nothing beats the Empeg VFD at night in a convertible. you simply havent lived until you experience that.

Heh, if the secret CES deal was with VW/Audi, they could redo the wonderful "Pink Moon" Cabriolet ad! Hmmmm. Doubt they have a booth at CES, though!

That being said, I want the unit to talk more (which is a work in progress thanks to 3rd party efforts) , talking GPS, talking OBD, listening to commands (even if it doesnt work on the open road, the option is nice!)

Interesting point. The player doesn't permit mixing of AUX input with player output at this point, right? So would you add a separate speaker output or modify some basics to create a mixer functionality?

I imagine scenarios where the empeg tells me, "You are exceeding 65 mph, please be careful", and then play some hot speeding tunes!"

Did a gravel rally up in BC last weekend and I joked to our group that I had a female friend record a 10-second WAV reminder that repeated (gently) "Drop...throttle...oversteer!!......." and that I could play on muddy, twisty sections. I didn't really, but I may next time!

I want more in-car effects and management of mp3s.

Don't you want to manage your MP3s indoors late on a rainy night?