Car CD Player on the Fritz

[Brad]

I've had my car about 5 years and do a lot of listening in the car. In the past few weeks, the cd player has developing a lot of static, interfering with the music and it's gotten worse to the point where the player now spits out the cd so it won't play. It's basically broken.

Does this sound familiar to anybody. Is it worth getting fixed or should get a new player and if I get a new one, how much do you think I should spend on one since I'm only planning to have the car 3 more years or so.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[JSngry]

If you want to go cheap and wait for the new car (and if your car has a cassette player), you can always get a portable player, a car kit (a faux-cassette that plugs from the portable's headphone jack into the tape player and transmits the CD signal accordingly), and a power adapter. Not necessarily "hi-fi", but it gets the job done well enough, and for under $100, easily.

[Brad]

I thought about that but my car didn't come with a cassette player so that option is out.

[GA Russell]

Three years is a long time to listen to music! Thirty-six months.

I got an Aiwa in November from Best Buy for about $100. So far I'm happy with it. Installation is another fifty bucks.

[Brad]

I went ahead and got a new one, an Alpine. It's real nice.

[A Lark Ascending]

My car spent the last 9 months taking 20 minutes before it would play the CD - kept spitting it out. Once it had warmed up it was fine. For some bizarre reason it played instantly if I turned off the engine.

Luckily I was ready for a car change.

Damned annoying for those 9 months. I was nearly at work by the time it complied.