Augh – Car shopping is so frustrating!

[Isaac Zachary]

The car senses the changes in the shifter just fine (how would it shift seeing how it's all electronic as a single speed hybrid transmission). Plus the infotainment stuff acts like it's both in gear and in park at the same time and also won't do some things that should be possible in both (like pair with already paired devices). So I doubt it's just a selector switch.

The radio control unit just by itself is $2,800 new. I can't seem to find any used. So swap what system and with what are the questions I would have.

[freebeard]

I pulled the original AM-FM radio from my Superbeetle, filled the hole with a blanking plate and sold it for 1% of the car's price. The Dasher and the XFi have radios but I never turn them on.

My favorite sound system was the Notchback's 40mm Solexes with K&N air filters. Sounded like Gabriel's trumpet.

[redpoint5]

I removed the turbo silencer on the Cummins. Music to the ears.

When I'm driving alone, 80% of the time it's podcasts, and 20% audio book.

The girl has a lot of music history to catch up on though, so when with her we explore the classics. When I started listening to music, I only had 3 decades of rock and roll to discover.

[freebeard]

I started with Bill Haley & The Comets -- Rock Around The Clock. ....and Chuck Berry.

I had a 146 Ford in college, with the flathead V-8. The muffler was shot, but with the long runners in the block the idle was sweet but it didn't get loud when it revved up.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

I remember seeing some adaptors which enabled cassette players to play media from digital devices.

Unfortunately by the 00's most cars in the USA replaced cassette players with a CD player. My 2004 Astro has a head unit with a CD player but no AUX in so I just throw a portable bluetooth speaker on the dash

I could just replace the head unit with a modern one with carplay and android auto but I'm too cheap to spend the money.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by JSH

Unfortunately by the 00's most cars in the USA replaced cassette players with a CD player. My 2004 Astro has a head unit with a CD player but no AUX in so I just throw a portable bluetooth speaker on the dash

I could just replace the head unit with a modern one with carplay and android auto but I'm too cheap to spend the money.

Or get a Bluetooth to FM transmitter and tune to an unused frequency.

... I just saw a thread on a Chevy S-10 forum where a guy tore into his dash, tore into the head unit, and then wired in his own AUX in to the stock unit. He drilled a hole in the fascia to mount the stereo plug.

https://www.s10forum.com/threads/how...-heavy.510517/

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by JSH

Unfortunately by the 00's most cars in the USA replaced cassette players with a CD player.

Last time I saw a car radio with a cassette player at a shop was in 2008, yet a CD player was already the usual in Brazil too. I remember some Chinese copies of the Suzuki Carry microvan featuring a simple AM/FM radio, but I really don't remember if they had any AUX input.

My 2004 Astro has a head unit with a CD player but no AUX in so I just throw a portable bluetooth speaker on the dash

I could just replace the head unit with a modern one with carplay and android auto but I'm too cheap to spend the money.

I can relate to that. When those portable MP3 players became popular in my country, and nearly no car radio had a suitable AUX input, either driving with earphones or working around a speaker were the options.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Last time I saw a car radio with a cassette player at a shop was in 2008,

The CD player was released in the year of my birth (year of the Gipper). It amazed me how slowly the auto industry adopted new tech. How long were we playing MP3s before the industry adopted that as standard? MP3s were dead by the time they adopted it. The auto industry has always been a decade behind the times, which is what allows room for a company like Tesla to come in. A competitive market like auto manufacturing is no place for conservatism, except one needs just enough of it to survive. Keep the baby, and discard the bathwater, as appropriate.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Or get a Bluetooth to FM transmitter and tune to an unused frequency.

I tried that in the 00's with poor results. To many FM stations and other people with FM transmitters. I wonder if one would work today now that cars have had AUX inputs for more than a decade?

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The CD player was released in the year of my birth (year of the Gipper). It amazed me how slowly the auto industry adopted new tech. How long were we playing MP3s before the industry adopted that as standard? ....

The problem with adopting technology on the cutting edge of change is knowing what tech will win and become mainstream and what will just be a flash in the pan and then die. 8-tracks and mini-discs come to mind.

[redpoint5]

HD radio has been out since 2002, and hardly any cars have those tuners.

It surprised me how quickly cars incorporated XM or Sirius receivers though, and that required the added expense of an extra antenna on the roof. I don't know anyone that used those services either, so it all seemed like a waste. I wonder how much of an MPG hit those millions of cars with unutilized shark fin antennas have?