Just let me use my iPod or link my smartphone.

Don't need anything else.

I need my CD.

It goes like this folks. You buy a CD once. You have to pay a music service or sirius radio month after month after month year after year. Now you get it.

No, Devil's Son, you buy a CD once and you get 12 songs for $15. Stream Pandora for free and you get a million songs for free. Now you get it.

You don't have to pay a music service or radio. You can buy mp3's without DRM and play those in the car.

Devil's Son, no. You can buy a digital download of an album for less than a physical CD, and both are one-time fees. You put it on your phone and listen to it anywhere with no discs to carry around.

Also, FM radio is still free and included in these new vehicles.

You're trying to find a conspiracy where there isn't one. Nobody under 40 uses CD players anymore. I have had my 2011 Cruze for eight months and have only put one CD in... because I didn't want to toss it on the floorboard.

@Alan - Wrong. I know plenty of people who are under 40 and still own and play cds. What a sweeping, arrogant assumption. You're privy to the listening habits of an entire demographic?

Devil's Son is more right than any of you folks (save JasohH)! If one considers the actual facts and applies reason, the benefits of optical CDs clearly exceed the alternatives. Downloadable music files are size-compressed using psychoacoustic cheating algorithms that must assume that all ears are identical, and worse, are identically average and capable of no better than mid-fidelity. Granted that road noise mitigates the overwhelmingly superior musical quality of optical CD music to some degree, but I, for one, do not only listen while in motion. The quality difference between psychoacoustically compressed music and uncompressed optical CD sound is enormous! Screw that terribly compromised noise!

Also, downloadable files are destroying musicians' artistic gifts by destroying their contexts. Optical CDs always contain the entire album's artistic context, whereas viciously cutting the artists' contributions into only the most popular tracks is well nigh despicable. An overwhelming number of my most beloved and joyous favorites I only encountered after buying the entire CD or vinyl album and listening to ALL of it! You philistines can keep your compressed garbage if you like. I won't fight you for it. But at least admit that only philistines prefer compressed files over pure optical CD sound!

p.s.: And hey, Alan Pugh, I'm nowhere near 40!

I thought this was about a car, not audio codecs?

I've never had a car with a CD player in it, let alone one with an AUX IN jack. As long as they keep that, no one can complain about their favorite device not being supported. And that includes turntables that can run on the car's auxiliary power socket :)

Of course, you'll want a variety of AUX IN jacks besides the 1/8". Optical, HDMI, RCA, banana plugs...

Now ..if they could shed about 10k to 20k off the price maybe I'd be considering a purchase. Inflation in the auto industry of late is out pacing health-care costs I believe. Sticker shock city...Yikes bubble bubble toil and trouble...

stick with cds if you want the true sound of your music,compressed music sucks.

stick with cds if you want the true sound of your music,compressed music sucks.

CD's are compressed just like mp3's, though not as much as some. If you want true uncompressed audio fidelity, break out the turn table. I'll just link my phone to the car with Bluetooth and stream some Slacker.

I'm 46 and I think I've used the CD player in my car less than 5 times in the 5 years I've owned it. All the CDs I own have been loaded into my iTunes library (thousands of hours of music that I've already paid for over many many years). New music I purchase music directly through iTunes. I pay to purchase the music just like I would a CD, but I pay a lower price by avoiding all the costs associated with purchasing physical media. I also can pick and choose what I want to buy if I don't want the whole CD. I then plug my iPod into the auxiliary jack in my car and listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I also download free podcasts from NPR and often will load books onto my iPod to listen to on long car rides.

Who pays $15 for a CD? I don't.

But here is what I won't do - steal music by acting like I can download anything I want for free. It is stealing.

This comparison is clearer for GPS. Buy the GPS box once vs. $10/month on your phone whether you use it or not.

@Spection

what a great post! I was going to say something similar, about the superiority of the full 16 bit/44.1 KHz version found on the original CD versus the really poor compressed mp3/m4a sound files that have taken over, but you said it all far better.

