After renting dozens of new cars in the last year it struck me as odd that the factory stereos can’t do two simple things: (1) bring an aux input out to the front of the dashboard for plugging in an MP3 jukebox, and (2) read a CD containing MP3 files. These features would only add about $1 to the cost of the car and presumably would give MP3-crazed yupsters a reason to trade in their older vehicle. You’d think that the car companies would jump at this chance to add value without adding cost. Why aren’t they doing it? And as long as they are tweaking their electronics you’d think that they would add remote start, something that would cost them $2 max and that consumers are willing to pay $400 for in the aftermarket.
[My favorite rental cars: Chrysler 300 sedan from Hertz in Yellowknife, Ford Freestar minivan from Hertz in Anchorage (rented a mountain bike and kept it in the back; Alex loves the space to spread out), Toyota Avalon (redesigned for this year) from Hertz in Jackson, Wyoming, nimble Mazda 6 from Hertz in Oakland, California.
The worst rental cars: various Pontiacs (GM had better hope that no potential customer ever test-drives a Chrysler 300), a Ford Escape SUV presented by Hertz of Quebec City as an “upgrade” from a Taurus (incredibly bumpy and ineffective suspension).]
I’ve got an older Aiwa CD-MP3 deck that I chose for its ability to play MP3 CDs. It also came with an aux input on the face, which has turned out to be the much more useful of the two features.
I’m sure part of the problem stems from removable faces being fairly shallow–the stereo jack is probably something of a pain to fit in that package.
The Honda Element has the jack, and my new Toyota Sienna has one, but only for the rear seat audio system. Neither car plays MP3 audio CDs, which is monumentally frustrating.
The Avalon is sweet I am told, my good friend works at Toyote where many middle management sorts there have eschewed their free Lexus for Avalons. My buddy just bought a new one (he did get a nice discount) and is enamored with it, telling me its the nicest vehicle he’s ever owned.
The Toyota Echo’s factory stereo reads MP3 CDs.
Actually, the Honda Element *does* play MP3 CDs. So it fits both of your criteria.
Dunno the answer, but maybe if the car stereos were all made in China the extra expense would only add 50 cents to the manufacturing. Perhaps you can write a business plan for some future entrepreneur on that one.
The real problem is the time from design to market in the auto biz is 3-5 years. So when MP3s were first taking off (2000-2002) many current cars were on the drawing board. By the time they figure out AUX/MP3 access, we’ll want something else. Like WiFi access to our car’s MP3 player, so we can load it up while it’s in the garage.
I’d be happy with just a AUX audio input, that would let me plug in iPod. 60G storage > swapping out CDs or even greater density DVDs.
Of course, the WiFi sync hookup deal in conjunction with “jukebox” car audio would even be sweeter. But what would Hillary Rosen and the RIAA do about the ensuing fad of passing the idle time stuck in traffic by exchanging your digital music collection with adjacent motorists?
Toyota Scion plays MP3; the owner’s manual even shows how the “next track” buttons navigate the directory tree.
“MP3-crazed yupsters” go to an electronics store and pick out something more 3l337 than what came standard in the car. Something with more bass and an LCD display with lots of color and animation.
Maybe you should design the CD equivalent of those fake-cassette adapters that let you feed any audio into a tape-deck.
most audio conscious people take the stock stereo system and toss it into the garbage where it belongs.
Car manufacturers are run by primarily by old un-hip white men. A new audio tech needs take off and become a sure-thing before these oldies finally realize they can make money exploiting it. like some sadi before, what should take 6 months to integrate takes 3-5 years to hit the market.
…and don’t forget that “MP3” means that they play at 64kbps max, play them warbly (‘warbly’ is too a real word!) and forget which song they’re playing the moment you turn the car off…
hey petep, mp3 may be lossy, but we’re talking about car audio here. Even when you’re rolling down the road at 10mph there is enough backgroung noise to mask whatever difficiencies there are in the mp3. And if Im not mistaken you can compress/play them at 256k, its just that the file size is larger.
btw, my alpine Mp3 player remembers both the song and the time when I turn my ignition off.
The missing feature I’ve always wanted on a car stereo is a “Compress” button. Press it and it compresses the dynamic range of a CD (or maybe an MP3) so that you’re not constantly adjusting the volume control or getting blasted by loud passages. It’s not particularly essential or useful for the majority of popular rock/rap/country product that emerges from the media conglomerates, as that’s already compressed for maximum volume has little use for dynamic range to begin with. But it would be extremely valuable (and possibly even life-saving) for classical, opera, jazz, Broadway cast recordings, and any other “niche” music that has dynamics.
My 2001 Ford Focus CD stereo does have audio compression (i.e. volume leveling), which also adjusts to background noise levels, I think. However, it works badly enough that I leave it off.
