How the dominance of the iPod is changing cars in America

When I was in Pittsburgh last month, I rented a car. I probably owe my blog some stories about how crazy it is driving in Pittsburgh, but I'm going to tell a different tale today. I ended up getting a 2-door Chevy Monte Carlo, and I was surprised to see that the radio had an auxiliary input jack, suitable for playing any sort of audio device through the stereo.

I had some free time my second day there, so I navigated myself out to a K-Mart, which didn't have the proper cable to connect my iPod to the car stereo. So, then I went to Target, and found what I needed (anybody have any questions as to why K-Mart is going out of business?). As a result, I could now listen to my iPod in the rental car:

The picture of me listening to Tool's "Rosetta Stoned" didn't turn out, unfortunately...

This was certainly a nice perk, especially in a rental car. I didn't bother bringing any CDs with me, nor I am willing to burn some CDs just for a couple of days of driving around.

What is really amazing though, is that I'm finding this feature on almost all of the cars that I am looking at in my extensive car search. Portable audio devices have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until the iPod that auto makers started catering to them. Pretty amazing.

-Andy.