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Cars getting older... slowing down adoption of new dashboard technology

I love my 78 Trans Am! Looks like the Bandit vehicle and only the radio was changed out, one with a CD player in it. Also still has the CB radio in there. Best thing I love about is it has no dang computer chip in it!
 
Not a car, but someone on "The Price Is Right" won a a boat this week on the 50th anniversary episode with AM and FM.

Still driving a 1997 Mercury and the only thing I know for sure is this. My 1984 Buick had a button set for 1150 even though the station had changed format, and I pushed it to have an easier time switching to Rush Limbaugh 4 positions to the left, and Charlotte's station at 1150 had really improved its signal. Once that station changed to standards, I listened to it a lot in the Mercury but the interference was far worse when I was driving through the same town where I first made the discovery of the improved signal.
 
My 2011 Escape XLT has 204k on it,it doesn't ride as quiet as it did new but still gets over 30mpg on highway and abt 28 mpg city. As long as the transmission holds up for now, I'll keep her...already had it rebuilt at 192k and the 6F35 transmission is a PITA. If it goes again, found a replacement for less money and 5 yr warranty! The AM/FM/CD has BOSE speakers and sound great except the AM now has uP noise from the ECM in it on certain channels. AM is ok, thinking of try to change IF filter in it for wider bandwidth and maybe add the Motorola two chip AMAX/CQUAM set, when I get time lol.
I got this one used with 20k on it and a year old..mostly highway miles, I think it was rental or fleet vehicle. Got ham gear mounted and antennas on the roof...inside is a little rough but with 7 dogs, what do you expect. I'm actually impressed none of the plastic dash hasn't cracked yet..my previous 96 Chevy S10 did at 180k.
 
MRBIboredop said:
well there are still a lot of Lilith Fair bootleg CD's out there I guess.... and Indigo Girls CD's.... and Melissa Etheridge CD's
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You rip your own MP3 CDs now. 7 hours plus depending on bitrate. I know, 20-year old tech, but it still works at the push of a button, and my 2007 vehicle has it along with XM.
 
I still have "mix tape" cassettes I made nearly 40 years ago, although I never called them that. I used to go in the production room of our college radio station with a bunch of vinyl albums with songs I liked, and just segue them into the cassette deck.

Finding the right song, at the right length, for the end of one side of the cassette, and hoping the tape didn't run out...now that took some backtiming.
 
landtuna said:
Easier to rip to a USB stick. Not as easy to damage and it will never get stuck in the CD drive.
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True, but not available in my 2007 ride. I do have an 1/8'' audio input, so I could use a phone or other audio player, but there's that pesky setup situation again. This is why AM/FM and satellite are still forefront in most cars. Simplicity of operation.
 
Just tune your radio to 87.9 MHz and listen to how many people in passing cars are still using FM modulators. It's not an insignificant amount.

Which puzzles me, because all the way back in 1993, VW's car radios already had a direct input jack. Why did it take so long for others to catch up?

cp045581-stock-aux-input-deluxe-radio-head-unit-vw-93-99-jetta-golf-gti-mk3-357-035-152-f.jpg
 
kevtronics said:
Which puzzles me, because all the way back in 1993, VW's car radios already had a direct input jack. Why did it take so long for others to catch up?
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I suspect part of the reason was to upsell radios with tape and CD players built in. If they offered a cheap radio that was only AM/FM with line in, some people would have just went with that and connected their own portable tape and CD players.
 
spunker88 said:
I suspect part of the reason was to upsell radios with tape and CD players built in.
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Or remember when they had an optional CD changer in the trunk? Luckily on many radios you can get an adapter cable to use the CD changer input as a line input. Some even have adapters to connect to a smartphone and use the car radio's track forward/back buttons to switch tracks on the phone. My sister put one in her 2005 Toyota RAV4.

And in the late '70s and early '80s, some cars came from the factory prewired for CB radio... those were the days!
 
kevtronics said:
Just tune your radio to 87.9 MHz and listen to how many people in passing cars are still using FM modulators. It's not an insignificant amount.
Click to expand...

I use 88.3 on my car radio for my ancient SiriusXM unit -- the one that puts out a signal that can be heard the length of a football field -- and find it swamped by a signal from another car at some point in my drive more often than not. I usually look beside me and in the rear view when that happens and sometimes see an aggravated driver staring and stabbing at HIS radio! No surprise there, since most of those other cars appear to have uncensored rap or reggaeton playing, while I'm listening to (and transmitting) country music or sports play-by-play!
 
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