iPod in your Car?
I’ve been wanting to improve my in-car iPod experience, so I’ve been doing some research into the in-dash head unit offerings. I had budgeted enough for the unit to be among the top of the line for any brand that I would choose. As such, my decision would be based mostly on the iPod integration as most head units would probably be pretty comparable for the core features.
A secondary, but much less important, feature I was interested in was bluetooth integration with my phone. This would allow hands-free phone usage and would make life much safer. I don’t make many cell phone calls period, so this is a very minor interest in the scheme of things. Its mostly the cool factor that has my interest.
So I began my research online and eventually used a combination of several websites to identify a few models that I was interested in. User reviews are very useful, but in many cases, I found that the iPod integration varied depending upon the model that was in use. To be more specific, many systems have their own integration component and so I was reading reviews on them. But what I really wanted to know was what was the experience with the combination of my chosen head unit and the integration unit. The experience apparently varies wildly.
But still, I had a couple of models in mind and set out to test drive them at the retail stores. In no particular order, I went to Best Buy, Tweeter, Fry’s and Car Toys. In every case, I found that the store was unable or unwilling to demo either the iPod or the Bluetooth integration. In most cases, I found that I knew more than the salesperson.
The sad fact is that the retail stores have higher prices because they are having to offset the price of inventory, shelving, and sales support. But in the end, they provided less information than the online stores. My ability to test drive was the same in either case – not possible. I was very disappointed.
As a last gasp, I tried keying in my model numbers and the word "iPod" and perhaps a few other terms in hopes of finding someone’s blog who had the combination that I was interested in. I found a few interesting points, but nothing positive enough to allow me to make my purchase. In fact, if anything, I read on one person’s blog that it is important to be able to plug your own iPod into the demo to ensure that the performance is as fast as you expect it to be. Apparently, its quite common for stores to demo on an iPod that has only a few songs. In doing so, they mask performance issues and user experience issues.
So the bottom line is that I will do nothing for now. The technology and sales support are not to the point where I can comfortably make this purchase. If you’ve stumbled across this blog entry in the midst of a similar search, I hope that I’ve saved you some money or at least made you aware of your likely experience in doing your due diligence. Feel free to comment if you have useful insight into this kind of purchase.