Short-sighted Volvo engineering

As many of you may (or may not) know, this blog originated with postings about my numerous (and expensive) problems with my Audi A6.

This was remedied when I ditched the A6 (read the final farewell here) and got a Volvo S40.

Admittedly, its a sharp vehicle, and I am very happy with its performance, but the biggest thorn in my side is that I can't hook up my mp3 player (no, I don't do iPod) to the stereo system. I was able to do this with all of my previous cars either through a cassette adapter or a by an aux-in plug.

The Volvo system uses some funky proprietary digital sh*t that is impossible to hack. And the in-dash CD player doesn't even read mp3 files.

My only option (which I don't see as an option) is to use an FM transmitter. Even that solution is pretty weak... the sound isn't great and I get a lot of interference from the FM radio stations in Metro DC.

I went to Tweeter the other day, and they did provide a technical solution that would essentially require ripping out the innards of the stereo system and replacing it with $2K worth of components and labor.

So basically, I have stepped into the time machine back to high school and am continuously burning mixes to CDs. A rather tedious and arcane solution.

Anyways, I'm kind of pissed off that the Volvo engineers didn't have the foresight to put in a simple aux-in jack for mp3/iPods. Almost all other stereo systems have that capability. I'm not quite sure how or if Volvo will resolve this issue in its future model releases.

Wow... I really am cranky this morning. I need my AC.