[MP81]

I mean, they don't cost all that much anymore and make wiring a whole lot easier and don't require hacking up your factory harness...

 

[MP81]

The wiring kits I'm looking at are close to $200 retail.

https://axxessinterfaces.com/product/AXGM-044

Am I looking at the wrong thing?

You should be able to get significantly cheaper ones if you don't want to retain On-Star - Crutchfield lists a number of them.

But I mean, IMO $200 is worthwhile to lose zero functionality - it's why we still have the stock 7" MyLink unit, because I want Android Auto but have zero appetite to remove the CD player functionality.

 

[MP81]

CD Player!? I haven't used one of those since 2008. I don't want to loose Onstar but the 2G sunset happens the end of the year so, according to Onstar it will become a phone app.

My wife still uses hers in the Cruze relatively often, even though I have all of our music loaded to a flash drive that permanently stays in the car - she's got some other music that I have no interest in loading to my desktop (Adele, Shania Twain, etc haha) in order to put it on said flash drive, so those she listens to via CD.

Similarly, in my Cobalt, I bought the NEX head unit that still has CD (and DVD!) functionality. I've never once used it, but the car had it before so I saw zero reason to remove that functionality.