Has anybody put a modern infotainment system into an older 9-5?
I've had two goes at changing the head unit in my 2007 9-5.
Firstly I put a top level Kenwood satnav system in place of the original in 2013. That Kenwood model was very unreliable and map updates were expensive. So two years ago I fitted a Pioneer DAB unit. It is just a radio head unit with AppleCarPlay (or Android alternative). All the satnav, music etc.is from my smartphone. When I fitted the Kenwood I hard wired it because there were no fitting kits available. However, I have since fitted a similar Pioneer headunit in our 2010 9-3 Carlsson and I used a fitting kit from www.incartec.co.uk. It was a plug and play installation, apart from dropping the back edge of the headlining to fit a DAB aerial in place of the shark fin. Everything works including all the steering wheel controls.
All the Saab 9-5 headunits are wired and basically to an industry standard. The odd quirk which a good fitting kit will deal with. My Saab has the separate amp and that was no problem.
Seconded on the InCarTec kits. I fitted an Eonon Q04Pro to my '08 9-5 with the InCarTec radio cage and the double DIN fitting kit. I had to cut the front corners out of the cage to allow the Eonon to slide all the way in but everything has worked quite well. A few extra bits required, such as a dual USB extension that I fitted into a switch blank. I was even able to get an adapter cable to plug into the existing sharkfin GPS antenna (I didn't bother with DAB).
Incartec supply excellent bits of kit for integration and a really helpful if you give them a call. I put an Android unit in my 9-5 after the denso sat nav died, there will be a thread on here about it
W