RDMinor - Actually, that is exactly what I would expect to find. I would bet money that the ribbon cable goes on the the mainboard of the cd changer, and that it simply plugs into a connector. Alot of those types of connections are either push/press fit, or a small flip lever that compress the ribbon cable to make a connection with the pins.

Now, on a bmw forum I found a pictures of an MP3 changer which appears to be almost identical. Notice the connection block.

It would be interesting to see what is behind this players block.

My thinking is that it the specifics for different cars/connections could just all be in those little connection plates, and the internals of these series of cd/mp3 changers are all the same......

Would be a fun project....

 

Not much question that the changer unit is from the same manufacturer and the unit attached to the back is of slightly different construction with an additional input.

The question, I guess, is even if it does connect as you say what would be the result even if one could make the conversion back to a normally operated unit. There's the cost of the unit itself plus any additional connectors, etc. that would be needed and then what would one do with it?