I realized just how much I hate regular radio last night. While facing a 45-minute, 11-mile drive to pick up my girlfriend, I was channel surfing FM. But my efforts to avoid obnoxious commercials and equally obnoxious DJs to actually find some music were mostly fruitless.
When I noticed the SX4's satellite radio button, I was psyched! But when I pushed it...no dice. Seems we don't have a subscription in force. "No biggie, I'll just plug in my iPod" I thought. But nope, as Brent pointed out, there's no auxiliary jack, let alone an iPod hookup unless you get it at the dealer. This is rather strange, considering the SX4''s other unexpected upscale and modern features (such as those handy steering wheel-mounted audio controls and the removable nav system). Sadly, without a CD at hand (remember those?) I was at the mercy of FM.
carguy622 says:
12:36 PM, 08/14/09
An aux or iPod hookup is very quickly become a necessary feature in cars today. That, or a glovebox full of CD-Rs.
wobbly_ears says:
01:02 PM, 08/14/09
If there's no CD or iPod hookup or Sat radio, I would just turn the radio off. I will NOT listen to the shrieking teenyboppers on FM or the blathering buffoons foaming at the mouth on AM.
Sometimes the traffic noise is better.
ptcdawg says:
01:18 PM, 08/14/09
I hope you survived...wow at the whining from some of the folks here.
scubasteve5387 says:
01:43 PM, 08/14/09
um 45mins to go 11 miles??? That alone would drive me insane regardless of radio features.
adavis2493 says:
02:02 PM, 08/14/09
I hope you didn't listen to KROQ. That channel drives me crazy. They play the annoying song by The Offspring, some other annoying song, then they play the Offspring again, then you have a 20 minute commercial break (that includes the Abraham Lincoln Commercial about how many times he failed), and they they play the Offspring again.
THANK YOU AUX INPUTS!
hurls65 says:
02:25 PM, 08/14/09
you must have been driving in San Diego with that station on :)
oftech says:
05:04 PM, 08/14/09
I was stuck in a rental in a huge traffic jam facing the same scenario. My solution was to turn off the radio and listen to music I had on my blackberry instead
briancam says:
08:41 PM, 08/14/09
The way around is to load music onto an SD card and play it through the Garmin nav system.
hybris says:
01:04 PM, 08/15/09
For that reason alone if I'm not listening to my flash drive then AM talk radio is actually quite good once you remember your current events.
stephen987 says:
06:21 PM, 08/16/09
I'm so hooked on the USB connection in my new car that I don't use CDs anymore--and haven't bothered to install satellite radio yet. With 16 GB of music in my shirt pocket, I probably never will.
stapletondoc says:
06:48 PM, 08/16/09
how unfortunate...considering I have to use the audio/radio/cd to mask the droning engine, excessive road noise, and rattling from the navigation unit on my 2009 sx4 crossover touring. I only have 2,000 miles on the car so far. It is laughable that upscale and SX4 crossover are used in the same sentence.
stapletondoc says:
06:49 PM, 08/16/09
how unfortunate...considering I have to use the audio/radio/cd to mask the droning engine, excessive road noise, and rattling from the navigation unit on my 2009 sx4 crossover touring. I only have 2,000 miles on the car so far. It is laughable that upscale and SX4 crossover are used in the same sentence.