I bought a new car stereo today. Judging by the shape of my old one, this was a long time coming. My car is 10 years old and I've been using the original cassette deck and speakers this whole time. All the buttons on the old deck were melted and all the dials were cracked in half. To even hear the audio at a normal level, I had to crank the volume to maximum. The left speaker was about 50% of what the right speaker could do and sometimes the right speaker would go out completely, but if I hit the volume knob, it would usually come back. (I guess it is sad that I'm an electrical engineer and I resort to this method to fixing my radio.) My car doesn't have rear speakers. The tape player played tapes, but I could no longer hear them, which didn't matter too much since I only have like 5 tapes anyways. So I'm usually the guy who wants the best possible thing for my money, but over the years I have become somewhat minimalist (probably all those missions trips I went on). I wanted to play CDs and hear them. I think the guy at the store never encountered a customer like me. I walked in the store with the part numbers and prices for the speakers and head unit that I wanted. The first thing he asked was "where did you get these prices?". I found them on the internet with my brother's help. I wasn't there to haggle. I was just going to take whatever he had, but he cut his prices a little bit to give me a deal. I'm not sure if it was a real deal or not. I don't think I got ripped off either. Anyways, I don't think anyone goes into a car stereo store and says "give me the minimum". He says, "you only want one pair of speakers?". Yep. "For the front only?" Yep. My car is so small the front speakers serve as the back speakers too, ha ha. The other guy at the store asks me, "you want this head unit?" Yep. "Are you sure?" Yep. One thing that surprised me when I was looking at car stereos over the past few months was how complicated they have become. They are almost like CD-ROM drives on a computer. One head unit actually had a tray come out like a CD-ROM. They have these cool LCD cartoons that play on the display. They are XM capable. Blah blah blah. They are so complicated. I can't imagine driving and changing the radio station without getting into an accident. They have more buttons and menus than my cell phone. I just want to play CDs and hear them. I told the guy, "I want the most simple thing." "Well, you got it," he said. Anyways, I'm quite pleased with my new radio. I can take the face plate off which was a requirement since my parking isn't very secure. It can also pick up radio stations way better. The thing is so ugly. It's got the 80's chrome look with fluorescent red buttons and a fluorescent blue display. Man it looks bad in my dark gray dashboard. But the best thing about my new car stereo is that it has a clock. I have not had a clock in my car for 10 years. My parents bought the car without the clock thinking there would be one on the radio. Well, there wasn't. When I bought the car from them, I went to Honda for my scheduled maintenance and asked how much it would be to plug in the clock that was made for the car. Wow, $180!!! My new deck cost less than that and it can also play CDs. Anyways, the new stereo is alot better than the old one ever was, but I recognize that other people got something way over me. But I'm content that when I turn up the bass, the doors on my car vibrate. As a sidenote, you ever notice how the people with the best stereos have the worst taste in music?