well -- went by the shop and this is what i found out...

their shop alone has seen a few of the newer generation 9855, 53, 51... (all the flip down face models) coming back from the front panel refusing to tilt or open. they said it hasn't been a huge number, but it was noticable and worth mentioning. that's all they have seen, and they have been replacing them no questions at the store.

*shrug*

i guess it sucks, but if it's fixed quick and easily i'd find it hard to complain much.

 

I ordered mine about week and a half ago and they won't ship out until early june...they also mentioned about this product being out of stock for over 4 weeks!

thanks for the heads up!

 

its a piece of crap...every alpine product i buy breaks on me...9855, it was my final chance with alpine...the glide touch unit just was stuck and the indicator light was going crazy...and a new shipment never came in...lost complete faith in alpine...argh...

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I've always felt great about Alpine products, solid and reliable, but this whole epidemic with the 9855 is shaking by confidence. Hopefully something good will happen.

 

This weekend I talked to a saleperson at my local BestBuy about the CDA-9855 recall. He mentioned that Alpine had asked for a number of 9855 unit to be returned to the factory for a revision. My question is, will there be any indication (on the box, product code, etc.) indicating that a specific unit is a revised version or from a pre-revision run? BestBuy had a couple of 9855's in stock (with yellow dot stickers on the box) but I'm sceptical as to whether these are from this new run or from a previous one. Any thoughts?

 

i'm sure there will be some way to determine. most likely a cutoff manufacturing date or serial number.

now -- how do WE get the info to know where the cutoff is? that's another story. John, i know you have some contacts inside Alpine... any chance they can reveal this info?


ok -- let me make this clear -- i'm NOT whoring for Alpine here.

but if one multi-model issue is causing grief for Alpine, scrapping the entire name is a bit much don't you think? i recognize that jsyang15 says he's had more than 1 issue.... i can understand his desire to maybe avoid Alpine in the future... but what have his issues been?



in my opinion, how Alpine handles these failures will matter much more to me. failures (design, fabrication, assembly, parts sourcing, etc.) are GOING to happen. they are simply impossible to avoid 100% of the time.

heck, look at the Odyssey's from 99-01. they were having transmission failures like crazy, and still are. (and the same transmission was in some of the Accords and Acuras as well iirc.) and yet, most of us have bought a Honda post 2000.
Honda handled the transmission issues well, and continue to do so with warranty replacements well over 100k miles.

Alpine is going to play its cards w/ these failures. how they play them will determine for me (and hopefully for others) on whether they will continue to get my business in the future.

 

im not talking smack to insult alpine...it is my personal experience...blown v12 amps, the 1.5 din headunit that gets stuck in hot and cold weather starts, 9855 with glide touch malfunction, and over heating 7995...i think i given alpine more of a fair chance...i love alpine's aesthetics and tuning options, but unfortunately for reliabilty sake, im stuck with a pioneer because all the Eclipse decks i want wont clear the opening...

 

I only said my confidence was shaken. I respect Alpine, but this was the first time I noticed they made a faulty product. I'm still waiting on how they are going to fix this or what their plans are before I make some firm judgement. For reference, I am going to buy this HU, I'm just waiting. I've always bought alpine head units...except once. Don't infer too much by my statement.

 

ah no... i wasn't trying to say anything of the like Koala... however, these kinds of threads can easily get blown out of proportion, where people forever swear off a brand due to one defect a small percentage experience.

i was mainly trying to keep a sense of scale and reality to this thread, especially for the lurkers. afterall, the title implies major problems, and people will be coming in here to see what the fuss is about.

 

A lot of my opinion towards headunits is easily swayed by the junkies in this forum. My previous car had a Pioneer HU, and it was a nice piece, but I switched easily to Alpine based on the recommendations here in this forum.

However, after using several of them, I'm not really seeing what makes them more special than any of the other brands. I haven't hooked up a full-blown system yet to mine in the S, and maybe once I do that I'll be able to see the charm and appeal of Alpine.

I mean, I guess I don't really see the charm and appeal of most brands of HUs. The GUI is usually cryptic and hard to navigate, the displays wash out easily (especially in convertibles).

I think Alpine is probably the best HU I've used, but can someone really explain to me what is so "special" about them? Maybe bring some positive back into this post.