Well,
It has finally happened. The "Coca-Cola" car has seen its last day in my possession. I have been having problems with it lately and had to trade it in. I have traded it in for a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT Red Garnet Automatic w/Spoiler.

I have removed the RIO (of course) and will probably install it into my brother's car since the radio in the Subaru is not removable (the board controlling the radio has the HVAC controls in it).

Damn, DIN is dead.

Bruno

Congrats on the new car! I didn't know that Subaru did that with the new radio... the Imprezas still have DIN.

The Legacy GT is a pretty hot car, but I would have to say I wouldn't buy it because of the stereo/climate control integration. I really don't understand why car companies are doing stuff like this. Their stereos are often made by Pioneer, Alipine, Panasonic, etc. and those companies make single-DIN stereos. They're fighting themselves in a way. At least that's the way is seems to me.

Someone please reboot Tony, he appears confused - can't separate the empegBBS from /.

Yeah, we've got a 2004 Subaru Liberty and there's no chance of removing the original stereo without at least chopping the front panel up and fabricating a new one. I'd guess behind the scenes it's also in an intimate embrace with the aircon and stuff. DIN is definitely on the way out, as CD players and changers are now considered standard in cars rather than an optional extra. Most car buyers don't ever think of upgrading their stereo.

It's sad.

Which is why, if there ever was an empeg Mark III - which I still maintain there is a market for - it would be better as a set of discrete components. A display that you can place anywhere, a control that you can place anywhere, and the hard disk unit with audio out that you can place anywhere. Link them by bluetooth if you're clever and expensive, though serial wire would do. But this idea has been done to death and I don't see anyone leaping up and saying "well, we're working on it...". Which is very saddening.

Still, we've got the great car stereos, why do we have to worry about what might have been?

Paul

agreed.
one word,
Dremel !

Indeed, it's hard to find a new car without a CD player, but there's an increasing aftermarket push coming from XM and Sirius satellite radio as well as the legions of iPod owners who want in-car integration.

Long term, I expect that Bluetooth is going to be the answer. It's got plenty of bandwidth (at least for MP3 files, although pushing a 1.5Mb uncompressed audio stream might be an issue), and it's already gaining support for cel phone integration. You could certainly imagine a standards body including MP3 makers, satellite radio people, cel phone people, and heaven knows who else, defining such a standard. Then, you'd get aftermarket people coming up with integration kits, and so forth.

Hopefully...