I'm looking for something that will handle at least the 70cm and 2m bands, perhaps 6m and 10m too.  A lot of the ones I've seen have really small buttons, which looks like it would be impossible to use while driving.

I only want it to take up half the height of the radio cutout in the car because I want the other half for CD/radio/MP3.

Thanks!

It's not a good idea to stick a transceiver in the dash due to ventilation issues.  
A Yaesu 8900 fits your description and has a detachable faceplate so you can mount the radio in a well-ventilated place and the faceplate in the dash.  The only issue is the 10m portion of the radio is FM only, which is pretty much useless.





http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=106&encProdID=0C4855ADE6394D514EAABAE148B93F5C&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0



I'd suggest saving your money and going with an 8800.  



 

The Dual Band radio of preference here appears to be the 8800 Link
 
It's big Brother, the 8900 will do all 4 bands as you mentioned.  Link

Neither of those have backlit buttons, that may/not be an issue? The Ham Station has those both as factory repacks for a good deal of savings-YMMV.

The Alinco 635T was recently reviewed here on ARFCOMM.  Link to Radio This unit comes in as the lowest priced rig avail-that I've found.  Review Link

The Kenwood TM-V71a is still my choice, though the funding isn't there right now. Link I believe the buttons are backlit on the model.

This is a link to Universal Radio, I'm not encouraging you to shop there, but they make it easy to look at all models avail.

All of the units above have a detachable face-a nice feature IMO.

Hope this helps!  Whatever you do-remember that most if not ALL vendors will price match!

and QTH usually has some great deals if your shop around and know what you are looking for and willing to spend Link

ETA: if you were to purchase a detach face unit, you could place it under your CD/Radio and mount the brains where they can breathe (see comment above from RHCP)

get a unit with a small separable head, and mount the RF portion out of the way.

ar-jedi

Ramline mount?

––> RAM RAP-B-102 (RAM DBL. BALL MNT W/ DIAMOND BASES)
––> RAM RAP-326 (RAM EZY-MOUNT QUICK RELEASE ADAPTER SYSTEM)

ar-jedi

Is there any 6m and 10m FM activity in your area? The DX work on these bands are on CW  and SSB. The quad band rigs are all FM. They price out very close to an FT-857 160m-70cm all mode rig.

If you are just a tech starting out you have all of 6m and some 10m SSB. It gives you a rig to grow into as you upgrade.

FT-857 or IC706mkIIg

10m and 6m are mostly SSB,  not FM

You might as well take the plunge into mobile HF.

I work a lot of worldwide DX on 20m, 17m, 15m, mobile

I don't know about other areas but we have plenty of DX on our local FM repeater. Kind of a niche thing but more than enough try to hit distant repeaters when 10 opens up. FM is way more popular in Europe than it is here on 10 meters.

This. I have an IC-706mkIIg in my truck and it does everything I want including FM on 10 and 6.

This.
Radio in trunk









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Head unit in cabin









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Speaker under dash









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Be sure to bond the trunk, hood, & doors.










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If you use a trunk lid mount, make sure to bond it also (I used a short length of desoldering wick).







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If I recall according to Ar-Jedi Icom 7000 is always the right answer for mobile radios.