aftermarket stereo

Ok, here's the story (short version): My kid jammed all of my wifes business/credit cards into our cd player in the van and now it won't play cd's either at all or for very long. I want to get an aftermarket deck but on Crutchfield.com it says I need some sort of $75 kit to keep my door/alarm chimes and to convert it to 12v. Is this really necessary? I was looking at spending $100 max on my new deck, I don't want to add another $75. Any help would be great!


(below is from crutchfield.com)

Installation Details for your 2000 Venture

» Because your vehicle is factory-equipped with a special sound system, you will need to purchase an adapter that allows you to keep your factory door chime (needed to keep audible safety warnings functioning) and provides a switched 12-volt power source for your new radio. Crutchfield strongly recommends that you not replace this vehicle's factory radio without using a recommended adapter.
Metra VT-GMRC-01 $79.99
» If your vehicle has the OnStar system, the voice prompts will be lost if the factory radio is replaced.
» Receiver installation gear is available for your vehicle. Add receiver to Your Cart to see items and cost.
» You'll get free lifetime tech support for as long as you own your gear!

Among other things, the factory radio has a chip that generates the chime sound (it gets the data from the computer bus on the car) and plays the chime through the amplifier and speakers. If you replace the radio with an aftermarket you lose this. This seems to be most of what the adapter does.

Aftermarket stereo? Yup.. Check out with your local car audio places, for my '01, all it required was a "bypass" harness to re-route the door chime signal from the BCM to the speaker. About $25 for him to make it up.

Hopefully this helps.