I just bought a used car last year that had my first radio with bluetooth capability. It was dope at first, and now it constantly decides it doesnt want to allow my phone to connect for audio. Calls only. Its fucking infuriating
This is the reason why I don't use Bluetooth in my car. I don't even use my phone because changing a song gets a bit too involved for my liking (especially during icy winter months). I legitimately use an iPod Nano in my car for music. No ads, no phone calls, and hundreds of songs at my disposal that can easily be skipped in a click of a button. No messing with a screen. I'm also lucky that there's a music store in my town that I can buy a ton of CDs from, rip them, and put them on my iPod. And I also now own all of my music because fuck streaming services.
I legitimately use an iPod Nano in my car for music.
Right there with you! Even though my car is a 2022, it still can connect to a classic iPod, and I have one in the glovebox loaded with all our music. It works better than anything else.
I have an aftermarket stereo in one of my cars that has a usb cable running to the glovebox. I just threw my music on a flash drive and hit shuffle. No ads, no connectivity issues, just mp3s playing.
I dont think those are illegal in my country. I had one a long time ago and it worked pretty well, I should look into getting another. Thanks for reminding me about those things
Because for transmitting into FM range (or any radio frequency really, outside Bluetooth, Wifi and some other bands) you have to have a license. Legislation depends on the country, but those low-power cigarette lighter type of transmitters have low enough range and don't cause a lot of troubles, so usually they get ignored, despite being technically illegal.
Yeah, but some counties enforce the laws prohibiting them moreso than the others. For example, in my country they're sold freely, you can find it everywhere, no import bans and no one would even care even if they find you using it despite it being technically illegal, whilst in Germany you can't even buy them (at least that's what I was told by my German friend). The reason being the output range of those things are usually just a couple of dozens of meters at best and don't cause a lot of trouble
Good luck finding a clear station to listen to your music though. I have to change my station every 5-10 minutes because it keeps becoming obnoxious static noises
I wish we would go back to old Single-DIN and double-DIN stereo installations. For a long time stereos were a standardized size across manufacturers, so swapping them was relatively easy.
My main car is about 40 years old, I added a really basic bluetooth-capable head unit to it, and it works fantastic for audio streaming. If it ever breaks, I can remove it myself and put in a new one for like $120 and a half-hour’s labor (less if I get the same brand and don’t need to splice on a new plug).
If the infotainment in my wife’s ‘23 Mini ever fails… god help me. She has the generation prior to the one in the OP and has way more physical buttons, but still, it’ll be like $700-800 just for the display.
Yeah a lot of stuff is controlled through that screen unit now and mine these days sometimes just randomly decides not to turn on for a while and then I have no backup camera, not radio, etc. But it turns on later, maybe in 5 minutes, maybe tomorrow, but always before I could get it to a repair person. It's so irritating, no one knows what is wrong with it.
My 2012 car will only connect to my music if I have the Bluetooth on my phone on when I start the car. If I turn my phone’s Bluetooth on after, it only connects to calls. I’ll still take it over a big stupid touch screen.
You might need to update the firmware. I had a Subaru outback that kept doing that. I contacted the dealer who said they usually update it when I took it in for a service. I looked it up and found out how to update it myself.
LOL.
Be careful what you wish for. For years I wished that factory radios had an AUX port. It would have been cheap as borscht to include; a standard input format that had zero license requirements or patents.
Over the years, the vehicles I had came with AM/FM radios, and a couple had CD players, but no 3.5mm port.
I bought a new to me 2021 Chevy truck last year. I was tickled pink to see that finally, after almost 50 years of driving, they added a 3.5mm AUX port to a factory radio.
The issue? The port has a loose connection and every time I hit a bump, the radio switches to "AUX INPUT", cutting off the FM radio. fml
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u/Smokes_LetsGo876 13h ago
I just bought a used car last year that had my first radio with bluetooth capability. It was dope at first, and now it constantly decides it doesnt want to allow my phone to connect for audio. Calls only. Its fucking infuriating
I really wish I just had an aux port.