Well, firstly welcome to SAU, Now regarding the cd player, i'm afraid i can't shed much light there, as my R34 had a replaced headunit when i bought it. But as far as the lighting goes, there isn't supposed to be any "ambient" lighting to show off the gear stick/surround, dare i say it would be assumed that if you can drive a manual, you can do so without looking down at the stick? If however, you have an auto, i believe the gear selector should light up at the selected gear, although i could be mistaken.