The really sad thing is that the oh-so-smart younger generation who are growing up exposed to nothing but these truly inferior copies (even 128 kbps mp3 is becoming normal now for crying out loud!) are quite literally unable to tell the difference between that and a proper version, even though all the density, brilliance and abundance of detail are entirely absent.

And don't even get me started on vinyl ...

I must be a Neanderthal. The first new car I ever bought had a cassette player.

So, techies, here's a question: Both my vehicles have CD players. How do I patch in an iPod? There is no auxiliary jack.

I wouldn't buy a car without a CD player, but I am an audiophile. Generally speaking, MP3 via handheld and streaming does not have as good resolution resolution due to compression; the problem is that Gen-Y has been too dumbed-down to notice the difference, when everyone thinks in small ADD texts and tweets they have too short of an attention span to notice the obvious differences. The other issue is the source quality of the music itself, modern Hip-Hop is not very musically complex and uses ridiculous vocal modulation - and modern hard rock no longer has vocal range and the guitars are tuned down to frequencies on whales can hear. Don't get me wrong, I like these forms of music also, but like everything else targeted at Gen-Y has been seriously dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator. You can get decent MP3 resolution, but that requires high end processors that would only be supplied in expensive luxury models.

You people are acting as if the production of CDs are coming to a halt. I couldn't help but laugh at Spection's post. I would love to compare his Internet vocabulary with his everyday vocabulary, but what do I know...I'm just a simple Philistine.

Anyways, these companies want to save money (while making more profit) and there is a prevelant push away from CD players. That tends to be how business is conducted: "Out with the old, in with the new." No one is arguing with the quality of sound between the two options; a CD wins every time. The other option is, simply put, more efficient.

Nobody is stopping you from installing a CD player in your car (it's pretty cheap), and no one is preventing you from listening to a CD in your homes.

Now just quiet down and listen to some music in whichever way or form you please, regardless of your age.

Hello, you all talk as if every single person has a "Smart Phone" Not all of us can afford the $70 or more monthly plans to use one of them, None of you are "Smart" enough to realize that using your smart phone for your music costs you that monthly fee you pay for your phone, so you may get free downloads or one tinme cost music, but you still have to pay that monthly cell phone bill to USE IT.

Spection,

"Devil's Son is more right than any of you folks (save JasohH)! Blah, blah, blah psychoacoustic cheating algorithms blah, blah, blah uncompressed optical CD sound blah, blah, blah Also, downloadable files are destroying musicians' artistic gifts by destroying their contexts. Optical CDs always contain the entire album's artistic context, whereas viciously cutting the artists' contributions into only the most popular tracks is well nigh despicable. blah, blah, blah only philistines prefer compressed files over pure optical CD sound!"

Similar argument people made when CDs replaced albums and cassetes. You're supposed to be driving. So, who cares? Although I appreciate the sound quality distinctions you make, most people aren't in their cars long enough for such distinctions to make a difference. Also, whether the musician likes it or not, music, like literature , is post-modern. Therefore, the listener is able to put the song in a different context. Ever heard of an artist's interpretation of another artist's song? Listening to mp3 copies (I know, I know, sacrilege!!!) of 2 artists' interpretations of the same song, I can hear and appreciate distinct differences. Maybe it's from years of playing in a band, but whatever. Rap and Hip Hop is an entire genre built on the very thing against which you rail. Personally, I like being able to take copies of the same song by different artists or hip hop versions and the originals and play them in sequence to compare and better understand the various artists' intended contexts. Something you can't do with a CD in a vehicle.

Musicians shouldn't be worried. We will always need their music in all the various media. The people who should be worried are your modern radio stations. How many of us still listen to them on a regular basis? Especially FM, which has bowed to their corporate overlords.

Tubes rule, transistors drool!

