Car Accessories

I own a used Mini Cooper, which now has 30,000 miles on it. And I face a difficult decision, all help and input welcome, please. Below is a picture of what I've had to do to use my devices (Treo 650 and Photo iPod) with my Mini. I already posted about how I can't stand listening to terresterial radio because of the ads and the DJs. And the Mini is a stick shift, so it's really hard to do phone calls without an earbud. My brother Andy turned me on to ProClip, a really cool way to match the holder for your device to a mount that is designed for your car. In the photo, you can see that I have the Treo holder mounted on the left of the middle column in the Mini dashbaord and the iPod holder mounted on the right. The factory radio and navigational system are in the dashboard in the middle.

Problem #1: Until today, I had to decide whether to have the iPod plugged into the cigarette lighter or the Treo. If the iPod isn't plugged in, it doesn't work because the wireless radio interface I have (made by Monster cable, if I remember correctly) uses the power to help tune the radio station better than most of the wireless radio transmitter for audio devices like the iPod. But I often forget to charge the Treo overnight and that means I have to have it plugged in when I'm driving around Silicon Valley and making phone calls and doing email. I finally decided to drop by BestBuy and discovered that they actually have a thingie that lets you turn one cigarette lighter into three power outlets in your car. But if you look at the photo carefully, you'll see that it doesn't fit in the Mini very well so I can only use two of the three outlets. And once I've got both Treo and iPod plugged in, it's a real mess of wires and I can't get at my cup holders anymore. At least everything works, mostly and kind of, so that I can use my iPod and Treo at the same time.

Problem #2: I hate the terrestrial radio that's installed into the dashboard and wired into the amplifier and speaker system in the car. The iPod goes through the radio so the car controls can't change songs or playlists but can control the volume. But my dashboard is wasted on a device I don't want and the device I want (iPod) isn't wired right into the speaker system and steering wheel controls for the audio system. The Mini has an iPod option to plug the device into the system, but I have to give up the navigational system which I like because it works and my Navigatrix (as I've come to call her) has a British accent and is very polite. I want to rip the terrestrial radio out, replace it with a satellite radio and wire the iPod into the back of it. How the heck can I do that? As I said above, all advice and counsel welcome.

Problem #3: Should I spend the money and time getting the Mini fixed with all this stuff (that I hope you'll tell me about) when it already has 30,000 miles on it? I've looked around (at the Pontiac Vibe and the Honda CR-V) and discovered that new cars actually have built-in satellite radio (and even iPod) options. The problem is that car manufacturers have such long product cycles and are generally so conservative about making it easy to integrate new technology that you can't be sure which car will support what and end up deciding on the car itself rather than how it accepts new technology. Question: Is it better to stick with a car like the Mini and just spend the money maintaining it and upgrading it and take the chance that it will provide great service (which it has already done) for the next 70,000 miles or so or to invest in a new car that has more modern interfaces, but take the chance that even newer cars next year or the year after will have better interfaces?

Count me confused and dazed, but enjoying my Mini and my devices in it!

Comments

[Emma]

What about a new Mini?

[david grady]

I don't have the Treo problem, but I do think of my car as an ipod accessory, and the guy who sold me the Acura CL I'm driving knows it. (At the time I was upgrading from a Subaru Forester because "my ipod needs a more comfortable car with a better sound system.") He left a voice message about their new ipod option on the new models. Good move on his part. I'm looking for where I can fit the visit in. Maybe tomorrow. :-)

[David Tommela]

Depends on how long you plan on keeping the Mini. I know you really love it. Buy a new supercharged Mini without a radio, put the iPod in your pocket along with the cell, buy a bag of quarters for the pay phone, and listen to the song of an accelerating supercharged motor as you terrorize San Francisco. The hell with hi-tech stuff!!

[david grady]

Follow up. Acura's system doesn't display the track info in the dash screen. Fatal flaw.

Trying to poke around the web to see what car manufacturer does it right, I come up with Mercedes, maybe. And tha's not easy to confirm. The car companies want to show you flashy flash instead of serious feature lists.

Amazing. Here I am ready to spend good money on a car with great iPod support and I'm lost in the noise of demographics and old marketing/advertising habits.