I got this out of my system just as fast as I thought about it! lol

 

Yeah i've actually brought that up to some people because you're basically voiding any factory warranty once you cut a wire. Now my route just uses that PAC-VCI NIS, which has it's own harness that plugs into the factory harness, making it clean and removable. Even when I installed my parrot bluetooth I got a plug & play harness from over seas because it's not worth it to me to cut everything up. This isn't my 94 ford taurus.

Cost is whatever it comes to. Every solution will be different. Mine was about 250-300 bucks in the end if I recall and it's exactly what I wanted. To find a used nav system on ebay could range from 400-1000 dollars I would think. The only issue that kept coming up was that the satellite radio didn't work but I suspect it's because most people didn't install the antenna to go with the nav module, since the XM tuner is inside the nav module, whereas the other stereos have an external XM tuner.

To be fair though there are a lot of great tinkerers out there, and the only difference between them and a professional is that a professional gets paid by definition. I can do just as good a job at troubleshooting an electrical issue or changing brakes, but i'm clearly not a professional since I don't get paid. Just saying. Although I respect your point that if you resell your car and you can say "I had this done at reputable shop named 'xyz' up the road" then it's a lot better in the long run. For me, well, my car has 118k miles so if I resell it privately I suppose it's a different ballgame.

 

First time i heard of Anyone attempting it. Still wayyyy too much time and money.