If it ain't glass, the sound don't kick ass.

So, techies, here's a question: Both my vehicles have CD players. How do I patch in an iPod? There is no auxiliary jack.

Angryguy, just google FM Modulator for iPod.

Lets see....I got sucked into 8 tracks, cassettes, and then CD's....I draw the line, no more. I guess they can just keep all the audio equipment out of my vehicle and give me a hefty discount. I will not be bullied into buying the Ipod or Ipad or Iphone. Because then it will just be eclipsed by something else

Yep it's called progress. Enjoy moving back into the cave.

JTM

As you progress in age, you may or may not feel the same way about purchasing your favorite song for the fourth time or so. It might seem wasteful. It might detract from the nostalgia. It might just remind you of how much you've progressed.

Progress? Not really. Goodbye to cover art, goodbye to liner notes. With downloads, information that audiophiles found essential (composer, producer, session musicians, even recording studio and dates) is getting harder and harder to find. I guess to some people, it is just a song they are hearing.

M.J.

Once you own the CD version of the song it does not matter, just rip it from the disk and upload it onto a digital device; problem solved.

The problem is that going from a CD to an MP3 on an iPod is a huge reduction in sound quality. An MP3 is a very compressed signal. On a crappy sound system, or listening through little ear buds, you probably can't tell the difference. But with a good system, believe me, the difference is very noticeable.

Cassettes were better than 8-tracks. CD's were better than Cassettes. So, those were genuine advances. But going from a CD to an iPod is a big step backwards.

EarlyOut:

I'm sorry that what you've ever heard were 64 kbps MP3.

EarlyOut, most peoples ears are not sensitive enough to tell the difference

Wow, Sue-3329001 , you have to buy a new device every 15 years. What a nightmare. How often are you bullied into replacing your underwear?

To the people complaining about quality you can get songs in higher quality formats. Pluis no one has to buy there music again. You have the CD? Just Rip it to your computer in whatever quality you'd like.

I purchase vinyl records for home listening, and virtually every new vinyl record comes with a full MP3 download of the entire album, usually at 320kbps which is near full quality.

The digital MP3 format isn't some newfangled thing... I had my first MP3 player over ten years ago, the Ericsson HPM-10 that attached to my t28w cell phone and used MMC cards. I also grabbed an RCA K@zoo in 2001.

most cd's, unless you buy the very high dollar SACD which sample the music 64 times faster than a CD ( thats 2,8822,400 times per second), are only a 16 bit recording with a bit rate of 160, whereas mp3 can be 24 bit at 320 bit rate

Over 300 albums hanging on my key chain....priceless

The sound of the device peaked at Vinyl, but that stuff scratches and is unforgiving to misuse. CDs with good gear come in a kinda distant 2nd. MP3, even at 320Kb suck. It's the "quality" it's the "feeling" that analog gives that MP3 can't compete with, and as the jazzers and musicians know, some CDs can sort of come close. Keep the CD until digi is warm and real sounding. (If ever.)

The sound of the device peaked at Vinyl, but that stuff scratches and is unforgiving to misuse. CDs with good gear come in a kinda distant 2nd. MP3, even at 320Kb suck. It's the "quality" it's the "feeling" that analog gives that MP3 can't compete with, and as the jazzers and musicians know, some CDs can sort of come close. Keep the CD until digi is warm and real sounding. (If ever.)

@DougCoe22201

well your info is totall ywrong there, I'm not sure what you are trying to say. mp3 is most certainly not sampled at 24 bit, and a CD has bit rate of 1411 kbps, versus 320 kbps for second.

I've had them all from 78's,45's, reel to reel 8 tracks, cassettes, cd's and mp3's etc.... but you know what?? I listen to my RADIO 99.9% of the time... and I enjoy it immensely.....I can't remember when the last time I used my cassette or cd player in my car. My friends plug their music into my radio and off we go.... but even those new devices can hold only so much music and then start replaying .... but the radio doesn't and I can change music style or go to talk radio (if I'm desperate, LOL) and on really nice sunny days on a winding country road....NO RADIO AT ALL and enjoy the trip in quiet....nice !! Also you can hook a portable cd player up to your radio for those crying about no cd player. The same thing with cars with no nav units... plug in a portable unit .

