Jackie, yes you must replace the wire with an adapter. You can do it one of two ways. 1 you can purchase an after market wire harness and connect it to your cars stereo harness with no problems. keep in mind that you must also let a steroids installation kit for the particular model of vehicle you own. I recommend getting information from Auto Zone or another auto shop that can get you what you need. 2. you can cut out your cars original wire harness and re-wire it using the adapter that will come with the stereo you purchased. The drawback is having to re-wire it from scratch so my reccomendation is to get a wire harness that matches your make and model. Good Luck and I hope this helps. Please rate my answer.