I suggest you go through this forum and see all the trials and tribulations others have gone through to replace the stock stereo. Your statement of "I can pretty much get any head unit that will fit the slot" couldn't be more wrong. The radio unit in these Renegades do FAR more than just play tunes; they control a ton of vital features for the entire vehicle.

Can it be done ? Certainly. But it's not a "Oooo, I like this one !", buy it and plug it in. There are quite a few additional steps (that cost additional coin to do) before it's done. Get familiar with the term "proxy alignment" and the costs involved in those two words. Then spend the next few weeks finding out, "Hey, this doesn't work anymore", "why is my odometer flashing ?" and spend hours troubleshooting.

I've always upgraded the stock radio in all my vehicles. With this Jeep ? Not worth the headache.

 

That's understandable , i went thru the crutchfield for jeep setup and I'm topping out over 400 500 already and at that point on price alone it would almost seems better to just buy another stock head instead to retain all the features, I'm still thinking back in the day radio installation from my old 2004 civic and older cars I have had.

 

I'm still thinking back in the day radio installation from my old 2004 civic and older cars I have had.

I miss them days too. Walk the aisles/shop online, find a radio that gives you the warm fuzzies, buy a bezel and wiring harness adapter if needed, go home and put it in. Them days are gone.

 

This was one of the first mods I did to my Renegade when I bought it. Ditched the U-Connect it came with and put in an aftermarket head unit. I went with a Kenwood but there are many to choose from. My main reason was to get Apple CarPlay which I know the newer models all come with. But there were many benefits beyond that.

The new unit still works with the native backup camera and steering wheel controls - and some of the vehicle-specific info but not all. It shows tire psi and some other random stuff.

I bought the unit off Amazon and had a local car-stereo shop install it for me. Altogether it cost me about $500-600 I think. But I spend like $450 on the head unit and you can probably find a decent one for half that. I think I paid more for a DVD player with tillable screen, but TBH I never use either so I could have probably gotten one for cheaper.

You have to get a certain harness/adapter to make it work with your Renegade, forget what it's called but you should find it easily doing research.

Finally, although I don't subscribe, I'm pretty sure you can get Sirius with it and many others.