I think it has come down to either the Pioneer AVIC-Z2 or the Kenwood DNX8120. The good thing about the Pioneer is that you actually have a hard drive to copy songs onto, but with the kenwood you could purchase the Kenwood Music Keg KHD-CX910. And with the music keg from kenwood you can actually take that one out of your car and connect it to your computer. That way you are able to both copy music and movies onto your hard drive a lot faster than with the Pioneer.
I was at this car audio retail store the other day, and they basically only sold kenwood units, so of course they recommended me to go with the Kenwood DNX8120.
But what is the best? Any suggestions, or other models you would recommend?
Pioneer i have always had pioneer and would never go any other way. you will not be disapointed at all. I just got a pioneer double din its the avic-4000 it looks great i cant wait to get it in my mustang.
i would got with pioneer, there interfaces (menu style) is so much better looking then kenwood. Also the icon are bigger. Some people complain about boot up time but the make firmware upgrades.
Honestly man, ive owned the AVIC-z2 and will never own another one. I primarily used the my ipod with it and scrolling through the ipod was for lack of a better word.. painful. I had a lot of music on my ipod and reaching an artist would often take minutes to get to and if you clicked the wrong thing then you had to start at the top of list again. I never ripped music to the harddrive but I can only imagine the menu scrolling is just a slow there. Not telling you not to get the z2 as it is a great unit, but if you will be using an ipod then look elsewhere. Other than the slow menus, the nav was pretty good and was just as accurate as a Garmin that I tested it against.
I don't know about nav. systems (b/c I don't want one), but if it's music you're after, I LOVE the USB port on my HUs. I purchased the units I did specifically b/c they have the USB port. That's the only way to go! I have about 2.75GB of music on a 4GB stick. That's ALL the music on my computer that I might ever want to hear. I just put it on random and I'm good to go. I like to be surprised!
And there's no messing with the Ipod, controls, extra cords, etc.
Kenwood or Pioneer? 
