What brand of car stereo of the most reliable?

[pstokely]

The AM/FM tuner on Sony stereo has stopped working, thought the CD player would go out before the radio.

[quakerboy]

1. Alpine

Others may believe differently, but I have always had the best luck with Alpine products.

[armyowalgreens]

2. I have a Kenwood in my vehicle and it works fine. But it depends on the application.

Sony is a bit more expensive but seems to work the best.

[quakerboy]

3. dupe

[Frank Cannon]

4. Probably a bad capacitor in that Sony

Google "capacitor plague". You'd be surprised where they turn up.

Good news is, it's a cheap ($2) fix if you're handy at all with a soldering iron.

[pstokely]

5. but I'd have to take the stereo out of the car

With the cost of installation, I'm just gonna buy a new stereo and have Best Buy install it

[Frank Cannon]

7. Admittedly, I am a poor and lazy guy who knows how to solder

I would never pay for a new, better stereo when I could just fix the old, crappy one myself in five minutes.

[hunter]

6. I always look for something so crappy nobody will steal it...

...even if I leave the windows open and the doors unlocked.

[Broken_Hero]

8. Pioneer

I go with Pioneer for both car/home audio, except for speakers(car). Although the last car speakers are got were Pioneers 5 by 4's and they did pretty well, but I didn't have much time with them...I still try as hard as I can to steer away from Pioneer speakers for the car, home isn't as bad, they are just as good as KLH/Jensen.

[Swede]

9. Stick with a name brand if you intend to keep it for awhile.

nt

[pstokely]

14. Does anyone still have an 8 track player in their car?

nt

[lildreamer316]

10. Clarion

I had one last for 13 years.

[flvegan]

11. Another vote for Alpine.

To me, the absolute worst is Blaupunkt. Absolute POS.

[pokerfan]

12. My Kenwood has never given me any problems

That model is no longer in production but this one looks close:


(Kenwood KDC-MP342U)

In addition to MP3 CD-R support, it also has AUX and USB jacks on the front so you can connect an iPod or Thumb Drive. The price is right, too: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113MP342U/Kenwood-KDC-MP342U.html?search=Kenwood+VENDORID113&searchdisplay=Kenwood&tp=5684">$139.99 at Crutchfield

[Deja Q]

13. Obviously, not sony... :( In seriousness,

anything with a USB drive for flash memory. No moving parts will - in probability - be most stable. On my new car, I don't use the CD but will use the SYNC sound system instead. When it works, it's great, and it works better with my 32GB iPhone than with the 16GB flash drive! Still could do with some improvement (real time audio to bypass pressing buttons all the time and better speech recognition, but otherwise I'll give it some props.)

[mwooldri]

15. The factory installed stereo?

I have never ever ever purchased an aftermarket radio for any vehicle I owned. Always factory-supplied audio equipment in my vehicles.

Blaupunkt make a number of factory systems - from Skoda to Mercedes - and a good number of aftermarket radios too. They're a German firm... and their radios are geared to the European market but they are available here in the States. Their equipment is very ipod friendly, they even have a car audio system that does not have a CD, just radio and solid-state device & ipod hookup.