Nick proves again one of life's truisms--To each, his own. And I think we went through the same era...

All new cars are way overpriced. Now they want to start removing things, way to go automakers.

Many library's have an active e-book lending program (mine does) might be worth researching.

I agree with John - your library probably has it already. I live in central Indiana and if we have something then almost everywhere has it.

My kids and I are ALWAYS listening to audiobooks when we drive in the car together. Our library has a great selection of CD audiobooks and they are so simple to use -- just pop the disc in the CD player and you are immediately able to enjoy listening to a great story.

I would be really disappointed if we bought a new car and it didn't include a CD player :-(

No problem then. Just convert the music on your CDs into mp3 files. Most cars now have a USB port so you don't even need a mp3 player. Just get a flash drive an it will hold many, many CDs worth of music without having to switch CDs.

Or use your mp3 player if you already have one, but it sounds like you don't.

Will they give me an MP3 player for free then?

No, but they don't give away CD's either.

William Wilgus, What are you about 80?

William is getting up voted by all the people who don't know about computers.

Not quite. By the way, my car's CD player handles MP3s. Even at high bit rates, that's about 12 hours of music per CD. CDs are also a lot cheaper than a flash drive.

I agree that CDs are less expensive per unit than flash drives, but you can get 8GB flash drives all day for $8-10. Said flash drive will hold a lot more songs than a single CD - about 60 hours @320K, if I calculate correctly. Drop it to 128K (really, how much fidelity do you need when you're in the car?) and it's more like 133 hours. That's 5-1/2 days straight.

Also, With flash rives you can keep adding music to them until you reach the drives capacity as well as erase and rerecorded them with new music. A $18 8GB flash-drive can be much more cost effective over the long term than multiple cd's and there is no risk of scratching them up either. Since the car is a dirty place and CD's can be scratched easily I always make a burned copy of a CD to use in my car and Keep the original at home in its case for safe keeping. I do play the original CD's on my home stereo system though. As long as the Car's Sound system has an auxiliary jack or USB port or SD card slot it could take the place of a CD player since you can use flash drives and SD cards to hold your music.

J. K. Brute / Mike Sol, and you guys are what? 12? Which generation do you think invented all those neat little toys you spend your money on?

I suspect you'd be surprised at how many of us old farts are more adept at fixing technical aspects of computers for the simple reason that when we started, there was no such thing as a nice install GUI, there was no PnP, heck when I started there wasn't even commercially available software. You bought the computer then YOU wrote the program to make it do what YOU wanted. There was no app for that.

Shoot, all the music I own is still on cassettes. It's been a while since I've looked at any new cars -- should I assume I'm likely to have trouble playing them someday?

There were still a few car models in 2004-2005 that carried cassette players standard. The 2004 corolla is one. The suzuki verona also has cassette players i think.

I have 2004 Buick Rainier -- it has a cassette deck. But...I guess Buick is for old people, huh...?? I like CD decks, because that's how I still buy my music. When I want new music, I want to buy a CD.

Fiddling with mp3 players is dangerous while driving, because you can't squint to read the tracks, or finger-flick through playlists, artists, tracks, and multiple menus. Unless you have an mp3 player docking port that integrates the controls into your steering wheel menu buttons, using an mp3 player will be a hassle.

I'm sure some automakers (VW?) will offer such brand-specific docking ports, but what happens when that brand changes it's standards and ports on a whim? I have a 2005 Benz with a built-in cell phone link and keypad that are totally useless because the technology changed. I bought the car used, so I didn't pay for that extra junk, but I still have keypad on my dash that does absolutely nothing.