Even the bottom-of-the-line 2004 Toyota Echo stereo we have reads MP3 CDs.
No input jack on either of them, though, and that’s something they should have added decades ago, really, or as soon as the mini-stereo jack became standard for input. It would have made plugging CD players into cassette-equipped stereos far easier, long before the popularity of MP3.
Take it one step further, just put bluetooth in there. what is going to happen when I want to play songs from my bluetooth phone through the radio? Maybe then apple will make a bluetooth iPod. Or somebody else?
Things are even worse in the high end market. The new Audis, for instance, not only have no aux-in jack. The entire audio system is optical. Yes, fibre links from the CD changer to the head unit. Because you know, a car is so quiet you could hear the distortion of line-level audio signals, so optical clearly performs better. Anyway the result is even the weird aftermarket iPod integration solutions don’t work. Someone’s trying though: http://www.densionusa.com/icelink_fibre_info.htm
I think the basic problem is a close-mindedness that the car electronics are a “complete solution” that of course no consumer would want to augment. The fact that this closed architecture helps the car companies sell components for 4x their cost reinforces this.
There are a couple of solutions to your problems. First, BMWs and Cooper Minis now have an optional iPod interface that can be installed at the dealership. Doesn’t allow you too much choice, but if you are fashion conscious enough to drive a Bimmer, I am guessing that you bought the iPod and not one of the ugly clones.
Also, the Ford Focus that I rented recently from had an in dash 10 (or maybe 6) disk changer that played MP3 cds. That worked out to having a huge amount of music at my finger tips. The interface did not work well and it was nearly impossible to find the music I was looking for, but it was better than swapping CDs every hour.
gnubbs
Ted Marcus++. I am not letting go of my “old” Creative Zen NX MP3 player. The “Smart Volume” (AGC+multiband compressor+limitter) feature does the job as very well. It makes it much more fun to listen to it on planes, trains and automobiles. And perfect for a playlist of singles, with it turned off, I’d be putting the volume up and down with every track, which gets quite boring if you use it at your desk all day.
Too bad they dropped it from their new versions and the iPod doesn’t have it either. Come on, Apple!
The new MINI’s have both MP3 reading CD players and AUX input jacks. I play my MP3’s on my Treo all the time, hardly ever have conventional radio on. If I want to put up with 56kbps streams, I can also stream Internet radio stations whilst I’m driving too!
-James.
Because the AUX jack removes their ability to offer the trunk-CD-changer option or other such audio features that the dealer installs at massive amounts of markup. Sure you can always rip out the radio and put a new one in, but the AUX jack makes it immediately obvious that you don’t have to spend any money on the dealer’s inflated-markup crap.
I was shopping for a new car about a year ago. I looked at pretty much every model sedan in the 15-20k range. The only ones that came with an AUX-in on the dash were Nissan. All of the other salesmen just gave me confused looks.
About half of the models I looked at had built in MP3 decoders available, but I don’t remember exactly which models. I wasn’t too concerned with this as I just wanted to plug in my iPod.
I have an Aireo mp3 player (wifi and FM transmission) – not exactly an ipod but who would really want one?
http://www.soniqcast.com/site/productspecs.html
There are at least two aftermarket cd-recievers
that have a) usb port, b) aux_in and c) play
mp3’s.
I just put one in my car and I’m still
trying features out. I’ve had some difficulty
with the usb (it seems it has difficulty
with some mp3 files) and some cd mp3’s (a few
tracks on one cd had a low freaquency click).
The aux in is (as someone stated) the most
flexible option (so far).
Oh, and it cost 99$ over the internet, so I
think the car manufacturers could spring
for them.
Apple should enter the car audio market.
Recently I was presented with an investment opportunity for a startup with a high-fi over bluetooth solution, including a car – mp3 player interface. I passed on the grounds that there is no market for it. I still think you couldn’t make money on it.
That’s easy Phil. Greed. It would cut into their bottom line. There are not enough people that would find added value to those features. Besides, look at the gas mileage on the typical pick-up truck: 14 city 18 highway. Shit, the gas mileage for a truck was better in the late 80’s than it is now. Ever wonder why? Have you ever heard of the External Combustion engine, and when it was first designed and tested? Answer the later and the former will become clear as a Bush.
I took the liberty of forwarding your comments to John Heinricy’s blog. He’s the design director of GM. It seems that they are already doing what you ask on some of their cars and have made it a point of pride on their new Solstice roadster. See all comments at
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2005/07/diary_of_a_high.html#comments
J.
Nineteen years ago, I bought a Panasonic cassette deck for my new ’87 Civic. I chose that particular deck because portable CD players were quite new, and this deck had a front-panel AUX IN. In 1986.
So you would think that this would be a solved problem by now….
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The 2006 and newer Saturn Vues play MP3s and have the aux jack on the face of the radio…
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