1996-2003 Pontiac Grand Am Bonneville AM FM Radio CD Player w Aux Input 09390772 | eBay

Found that when I was trying to buy another GTP.

I didn't say anything about replacement speakers, amps, etc., because those aren't visible unless you want them to be. The question was, why do you want your car to look bad so you can listen to mp3s?

i test drove an 05 GTO this summer. The previous owner had decided he couldn't live without satellite radio. So, not only was there this heinous purple-lit thing in the middle of the center stack, but there was something like a microphone hanging out of the headliner, right in my field of vision.

And best yet, the external antenna wires ran inside the car right through the weather stripping at the top of the rear window.

I really enjoy Sirius XM. I don't enjoy it enough to make the car leak so it can have a feature that wasn't available when it was built.

 

Well it's people's prerogative what they want to do to their car - Like when people add vinyl stickers or rims. I personally don't care for either nor do I care for aftermarket so I'm with you there.

That being said, many people add aftermarket radios to get extra features and make it easier to connected all of those peripherals mentioned earlier. I have an aftermarket radio in my Impala and have had it in there for years. I'm switching back now and I am literally modifying my stock radio to add an 3.5mm like the one in the ebay listing.

I personally like stock in general, but in the end I own the car so I can change it. I changed my Impala's theme to an ivory/black because what the heck.

 

It's not always about MP3s. I've seen the factory radios with the added aux jacks. Some of those vary on the knowledge of the person who did the mod (some require a CD or cassette to play with no audio or XM or others done where you can just have it on the FM radio and it works great).
But some people (like me) just wanted MP3 on CD ability because I did not want to mess with wires or hiding a phone or MP3 player in the car and I wanted full control via the radio itself.

But again, there are a LOT of reasons for aftermarket radios depending on the car.

People need to spend a little time pairing the right radio to the right car and also do a proper install. I put a JVC MP3 capable radio in my '94 Grand Am, had matching red back lighting (matched the "Pontiac" look in the car) and was great. Newer radios have programmable back lighting (I saw one with like 20+ different colors you could choose from).

Newer factory radios are certainly better (the quality of the factory radio has improved a ton over the years, makes them less desirable to change).