Slide-in/Slide-out entertainment decks should have been standard 30 years ago so you never would have had to pay $100 to install a $50 CD deck ... just slide the old one out and the new one in. Maybe in another 100 years, auto dealers will get a clue about this....

I use cds and an ipod. But I like cds for the car better. They do have better sound quality and are sometimes easier to deal with when driving because they are tangible. It is also easier to listen to the whole album with a cd and skip tracks. I think it is a mistake for them to get rid of the cd player. Not everyone has an ipod and not everyone likes downloading music. This car appeals to younger drivers but they may not realize they are alienating older people who still enjoy buying a cd at the store. They will learn when the only people that buy the car are younger people. Sometimes too much technology is overkill. I say it is a mistake for sure. It may turn people off from buying the car.

CD's...those are the investments you make at banks, right???

You don't have to be rude to all older motorist, I'm not that old but when you live in a rural area not all the new fancy gadgets work. And you are not the only person that serviced in Vietnam so get over yourself. That is a whole different topic of discussion.

Jester, while I appreciate your service....you definitely have a huge ego problem. You might need to deal with that. And some of the language you use.....makes you sound a lot younger than a VN vet.

I think Duane was joking.

Perhaps a bit harsh. Ego...not really. I have a problem with slams toward the elderly. Each generation blazes new trails for the next, they work hard, suffer hardships and personal losses. They are the reason each of us is here in the best country in the world. They should always be treated with respect, dignity, patience and understanding. They should be honored and revered. We, as a nation tend to toss them aside. Was he really joking? Doubtful given the comment but...okay, my apologies.

Uh, Jester - the "after all, they are the only people with money" clearly indicates he is using sarcasm and is on the side of the older users. He is presumably one himself.

Jester.... me thinks Duane was being sarcastic... Oh yeah, I'm an old fart too!!

Jester, Don't be too ruffled, I can see where one might misinterpret the intent behind Duane's comment. The problem with posts is simply the lack of visual expression from the person posting. Obviously you have great respect for our seniors and that is commendable. Let's all hug and forgive. No harm...so how about those Broncos eh?

"I can out think you any day of the week" ~Jester

Maybe you should have thought about considering that Duane's comment was sarcasm, and was supporting older people before going on a rant.

Jester, never got that PTS treated did you?

I get so tired of everything in our society being solely aimed at young people. I'm still reasonably young myself, but it's annoying to me to think that I have a limited shelf life and once I hit 50, that my needs as a consumer will be all but irrelevant.

If you want to say, "Trends are changing, and not as many people are using CDs these days," that's fine. Or even approach it from a cost vs. usefulness perspective. But the article makes it sounds a lot more like, "Only old people use CDs and, really, why should we give a damn about them?"

I, too, listen to most of my music via MP3 files these days, but I still have a sizable CD collection and don't see CDs being entirely phased out of existence for years to come.

It's a shame they don't put the turntables in the cars, like they used to.

You think you're joking AlexG, but my uncle had a car in the 50s with a small turntable in it. Only problem was it didn't take any of the standard size platters.

I agree, but I am not planning on selling my (CD player and mp3 playing equipped) car any time soon anyway.

I've had iPods etc. for over a decade and I completely fall into "older". Sure I've got a lot of CD's: all ripped into iTunes and on to my two iPods and the third of my series of iPhones.... I think they need to redo that survey and not ask "how many do you have" but what do you use since, IMHO, what I've got in a closet shouldn't count. lol

@fatibel: I knew that. And that's the part of the joke.

I had a 6-disk CD/MP# changer in my last car. I could burn myself a set of custom playlists onto CD's as MP3 files and drive across the freakin' country without needing to change disks.

The car I just bought has a single disk CD player, a USB port, and an IPod dock, as well as satellite radio. But I still prefer my previous setup.

