My new car has no CD player :-(

I wanted all the new safety features....back up camera, blind spot monitor, etc., so I got my 2016. Then I realized I'm too set in my ways to use those new safety features exclusively. Sigh.

 

A year ago I bought a new stereo system for my Hyuandai Elantra. It wasn't until after it was installed that I realized it did not have a cd player. There's an impression on the faceplate that looks like a cd player, but like pockets on most women's clothing, it's just for show.
I was ticked for a second.
I'll be honest: I don't miss it. I love having tons of music available on my iPhone and iPod. AND no more worrying about CDs getting stuck in the player (which is what prompted me to change the stereo...).

 

The new Audis might. I had one as a loaner car and believed that it supported CD quality FLAC. It also had a CD/DVD-V player mounted in the glove box. It would be a great location if my arm length was that of Lebron James.

Ironically, my 2014 Audi has the CD/DVD player in the traditional spot, but only contains inputs for 2 SD cards that support 320 AAC/MP3 tops. No USB port of AUX connection. It came with a cable connector for a 30 pin iPod though, which I use with an old out of service iPhone.

 

I don't know, but mine will support lossless wma. If I keep this car, I will soon create a wma copy of my collection just for the car, but i'm in no hurry. 320 kbps mp3 works fine there, even if I can hear the difference. Besides, .wma is on it's way out. It's OK, but no one really uses it.

 

It's a matter of priorities.

To get faintly crazy, would you want a car that was completely and absolutely dependable, but had no front windshield? How about if the driver's seat had a bottom "cushion" that felt like the seat was stuffed with bricks at odd angles? "Dependable transportation" ain't all of it.

I have a perfectly fine car, actually an excellent one, that has a six-CD changer that also plays data CDs loaded with MP3 files. Over time I've made about twenty (usually themed) 320kbps MP3 CDs that will each play for a bit over five hours. And I have a lot of fun cooking up one of those discs. With some random play, any given six-CD set can go a long, long time before I need to swap one or two discs out.

That said, roughly a year and a half ago I had a significant birthday, and I decided to pick up an additional car. I've been watching this car audio stuff, been extremely disappointed with the way things are going--even while understanding that car makers need to sell cars and too many consumers aren't really even sure what a CD is any more. So I bought a used 2013 E-Class with a six-disc CD/DVD-V/DVD-A/DTS changer with 5.1 surround sound capability--Harman Kardon, also including "Logic 7" to add surround ambience to two-channel sources. (In 2014, the same car had only a single disc player.) More than that, the car has an (old style) iPod connector, Bluetooth, USB (lossy formats only), aux connector, an SD slot in the dash (lossy formats only), and can rip standard CDs (at 256kbps) to its internal 10 gig hard drive. Needless to say, the car is a real audio playground for me. The 64 gig SD card I have in place can hold a bit over 90 of my MP3 "CD" discs, and each time I make such a disc I add it to the SD card.

But what I really do, is rip multi-channel SACDs via PS3, or now OPPO, into multi-channel waves, then burn those waves to multi-channel DVD-A discs. Works a treat. Consider it the "hands-on" approach that suits my nature. If I have a long, long drive ahead of me, I'll "aux" up my Pono, with a suitable playlist--which gets powered via the USB.

Oh, it's a reliable ride too. Even has a front windshield...and a driver's seat I can actually sit in.


Pretty much all "new" cars for sale now? No sale.

 

I recently bought a Civic EX-T without a CD player. Don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. Loading up a pole of cd's on a 128 gig USB stick is tedious but worth it in the long run. It's nice not having to deal with a couple cases full of cds while driving. Can now browse my collection through my steering wheel or by simply using voice commands.

 

My 2017 Nissan Rogue has the standard system, which includes a CD player, SiriusXM radio, AM/FM radio, Bluetooth, Aux in and USB. I don't use the CD player all that often, but would miss it if I didn't have it.

Sometimes I want to hear an album instead of a bunch of random tracks.

 

According to my Manual it's an alpine system , it was an upgrade Rally california pack or something like that , it does have a cd player , i may call the Dealer & ask them ...... That's the only thing i don't like about it is via usb/memory stick it will only read mp3 , thanks !

