seperate components. The Ford piece took the guts out of the radio and put it in the trunk, then put the radio controls and the HVAC controls on one big blob of a control panel in the center of the dash. It wasn't integrated into the dash at all, at first it was a big black circle, then they squared it off some, but it was across-the-board stupid, and it made it much more difficult to install an aftermarket stereo, because not only do you have to buy an expensive "fit kit" that either has all the factory HVAC controls in it, or that you can transfer yours to, but you also have to account for the fact that the actual radio is in the trunk, so you basically have to rewire the who effin' car from scratch. Oh, and don't even TRY to put an aftermarket radio into a Ford with a JBL stereo, unless you're a pro and have some time to waste.

In regards to your display, I can't imagine it would be very hard for an industrious manufacturer to come up with a "delete" kit for it to go with an aftermarket stereo, but in my mind that space would be just begging to be griggsified. At the very least I'd yank the LCD out if it was bypassed, and put a james-bondesque switch panel there (you know the routine.. add dummy switches to fill the space, then you have to add functions and features to the car until they all do something!)

 

I kind of already covered this a whille back over at RPS i assume your talking about this radio



the measurments for it are
* 4 3/4 " high
* 7 1/2 " to 7 3/8 " width
* 7 3/8 " deep


yeah it wont "plug and play" and to get it to work you need an antenna, unless you get it from the donor truck your dead in the water.. your local ford dealership CANT order them for some reason or another the only way to get it is through a Europian Ford dealership..

The Ford Part number for the antenna is 1S7F-18A886-A4 For those who are interested, this is an HRS GT5-1s connector manufactured by a Japanese company called Hirose, so you could possibly make your own...

BUT.... (now for the good news)

i did a little searching around and found some VERY VERY valuable info...

first off ford doesnt make any of there radios... a company called Visteon does.. and if you go to there web site you can see that there is a differant nav radio pictured there... they have the VRN9000 pictured.. which is the nav radio for europian(sp?) states BUT if you could get ahold of one it looks like it might fit better if not "plug and Play" and the software is all one one disk, must be like a boot disk of some kind.. all you do is buy the one for your area, i am guessing they have one USA disk.


heres the back of that vnr9000


and bigger front view

 

as for the carputer they are awsome my buddy has one and it will do anything you want/build it for... but the only downside EVERYTHING is custom no one makes any kind of mounting kit or anything you have to do EVERYTHING... but on the upside there is tons of people out there to walk you through it like on mp3car.com...

my buddy is looking for his pics now...

 

hes still looking for the rest.. but here is a little teaser...

keep in mind this is on a explorer sport

this is his rear view camera, its hooked to a power mirrior motor and the little ajuster **** is mounted in the center console http://media.putfile.com/RearView95

 

ok here is the radio benzel


here is the finished product..


notice the USB plugs, and on the left side starting at the top, Volume ****, Main Power switch, and cig. plug