I'm picking up my Mini Cooper S Convertible tomorrow, with the Harman Kardon sound system. I plan to bring it to the local car audio specialist within days to install an Empeg sled in it while they install the alarm (not included on U.S. models). I do not plan to use my Empeg tuner; I'm going to keep it in my classic Cooper and use my new Mini's tuner, with the Empeg hooked up to the aux input of the Mini/HK system.

I see from searching that the P.A.C. SWI-X interface allows you to use factory steering-wheel controls with the Empeg by converting them to IR. I also see, from their website, that the SWI-X is compatible with the Mini's steering wheel controls, and, as near as I can tell, the Kenwood units. Finally, I see that the Empeg accepts the signal from a Kenwood remote without requiring one to hack a kernel. This is good news because the last time I tried to hack a kernel I had no luck getting it to work. (I am not a complete idiot - I do have Hijack running - but apparantly I am more of an idiot than I think.) So my thought is that if I get the Pacific unit, I can make it transmit the Kenwood signal, and thereby get my factory steering-wheel control to work with the Empeg without having to mess with the config.ini file. Most importantly, I want to be able to enter the MP3 menu (genre, artist, song) from the steering wheel. Will this work? Please help me, as I am extremely excited to get my Empeg installed in my first-ever brand new car, and will run out and buy this Pacific unit as soon as humanly possible if it will do what I need!

Thank you in advance for all your help.