 

That's crazy it takes that long , my stick in my Dodge dart fires up pretty much 2 seconds after firing the car up ........... that would Drive me nuts .

 

No i am saying that even though a usb stick contains thousands of albums, i find it more restrictive than cds as you're stuck with those thousands albums while with cds i can just purchase a cd on the go and it's plug and play.
I have no way of ripping a cd and put it on an usb drive when i travel.

 

I do not understand your logic, but OK...

If you don't have a laptop or tablet with a portable disc drive, I understand.

 

One of my beefs too. Sure I can load hundreds of tracks to a USB stick, but my car only plays them in either Shuffle, or Alpha order. Can't hear an album in the sequence it was originally arranged

 

One of my beefs too. Sure I can load hundreds of tracks to a USB stick, but my car only plays them in either Shuffle, or Alpha order. Can't hear an album in the sequence it was originally arranged

 

Between the back-up camera, the wing mirror, and the mirror in the cab, I can now get three distorted views of what's happening.

 

Horrible things don't count. VW used to make a selling point of still having proper spares (at least when I bought my Passat). Now they charge extra for a proper spare where they will fit.

 

The brand name deals with the car makers have little to do with the head units in most cases. Alpine's name is on it and they may have had some involvement in speaker selection and amplification, but the head unit is Harman. Same for the Meridian system in the wife's RR and Bose in her last MB.

 

The only thing missing is someone to drive it for you so that you can immerse yourself in the sound!

 

That's it. I want the choice of how to listen to my music. I want all options available within reason.

 

many new cars have no CD players, and many do not even offer CD players as an option.

 

Wow. That seems like an excessive amount of time to scan the USB stick. The largest I have used is a 64 gb and it is over 2/3 full. It only takes about 10 - 15 seconds to read it when starting up.

One frustration is sometimes it remembers what track was playing previously and resumes and other times it starts playing the first track of the first album on the stick. Not sure why it loses its place sometimes.

Like I said if you have a lot of albums on the stick it does take patience to scroll through and find the one you want. Not really any other way to do it that I have found.

 

Next year's BMWs are getting a redesign so I wouldn't be surprised if they remove the CD player in those.

 

I am curious about rentals in the U.K. and Ireland. I haven't rented an economy car there in ages but hope they have an AUX jack instead of a CD player. We are loading up our phones with songs and hope we will be able to use that, but if the car doesn't have the AUX jack, we will likely buy a Bluetooth speaker somewhere.

Does anybody have insight on economy rentals in that neck of the woods?

 

That's just not right, IMO. It really should be an option if they aren't offering it standard.

 

2015 Civic. Has everything but Sirius/xm. Don't use the CD player all that much, but glad as hell to have it when I do. It also plays mp3 discs which as mentioned above are fun to make.

Usually, listen to apple music streaming thru Bluetooth. THis is ok when I'm zipping around town but for road trips- no blue tooth, I use a cord and AUX. The sounds is noticeably better and I much prefer this when doing extended listening on long drives.

USB will take my IPOD classic which is nice, I also have a flash drive filled with mp3s that I keep on shuffle when I want a radio experience.

Plan on keeping this car until 2022. By then CD players will be out of cars. IPODs (classic models anyway) are no longer produced, and mine may be dead by then. This means I can only play lossless through stored files on my phone. Right now I have a 16g IPhone and I stream out of it, there is no actual music on it. By then, I'll have a different phone with more storage and I can certainly put lossless files on it. I just hope there is still an AUX jack so my lossless playback isn't limited to Bluetooth.

I rarely listen to lossless in the car. But I like having the option.

I love all this new tech, I love that I can listen to pretty much anything I want anytime, but I am a little leery as well....

 

LOL, you guys... I'm almost 60 and I'm not getting this post..

What do you need a CD player for? Just put that shti on a thumbdrive and plug it into the USB port. 10,000 songs with album art on the dash display right at your fingertips and selected by voice if you want...

Yup no cassette or 8-track options either...