I have been debating between the AMI Retrofit and the Gateway 500 for sometime. I had my SA try and requisition the parts for the AMI, and the dealer selling them to me at cost + 10% margin which is what I felt was fair plus shipping charges would have run over $600 plus $135.00 for labor.

Here was the breakdown.

AMI 4e0057785B $438.38 List 674.43
Wiring Harness $123.23 List 189.59
Ipod Cable $54.50 List 67.70
Total = 616.11

The dealer of course, will only do the install if I put in the New Glove Box...$280.29 with list of 431.22. (won't do major modifications)

So I would be in parts to the tune of $896.40. They will do the labor for 137.40

So $1000.00 for the Upgrade with glovebox. Sounds lower than some of the quotes I have heard on here but still outrageous for a $290 factory ordered option.

Ironically the dealer thinks it is outrageous as well and is looking at going the Denison route. My dealer has even gone as far as attempted to source the parts direct from the OEM manufacturer, but has not had any luck because they feel Audi is articicially inflating their mark-up due to the demand and only after demand drops will they release a "full kit" part number at a reduced price.

They are willing to charge me same labor rate as an AMI retrofit if I provide the Dension unit. My question to those of you who have done the work, is it worth the $140.00 bucks to have the dealer do the work, and is it really a 1.5 hr job, or is it quicker than that.

Links of write-ups on installs would be apprecaited as well.

KAK

<ul><li><a href="http://forums.audiworld.com/audio/msgs/56258.phtml">http://forums.audiworld.com/audio/msgs/56258.phtml</a</li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k07GX7kATro">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k07GX7kATro</a</li></ul>

S4, I just had found that write-up via Enfig. They actually link to it from their sales page. I was hoping for something more along the lines of install write-up. I have found them for Q7's and Porsche's. The A8 write does answer some up front questions. I am planning to order tomorrow and either personally install or have the dealer install next week. Guess the advantage of paying the dealer the $140 is if they break something that is OEM, they will have to replace it. Plus, I think the SA just wants to see it work, so they can sell the install to clients. Even if they have to order through enfig and sell at cost, they are still about $200 under Audi Pricing, and it has more functions.

KAK

it broke and I've chosen not to replace it.

between Sirius and sports radio, I have no need for it.

I installed mine, and to be honest it took longer that I would have liked. Part of the issue was that I installed the Navtech video module at the same time.
I didn't take photos when I did the installation but I can give you a few pointers on the touchy parts:

1) The glove box came out easier than I expected.
2) I mounted the Dension on the back of the glove box. There is enough room between it and the firewall. I used a 2" wide by 4 " (or so) piece of double sided sticky foam tape.
3) I found places in the top of the glove box that were good candidates to run the cable through. As I was doing the video cable stuff also, I ended up using a rectangular section on the left front top as you are facing the open glovebox. It was a small rectangular shape that had precut perforations, so it was easy to remove.
4) The Dension uses the MOST system, which is fiber-optic based. Read, read and read again the manual on how that gets hooked up. I did it right the first time, but only after I felt like I really understood it. The Dension 500 is made for a variety of cars that use MOST, so you will not use all of the provided fiber-optic parts. Make sure that you understand the 'direction' of the light. Think of the MOST as one big looped fiber optic network. Each device as a light in and a light out. The light out of a device goes in to the light in of the next device and so on. The direction is important.

I hope that was more helpful that it was confusing. I love mine, btw.

Kiros