For the next 5-1/2 months we searched all over the western united states to locate a comparable replacement Excursion. Finding an Excursion with a 7.3l Powerstroke Diesel motor that wasn't insanely overpriced or didn't have 220,000 miles is more of a challenge than you imagine. Eventually we located a 2002 Ford Excursion Limited with a number of after market options we would probably never pursued. Initially we were cautiously excited - how did we get to find this specific vehicle at this specific price. The reports were clean and the vehicle drove like you would expect. We made and offer, it was accepted, and picked up the vehicle the following day after retrieving our funds to complete the transaction. 
After the purchase we had the vehicle completely inspected and reviewed at Electronic Injector Services in Sherwood Oregon. This place is an exceptional service center and source of knowledge about all things "diesel." There were a few things they identified, all related to what happens to these vehicles after they reach 115,000 miles - about 1/3 of their life if well maintained. Shortly after this, we had the front brakes replaced and they I drove to Cottonwood California towing a tandem axle trailer to pickup my daughter's jeep. The total weight of the trailer, 92' Jeep Cherokee and contents of the Jeep easily exceeded 6000 pounds and the "new to us" Excursion was amazing.
Now that the journey to find a replacement was done the next goal was to replace the 11 year old factory audio system with something current. We drove a number of current model year Suburban's, didn't like them, but admired the electronics included in the LTZ package. With this in mind we started shopping for a head unit that would provide similar capabilities. The features required were:
- Bluetooth phone with effective noise management
- Bluetooth audio
- GPS navigation
- Satellite radio
- HD radio
- IPod interface
Entry in to this market for current products is not cheap. After several weeks and several trips to Car Toys,
we decided upon a Kenwood DNX690HD. It had all of the features found in the list above and was relatively close to what we were hoping to spend. The features of the unit are truly exceptional. The user interface is very well designed and organized. It is easy to navigate from one function to another. The context nature of the touch screen interface is very nice. The audio output seems quite good as well. After nearly 3-4 weeks of use this unit it was time to address the problems:
- POST - Power on self test
- iPod audio drop
- Bluetooth phone connection time
- Bluetooth phone interaction
Every time you turn the unit on, it takes an incredibly long time for the unit to reach the point of operation. I realize it is a complicated unit, has lots of capabilities, but 20-30 seconds to get to the point of radio output seems extreme.
The iPod user interface is the best I've ever seen. It is intuitive and the hierarchical search capability really makes it easy to navigate a large music collection with ease. The problem is that once it starts playing music, it will eventually stop producing audio. The interface indicates the iPod is operating correctly, the song is continuing to play, and it's possible to select another song, album or play list. The only problem is that no sound is produced. The only way to correct the problem is to power off the unit. Since there is no power button, this requires stopping the car, turning off the ignition and opening the door. Not particular easy to do on a long road trip or safely at an intersection.
The Bluetooth interface Kenwood selected/implemented on this unit is horrible. On my daily commute to work I put my phone on the cup holder in the truck (Bluetooth mode already enabled as it is all the time) and start the ignition. About the time I'm a mile from home (in a neighbor hood setting that is 25 mph) I notice the phone is still not synced to the head unit. By the next mile, it appears to be ready to use and is so I open the recent call history data to select a number and call home to ask my wife a question. That works pretty
well. After the conversation I hang up and drive some more. I realize there is one more topic we needed to discuss and I open the recent call history again.. This time it's not there but there is a button to indicate a "download" request. After trying that several times and never having it work I pick up the phone and navigate to my dial shortcuts and press the icon which is a picture of my house.
After having enough of this I took the vehicle back to Car Toys. The initial response was to offer to update the firmware. I indicated that had already been done. Chris the installer suggested getting rid of the Kenwood and selecting this unit. After some time, they offered to swap the unit out for a Pioneer AVIC-X950PH. - POST - Power on self test - approximately 8 seconds
- Bluetooth connect - 4-5 seconds after the above
- Audio output far more crisp and powerful
After getting the Kenwood unit installed, I replaced the 4 door speakers with some Kenwood 3 way speakers which sounded much better. The Pioneer AVIC-X950PH really shows the range and capability of the new speakers. Included with Pioneer I had them add the wiring so when I have time and resources I can add a sub-woofer without have to pull the dash.
The user interface for the Pioneer unit isn't quite as nice as the Kenwood. It gets you to everything you need but isn't as visually appealing. The equalizer control from the Pioneer is really nice. There are several predefined profiles as well as two user defined profiles and they are easy to get to in any of the audio modes.
The conclusion to this discussion is that the vehicle now has an audio/video system that works exceedingly well. Car Toys did the right thing and sent us away happy with our 5th system installed and working well.UPDATE: 2013-09-03 - This system is absolutely amazing. I've made a few calls to Pioneer support to get questions answered and they have been awesome. Since I've had more time to become familiar with this unit I can report that the Ipod search/interface is fantastic.
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