A car audio rant!

[Squidward]

I, like most of you here, am not an average Joe when it comes to cars. I have particular tastes, wants, and needs when it comes to my cars.

Recently, I started to rethink the way my interior should look with guages and stuff. VW places the car radio up high so that it is easier for the driver to see but it would make a great place to put a couple of guages to monitor engine functions that I cannot place anywhere else (I want to take my boost guage off the A-Pillar because it is too Boy-Racer for me). So, I would love to place the guages where the radio is but moving the radio will be difficult.

Then I thought about my listening habbits. I have a CD changer in the trunk and an in-dash CD head unit. Well, I rarely listen to the in-dash CD, listening mostly to the CDs in the changer or the radio.

The question is, why doesn't anyone make a CD changer controller with built-in AM/FM radio that can be hidden away with only a wired hand-held controller to deal with? The hand-held controler can be small and look like an XM tuner module in size.

Sony once made a product like this but they made it in a standard DIN sized chassis. The whole unit sat in the dash and the faceplate was removeable. It was AM/FM and controlled their CD changer. Close, but no cigar.

What would be other applications for this? How about someone in a high crime area needing to hide their stereo system so would-be car stereo theives would see nothing to steal as they walk by? Or an owner of a classic car that does not want to chop up their dash for a nice, modern stereo system? Or the sports car owner who wants more dash space and still have a nice stereo system in their car?

Thoughts, opinions, input?

[es250nut]

Actually Sony did at one time make a 10 disk CD changer with AM/FM radio that was controlled by a wired remote, no head unit to bother with at all. I had one in 1992. Can't recall the model # though, sorry.

[Stealth]

But then how would it go through the speakers?

Anyway, there wouldn't be too much of a market for something like that, which is why it's probably not done all that much. Why not just get a direct link CD Changer, that way you eliminate one more control unit.