[einstein]

Non-Pontiac, obviously, but after 20+ years on this forum, I'd rather ask this crew than start an account among strangers on some other forum.

Wife's car is 2008 DTS and the radio is that year's AM-FM-SXM with NAV. Face looks like the optional SAT-NAV ones in the 2007 to 2015 Suburbans, Tahoes and Yukons, and I'm sure many other GM vehicles of that span.

What it's lacking is Blue-tooth and hard-wire USB capability. We'd really like to connect our phones to play programs from other apps.

Is there a newer unit from GM which could be a "plug-and-play" installation? Or is there another solution?

[mzbk2l]

einstein, I had found an adapter harness for a family member's 2005 Tahoe that simply plugged inline between the radio and the vehicle harness and added an "aux" input to the factory radio (to which I then attached an external bluetooth adapter). I looked through Amazon and ebay to see if there was something like that for sale for your car, but nothing even remotely similar popped up; GM must have changed the radio protocols between 2005 and 2008.

[kingbuzzo]

Does it have an aux line in from a mini headphone jack? The wife's 2010 cheby does. If so you could get a cheap bluetoof receiver and stream your tunes thru that.

Alternatively you could get an aftermarket deck and slide it in there with an adapter from crutchfield.

I opted for one of those new "floating" decks in my trash am which gives me android auto and carplay natively:

[einstein]

Thanks, guys.

There’s no plug on this unit like USB or MP3.

I never thought about an add-in harness like the modern trailer connectors. But maybe those were a short-lived solution, no longer having market value.

[unruhjonny]

I am surprised your car does not have blue tooth.
Are you sure it's not already set up for BT, and it's just not working?

I had thought that all the OnStar eqquipped vehicles from this time sued BT to connect your phone to the radio via the rear view mirror (the rear view mirror had the OnStar buttons).

GM tended to do radios in cycles, and my '09 Cobalt radio had BT, and is essentially the same as any 2007-2010 Cobalt radio - they have a good degree of interchangeability, and if I am correct, the additional functions (except for the USB) require add-ons to the car, that connect to the radio.

[Goatracer1]

There are a dozen or more Bluetooth adapters for sale that just plug into your cigar lighter with no other connections. I think they all have USB ports for playing flash drives or charging your phone. They are inexpensive enough that you could try one and see if you like it. They range from about $10 to just over $20 and even Walmart sells them.

[einstein]

I'll check the owner's manual about the BT, Jonny.

Racer, I hadn't ruled that out, but we've had a couple and when the fuse blows, being cheap chinese crap, they're made of unobtanium. All you can do is get another and consider it disposable.

Regarding when GM deployed certain features, I had a new95 Firehawk (Formula) which had RAP - Retained Accessory Power. Years later I bought a used 96 Roadmaster Wagon, figuring it was a higher-level vehicle than the Firebird and a year newer I fully expected it to have the RAP feature, but it does not.

[mzbk2l]

Depends on the refresh cycle... the 4th gen birds were new in '93 or so, weren't they? So '95 was pretty fresh and had whatever new features GM was implementing in the mid-90s. '96 was the end of the run for the big RWD cars, so they probably hadn't had any features added since the debut of the whale body style in the late 80s.

Could be the same with the DTS; I don't know when the model changes happened on those.

[kingbuzzo]

Failing the factory bluetoof...r u sure it doesn't have an aux mini-jack like this?

[jerry455]

When I had my 2009 Chevy HHR it didn't have Bluetooth. I found out that the module, HDMI, I think, was the same as several other cars. I bought a used module from a salvage yard and installed it. It worked great but On Star was trying to tell me I was now driving a Cadillac. It worked perfectly. I know that the HHR is a much cheaper platform than yours but that was how the Bluetooth was accomplished on that.

[tom s]

Can you get a Apple CarPlay?