Severed, I felt the same way until a few years ago. Now, I have an iPod that holds 20,000 songs (I have around 1,000 loaded so far) and I arrange them in playlists or listen to them as albums. I could drive halfway to the moon before running out of music.

Then, I could start all over 'cause, at my age, I'd have forgotten I listened to it ealier...everything becomes new again!

Severed Head in a Jar, I have the same set up as you used to have. It takes me MONTHS to listen to every single song on every mp3 CD that is loaded into my 6-disk player.

If I needed it I could put 20.000 songs on a jump drive, but I drive 15 minutes to work and listen to the sports radio station. Being self employed if I take a vacation this decade I might need a CD player :(

... and you are the only demographic which will ever buy a car b/c everyone drives the same distances and wants to listen to the same 3 songs every day... Duane. I'm surprised the car companies don't directly contact you for your forward thinking design ideas.

You don't even need a radio for that trip. Just hum to yourself.

On the other hand I've about quit flying since it because such a PITA, so I frequently drive long distances.

And robs comment about "forward thinking" was sarcasm Duane M...in case you couldn't figure that out.

Welcome to the new millenium guys. I'm an old timer with a not-so-old but fairly inexpensive iPod Classic. I have roughly 2,500 songs, 4 audiobooks, 5 music videos and 2 or 3 movies on it, using about 40% of its capacity. I have it with me most places I go. I don't use it all the time. But, it is an entertainment / ambience resource. I love it and so do my family members and friends. CD's to me have become clutter.

While some 'infotainment' systems allow you to interface your iPod (and a select few mP3 players) via their nice big touchscreens, it's far from universal. If they had a way to directly copy music via usb, that'd be perfect. But I haven't seen any that permit that kind of functionality, yet.

Most in-dash CD players will recognize mP3 files and can play days or weeks of music. And you can still use folders, random, and other functions that make it worth keeping CD players around, at least a little while longer.

boto, thats how an ipod/mp3 player works. You push play and it plays. Dont you realize that you ARE using an MP3 player? What do you think is playing those MP3's on that MP3 CD you just mentioned? A CD is a medium. So is a hard drive. Or a flash drive. Or whatever else that MP3 is stored on...theyre all the same. One's and zero's, dude.

Not to mention the monthly cost of the data plan. I could stream audio through my phone, but why should I have to?

'Streaming audio' used to be called 'radio'. And it was free way back when...

@wahoo2:

...and you could choose any song you wanted at any time..

I just tell my car what i want to hear and it plays it. It doesn't matter if its on disk, my phone or hard/usb drive. No fishing needed.

Fatter bottom line, baby. Isn't that always the way it works? You pay the same or more for less. Gotta love it!

I agree. Got tired of trying to keep up with technology. Listen to free radio, use CD's when driving more than a few miles. Just think of all the money I could have saved. Newer is not always better.

My new head unit hides an iPod inside it (where the cd player slot used to be). It is controlled from the faceplate. Works fine, easy and quick to change playlists. I don't usually need to change them once I'm on the freeway anyway, just pick one at the start that will suffice for the trip, but if I suddenly want to listen to something else, it's pretty easy to accomplish without being a road menace. Or, it will stream from my iPhone, which is handy when using audible navigation commands (music fades back when nav needs to communicate, then returns to normal volume). Pretty handy on a solo road trip when you aren't familiar with the route and don't want to be trying to look at maps while you are driving. Took some research to find one that did exactly what I wanted, there were only a few after market radios that were like that. If I were likely to ever buy another vehicle I would be pleased the manufacturers were going that way, but they will likely have to pry my '97 Wrangler out of my cold dead hands.

Maps? Is that like a gps printout? :)

So, you are boasting about having to go into debt to buy 4 vehicles?

I imagine he's had those cars for a long time; he did mention cassette players.

That's What's Up - , I hear that. We just moved the TV's to the garage so we wont be will be forced to entertain ourselves. Family time is WAY better now. I still love my music, though.