MP3 players for the car?

[Scott5114]

The same reason is why I prefer to own a home rather than rent (at least I know the payments on my house will stop in May 2047, whereas they'll continue until the day I die if I rented the whole time).

Property/school taxes also continue until they day you die - and around here at least, they're high enough that even a homeowner with a paid-off mortgage is paying practically the same amount as rent for a decent apartment would be.  As such, I've never really bought the financial aspect to homeownership.  Seems the only way one comes out ahead (vs renting) is if they sell and downsize when they retire, especially after maintenance/yard work/snow removal (in the parts of the country where that's an issue) costs are taken into account.

Here, property taxes are more or less equal to two months of rent of an equivalent house.

[Brandon]

The same reason is why I prefer to own a home rather than rent (at least I know the payments on my house will stop in May 2047, whereas they'll continue until the day I die if I rented the whole time).

Property/school taxes also continue until they day you die - and around here at least, they're high enough that even a homeowner with a paid-off mortgage is paying practically the same amount as rent for a decent apartment would be.  As such, I've never really bought the financial aspect to homeownership.  Seems the only way one comes out ahead (vs renting) is if they sell and downsize when they retire, especially after maintenance/yard work/snow removal (in the parts of the country where that's an issue) costs are taken into account.

Here, property taxes are more or less equal to two months of rent of an equivalent house.

Likewise even in high-tax Illinois.  My property taxes are only about what it would cost to rent for 2-1/2 months.  In addition, if you rent, you are paying property taxes.  They come with a surcharge as well that is the profit for the landlord.  Shoot, my mortgage plus taxes come to less per month than I could rent for.

[wxfree]

I use the cheapest music player I can find.  That gives me the two things I want most.  The first is physical buttons, so I can use it without looking at it.  The second is a monochrome screen, because the color screen on devices with buttons are useless in daylight, if I ever do look at it.  I can't imagine using a touch screen device while driving.

[jakeroot]

I use the cheapest music player I can find.  That gives me the two things I want most.  The first is physical buttons, so I can use it without looking at it.  The second is a monochrome screen, because the color screen on devices with buttons are useless in daylight, if I ever do look at it.  I can't imagine using a touch screen device while driving.

In the case of many modern infotainment systems, most functions can be controlled through voice or steering wheel controls.

I haven't seen a monochrome screen in years. Modern color LED screens are quite good in sunlight. OLED less so.

[Bruce]

I'm using a 2020 rental car for a bit while my usual (a 2011) is in the shop, so with that I've made the jump from monochrome to full-color touchscreen display.

The 2020 car has awful music controls and can't even shuffle properly off a USB stick. The screen often fails to display the embedded album art I have for each song in my collection and also can't read some tags properly. Less is more, a dumb car does it better for me.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

i mean, my own solution is just to copy all my music onto the phone.. the microsd card holds a shit-ton of it, i have probably 2000 songs on the phone. the problem becomes my old-ass car stereo. no bluetooth or aux jack, and the cassette deck just spits the tape back out, or i'd use a cassette-bluetooth thingy. my cuurent solution is an fm-thing, which works great in the canyon, but as soon as i pop out of the mouth of the canyon, there's no clear channels for it to use. disconnect the fm antenna from the radio, maybe?

[JayhawkCO]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

i mean, my own solution is just to copy all my music onto the phone.. the microsd card holds a shit-ton of it, i have probably 2000 songs on the phone. the problem becomes my old-ass car stereo. no bluetooth or aux jack, and the cassette deck just spits the tape back out, or i'd use a cassette-bluetooth thingy. my cuurent solution is an fm-thing, which works great in the canyon, but as soon as i pop out of the mouth of the canyon, there's no clear channels for it to use. disconnect the fm antenna from the radio, maybe?

I had one of those in my previous car, and I always found a channel that would work fairly well.  Normally something like 90.7 or so.

Chris

[hbelkins]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

i mean, my own solution is just to copy all my music onto the phone.. the microsd card holds a shit-ton of it, i have probably 2000 songs on the phone. the problem becomes my old-ass car stereo. no bluetooth or aux jack, and the cassette deck just spits the tape back out, or i'd use a cassette-bluetooth thingy. my cuurent solution is an fm-thing, which works great in the canyon, but as soon as i pop out of the mouth of the canyon, there's no clear channels for it to use. disconnect the fm antenna from the radio, maybe?

The vehicle I'm currently having to drive, a 1990 Chevy pickup, has an absolutely crappy factory sound system. The control head is totally separate from the cassette deck, which no longer works, and the various FM transmitter devices I have don't really work really well. My solution was to buy one of those "tailgate" Bluetooth speakers for tunes. It's not the highest of high-fidelity mobile options, but I don't really need that, especially since I listen to podcasts as well as music. It works for my purposes.

[Rothman]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

i mean, my own solution is just to copy all my music onto the phone.. the microsd card holds a shit-ton of it, i have probably 2000 songs on the phone. the problem becomes my old-ass car stereo. no bluetooth or aux jack, and the cassette deck just spits the tape back out, or i'd use a cassette-bluetooth thingy. my cuurent solution is an fm-thing, which works great in the canyon, but as soon as i pop out of the mouth of the canyon, there's no clear channels for it to use. disconnect the fm antenna from the radio, maybe?

The vehicle I'm currently having to drive, a 1990 Chevy pickup, has an absolutely crappy factory sound system. The control head is totally separate from the cassette deck, which no longer works, and the various FM transmitter devices I have don't really work really well. My solution was to buy one of those "tailgate" Bluetooth speakers for tunes. It's not the highest of high-fidelity mobile options, but I don't really need that, especially since I listen to podcasts as well as music. It works for my purposes.

How many times has the odometer flipped over?

[hbelkins]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

i mean, my own solution is just to copy all my music onto the phone.. the microsd card holds a shit-ton of it, i have probably 2000 songs on the phone. the problem becomes my old-ass car stereo. no bluetooth or aux jack, and the cassette deck just spits the tape back out, or i'd use a cassette-bluetooth thingy. my cuurent solution is an fm-thing, which works great in the canyon, but as soon as i pop out of the mouth of the canyon, there's no clear channels for it to use. disconnect the fm antenna from the radio, maybe?

The vehicle I'm currently having to drive, a 1990 Chevy pickup, has an absolutely crappy factory sound system. The control head is totally separate from the cassette deck, which no longer works, and the various FM transmitter devices I have don't really work really well. My solution was to buy one of those "tailgate" Bluetooth speakers for tunes. It's not the highest of high-fidelity mobile options, but I don't really need that, especially since I listen to podcasts as well as music. It works for my purposes.

How many times has the odometer flipped over?

None. The vehicle has about 129K actual miles on it. It has fewer miles than any other vehicle in my family.

It belonged to my dad. When he bought it new in 1990, he and my brother drove out west in it. Since my dad was retired by 1990, he didn't need a "daily driver" and therefore he didn't put a lot of miles on it. He later bought an 1998 Chevy 4WD truck. When my dad went into a nursing home in 2008, he gave the truck to my brother. After my dad's death, since I already had a 4WD truck (the Toyota Tacoma some of you probably remember), my brother suggested a trade.

The '98 had had some problems, my brother tells me, while the '90 is extremely dependable. The only major repairs it's had done are a new alternator and a new muffler.

It looks awful -- the paint is terribly faded -- but it runs really good.