On to the beginning of December.
I bought a Sony XAV-AX100 for this (and one for my Subaru as there was a good deal on eBay).
Fitted the Subaru one first as that was easier. Nothing exciting, but had to trim some of the fascias to make it fit.
I then moved on to fitting one to the van the following weekend.
It took a couple of mornings to fit all the brackets, trim the dash, and get it wired in nicely. Tested a few times, removed and replaced a few times to tidy things up, and it started to look decent. Seemed to work just fine, nothing unusual.
Tidied everything up, left it on while I was doing something else. A few minutes later it all went quiet.
After that, it refused to make any sound. There was power, but apart from a bit of static at start up, there was no sound at all.
I spent three full days in October swapping radios, wiring, everything. Both the Sony's would work in the Subaru, neither in the van. The original radio would work. After a few days of this, I realised the drivers door speaker had stopped working. I then checked continuity and all the wires checked out.
In desperation I went to Halfords and bought another radio.
This behaved the same as the Sony's with one exception. After a couple of minutes it threw up a message about an amplifier error. This suggested a wiring issue somewhere.
This was at the end of October, and I was driving to Cologne, Germany in a week. I was getting desperate so tracked down an automotive electrician who could look at it in a few days.
Perfect. I could put it back together, tidy up the other wiring, then leave it with him for a day.
I refitted the radio, and tried it hopefully. Nothing.
So I set about repairing the wiring, which was simply a 12v feed and ground that had been used for the plethora of other stuff I'd removed.
Refitted the dash parts, and turned everything on to make sure it would work. Started the van, and the ****ing radio worked!!!

I have no idea what I fixed, but the radio has now been working perfectly since the beginning of November.
To Germany and back, a few wiring changes, it hasn't given a moments problems.
November was a write off in terms of progressing. I was away for a week (in this), then had a member of staff off for two weeks paternity, then I was away for a week at another show.
This brings us to the middle of December.