I have been searching for a new stereo with an front mounted AUX plug for my 6 different devices to plug into. I can’t believe how hard it is to find. What are the manufacturers afraid of?

It should have been on every head made in the last ten years. How many people use the stupid cassette intreface modules?

It’s is some kind of scam, I just can’t figure out why. I found some cheap off brand stuff that has the plug, maybe I’ll take a chance on one of them.

The iPod thingy is nice but it’s just another way for somebody to tell me what I should plug into my car. Just got my hands on a cheap Creative MP3 player (MuVo Tx, the 256K version) and it works fine with said cassette adpater, but still.

I also never understood why automakers didn’t slap in the audio for VHF television channels into their stereos. My old Radio Shack/Sangean personal radio has them, and–again with the cassette adapter–I was once able to follow the US Open (golf) all the way from Washington DC to the Outer Banks by switching from one channel to another, all the way down.

Got to try the new FM transmitters. The first-generation ones were terrible.

No doubt that a full dock for the iPod would be cooler, but you get 80% of the way there with just the audio in jack. The iPod sounds great in her new car – one download to the shuffle easily keeps her in tunes for a week of driving.

By the way: an old Altoids tin is just the size to hold the iPod Shuffle and the connecting cable when not in use – and hide them from thieving eyes.

You should really be ranting at the device makers for not coming up years ago with a universal connector like the iPod’s. It’s their fault you beg for the scrap of bread that is the 1/8″ jack.

Although, for me, just an AUX plug isn’t enough. If I want to shuffle through songs on thePOD, I don’t want to have to look down and scroll through the dog-gone thing. I want it there to be some integration with the steering wheel stereo controls, so I can skip to the next song, just like I do with the built-in CD player. That’s just my $0.02.

But they meanly relegated it to the higher trim level. The LX doesn’t have it while the EX does. Similarly, the newest Prius has Aux-in–a 39 cent part–available as part of a add-on package only.

Those monsters!!!

/grumble

Was it *the* deciding factor? Probably not, but I’m with you Jeff – four years on you’d think that car (and in-dash stereo manafacturers) would have caught a clue by now.

In my old VW, I used to have another Sony deck with a mini jack on the front panel. Regrettably, they don’t make anything anymore with that feature, otherwise I would have bought it.