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My phone NEVER connects properly and if I want to use it for streaming, I have to spend 2-3 minutes connecting it every time. This has always been the case. Past 3 cards, past 6 phones.

Now-a-days I load up a small flash drive for the car with a small sampling of what I want to listen to. I have another one at home and "Swap" them from time to time with new things. That way it's not overloaded, doesn't take 2 minutes to load up. So it's very much like a mix CD or the mp3 CDs I would burn a couple of decades ago.

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I have an aftermarket head unit for my pre-infotainment car that's worked perfectly for Bluetooth since the day I got it. Given my experiences elsewhere, I'm convinced the problem with car Bluetooth isn't the Bluetooth, it's the car manufacturer's code

Mine connects 100% of the time. Pause works 99% of the time. The other 1% of the time it invokes "redial last number".

I have a two VWs, ‘17 and ‘19. Both connect flawlessly with bluetooth and wired carplay (no wireless carplay on these though)

Phone sound is also much better than cheap headphones or speaker. No latency issues (unless it’s Google Meet)

I have a microSD card in the phone, and it's great. When it works.

When it doesn't, the CD always works. Always. But one does get sick of that CD.

Bluetooth sucks.

> the CD always works

Unless it doesn't.

In the 2011 Ford Focus my wife and I had, the stereo would lock up, stop responding to input, and play the same 1/4 second on repeat until you cut power.

I used to have a car with a tape player in it. No CD player.

But I got a kit that was meant to give that the ability to play CDs, which consisted of a CD player and an adapter where one end plugged into an audio output jack and the other end was an imitation cassette that went into the tape drive.

It was great. I used a tiny screenless mp3 player and plugged the tape adapter into it. Worked beautifully except for the fact that I couldn't charge the mp3 player in the car. But I could easily organize whatever music I wanted for the car on that mp3 player, and since it was screenless it could be operated by feel.

A friend of mine was proud, once, that his new car included an audio input jack in the dashboard. That's gone out of fashion now, but frankly it's still the ideal setup.

> A friend of mine was proud, once, that his new car included an audio input jack in the dashboard. That's gone out of fashion now, but frankly it's still the ideal setup.

I haven't shopped for new cars recently and I hope this isn't true! I like to listen to audio books and don't really want my phone involved. While AUX jacks aren't the only way to do it I like the option.

A 2006 car I had lacked and AUX jack and had a CD player. After experimenting with FM transmitters (beyond horrible) I eventually had to install a new head unit myself. In the past I used to take it to a car stereo place but they had all shutdown by the time I needed them. While there were directions and adapters available it was a pain because I had to tear apart a lot of the dash trim to do it. I ended up wishing it came with a cassette deck because those adapters you mention are cheap and work quite well.

I still have a 2011 car with CD player and no aux jack which doesn't seem to support stereo replacement, or at least it is going to be an even bigger project. But since it can read data CDs full of mp3s I just burn audio books to a few CDs and the swapping is so minimal it isn't a concern.

My wife's car is a 2019 and it seems to have corrected all the wrongs here, it has an aux jack and CD player but it will also read USB sticks. It's actually nice to be able to switch to different systems. Of course I hardly drive it and she mostly listens to audio CDs still!

I had a 2009 that had Bluetooth for the phone hands-free but not for audio. I bought a USB power supply that ran off a cigarette lighter outlet, a USB-powered Bluetooth adapter, and a ground loop isolator. Both the AUX port and a lighter outlet were located inside the console between the front seats.

I stuck that stuff in there, told my phone to connect to the car for phone and the aftermarket adapter for audio, and never worried about it again as long as I owned the car. That power outlet was switched with the ignition, so the phone would disconnect when you turned the car off.

My 2001 car’s aftermarket head unit came with a microphone for Bluetooth phone. I ran it behind the dash and up the A pillar (no pillar airbags) and put the clip for it inside the mini-console with map lights and rear AC controls that’s above the rearview mirror. Works fine and the audio, while not audiophile quality, is more than adequate for podcasts and basic music in a 2001-era car. It’s not nearly as quiet inside as a newer car, but it’s fine for my short commute. Beats the tape adapter and Discman that I used in a 1996 car.

> but frankly it's still the ideal setup

I disagree. I don't like having wires dangling around on the dashboard. I don't want to have to take whatever portable media player out of my pocket/bag/whatever and plug it in and unplug it when I go. I greatly prefer just turning on my car and my portable media player automatically connects. I prefer having the controls of the media player mapped to the physical controls in my car instead of being a separate device someplace in the cabin of the car.

> an adapter where one end plugged into an audio output jack and the other end was an imitation cassette that went into the tape drive

When I was in my teens and early 20s, I used to have a 1997 ford ranger, and this was my setup in it. All I needed to carry was my phone or standalone mp3 player and plug it in, and set it to shuffle, and i was a happy camper. it was a nice little setup, and it was always fun when riding with others (playing the old game of "pass the aux cord")

Of course, now with this setup you'd have to carry a dongle around to achieve the same effect, since (most) new phones no longer have 3.5mm headphone jacks :(

> Of course, now with this setup you'd have to carry a dongle around to achieve the same effect, since (most) new phones no longer have 3.5mm headphone jacks :(

Using a phone would completely defeat the ability to control what's playing without looking. Use a standalone mp3 player. They still have audio jacks.

https://shop.sandisk.com/products/accessories/mp3-players/sa...

hey, this is cool. i had no idea sandisk was making mp3 players these days. thanks!

My 7 year old car has a microSD slot in the radio, which has a 64 GB microSD card that I loaded with music and inserted about 7 years minus 2 days ago.

Thankfully, it remembers where it left off and resumes playing from there, unless I park for so long that it goes into a battery saving mode. Then, it starts again at the top in alphabetical order.

I used to have the same issue, my 2012 Kenwood head unit stopped being reliable w/ phones a few years ago. I did an aux cable for a while, but now have an cheap BT adapter plugged into to aux port and it's super reliable with my phone.

I plan to get rid of the head unit completely to get rid of the screen in my dash, it looks tacky next to the analog clock and magnetic compass.

Wired CarPlay is rock solid. Bluetooth has never, and never, will be as foolproof as a wire, or as Wi-Fi for that matter.

My car bluetooth (2022 Tesla Model 3) is great and reliable, EXCEPT the huge latency. It connects and disconnects when it should, and is fine for audio, but if I want to sit in my car and watch a video (when public charging, when eating, or on my break at work, so a common situation), it literally has about one second of latency making everything completely unwatchable.

> Wired CarPlay is rock solid

Mine always has a sound blip a few (15? 30? I haven't timed it) seconds in whenever I play any song (or at least, the first song when I start playing music). I wish I had a CD player in the car.

This is not true in my case. This year I have been renting various cars to see which is best to replace my current car. Using wired carplay there are random car specific bugs (Google Maps losing tracking and freezing up, spotify crashing requiring to stop and restart the car, etc.) I have tried Ford, Chevy, Mazda, and Hyundai,(Tesla as well but that is not Carplay).

Unless you're in a 2017 VW Polo, then even wired CarPlay can be weirdly flaky. Though that appears to be the ICE system itself losing the plot rather than the connection per se, but I can't be certain. It was quite surprising to come across!

Add my Prius Prime to the list. Nothing but a perfect experience. My phone is too old and hangs often, but closing the phone screen helps a lot.

Of course, wired means you need to plug and unplug a USB a lot more often. And the USB port is the first thing to go on many phones.

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