SIGNALS

All good things must come to an end. Once the coolest thing ever, once the “must have” feature of 1989, once the proof that you too were hip, car CD players are now driving down a particularly lonely highway. Much like 8-tracks and car cassette players before them, car CD players are heading for oblivion.

Much like youth, and fame, technology is a fleeting thing. Scientists discover new principles, engineers develop them into products, and marketers convince us to buy them. New technology products debut, enjoy the honeymoon phase, mature and prosper, then grow old, and are obsoleted. Then they become extinct. Which brings us to car CD players.

Sales of CD discs are in steep decline, as is the number of people listening to music on CDs both at home and in the car. Portable (Walkman) CD player listening is certainly long gone. As fewer CDs spin, car makers begin eradicating the players, especially in vehicles aimed at younger buyers. Dashboard space is eternally valuable, and with the advent of tablet-type displays and controls, there is even less space for a CD drive.

If anything, the number of new cars with a CD player is a lagging indicator. New car development takes years. Right now, car makers are locking down the dashboard designs of their 2022 cars. You will recall that, much to the delight of the aftermarket, it took car makers several years to get CD players (and changers) into their vehicles. Now, a new car might have a CD player, but only because the dashboard was designed years ago.

Consider the lack of real estate, combined with the extra cost (albeit small) of a CD drive, added weight, and diminished consumer interest, and we see that car CD playback is winding down. Even if there is some consumer demand, a car maker might terminate the CD because it doesn't fit with their “smart” and “connected” narratives. In any case, car makers like to avoid any feature that seems dated.

The 2010 Lexus SC430 was the last car to offer a factory cassette player. What lucky vehicle will be the last one to offer a CD player? I'm taking bets right now. The winner gets a green Sharpie. Two Sharpies if you know what that refers to. The CD was a terrific technology, and an ingenious way to store a lot of data at low cost. But eventually memory chips became dirt cheap and streaming became easy. The 1s and 0s of CD-based music remain in cars and are even more ubiquitous, but the silvery discs are departing.

My dream to corner the market on visor-mounted CD wallets, and make a billion dollars, never materialized. Maybe I should have invested in that funky online bookstore Amazon instead. Oh, well. I still have high hopes for my rear-seat LaserDisc carousel player. Walnut-inspired vinyl trim optional.