Aftermarket car cd players

Foster

Why are they so horrible? They look tacky, a million buttons for things you never need and the layout of them is maddening.

I have one in the van which does the job somewhat, I can't buy a factory standard radio/cd player for it as they never came with one. As annoying as it is I can live with it, I don't use it too often.

My mate has recently bought a 1998 mazda mx5 which is a fab car but it has an aftermarket cd/radio player in it... The things that are really annoying about it are:

1. you can't turn the demo mode off
2. it won't let you put any CDs in it
3. it has a dedicated button to change the colour of the lights on it whilst more useful features are hidden in the menu system
4. It has the same design flaw of all aftermarket radios - a dial for volume that when pressed enters the menu system, a button so sensitive you usually end up changing all the settings whilst driving when you wanted to turn the volume down

Luckily I can find a used stock radio/cd player on ebay for him. I don't have that option with my van.

Does anyone know of a cd player for a car that is incredibly simple to use and not full of bright LEDS that fade in/out & dance all over the shop?

Electro_Ham

The are usually fully customisable. You'd just need to put the effort in initially and switch off the demo and select a non flashing display.....Or dim the lighting.
You could also pick up a decent head unit and 10cd changer for buttons these days.

randella

In my younger days, Alpine was the brand. So when Ford wanted >300 quid for a replacement boggo head unit for my Focus, Alpine's what I bought.

It sounded good, and the buttons almost matched the green of the rest of the dash. 

It also rattled like buggery and had to be the first piece of audio equipment made since the Winter of Discontent that didn't have a clock built in. Which, as a consequence, then meant the car didn't. I've only just got used to having the time on the dashboard again after 4 months in a new car. 

Overall one to avoid. 

skunkwerx

Check out caraudiodirect or caraudiosecurity. 

Theres shit tonnes of options out there for single din units.