Nola

I'm out to prove that MB was totally out of touch with the market when they made this decision.

young

i have... only b/c i found a tape in one of my storage boxes... felt like an archeologist. and since i don't own a home tape deck, i had to use the car...

SoCal240/6

all the time.

Its very useful when you have young children.

Buellwinkle

I have the MB indash CD. What's a cassette? Is that like an 8-track you use to listen to disco music?

FrankW

oh...hey...i almost forgot i even got a cassette deck behind the little screen...haha...thanks for reminding me...

Buellwinkle

A friend with a ML320 drove for a year until I showed her there was a cassette deck behind that huge screen.

FrankW

some ppl just don't care what feature do they have on their cars as long as they can drive it.

for me, i just don't use the cassette anymore...

hphan

I listened to a few old tapes I had dug up... things with sentimental value. Now I have my mp3 player hooked up through the cassette adapter, so I actually use it quite a bit. I just wish there was a minijack input instead...

Smoky

With poor radio recetion I am forced into the tape deck. I had to dig up a lot of old tunes I had on tapes that hadn't been used in years.

Brought back a lot of old memories. But I miss my CD's in the car, and the other features of CD players.

MB really missed the mark without an in-dash CD player.

Smoky

columbus

Last summer, I was appalled to find that my rented E-Class Avantgarde 220 CDI Auto only had a cassette player. I had to borrow tapes from my brother, and the CDs I had brought along were useless. I did quite a lot of driving, and the radio stations in Germany are just like you expect - oompa-paah It's ear-bending. I guess I've been away too long. Reminds me of why I left in the first place.

When shopping for a Benz stateside I found they keep up the bad practice. So I opted for the Bose system thinking that "that's *gotta* come with a CD-player!" The car I ended up with didn't have Bose (an option that can be omitted as I can see from the posts here...) but everything else I wanted - orion-blue C7 panorama 6-speed charcoal cloth. So the Bose money went towards the CD-changer. Still wish I had an in-dash player for those impulse moments where you just want to pop in a new CD to hear that one song.

I keep a tape with French-Caribbean Zouk in the car for my wife's sake, but otherwise just open the cassette door to demonstrate the feature. It get's a few ooh's and aah's...
Conservative-a$$ Germans...compact-cassette...tsk tsk. Gone the way of the 8-track.

trench

I'll second this observation, the German stations are either oompah or techno.



BT

MB-BOB

Yes, I use my cassette deck... not very often, but yes. A cassette deck is important for non-mainstream items, like "books on tape," motivational tapes, Self-instruction media, etc.

Currently, I'm listening to some sensitivity training tapes to help me be more tolerant of those who turn their $35K MBs into $50K Hondas, and to better understand why some people think that Music since 1994 is worth listening to.

(Just being a bad boy tonight.)

PoonerElRay

I only used the cassette to make sure everything in the car works.

SoCal240/6

LOL. Can I borrow it when you're done?

paulmoody

Yes, I use my cassette deck every day. Not for cassettes mind you (I'm not a dinosaur : ). I have one of those tape deck insert/connectors that has a mini-plug for plugging into other devices. I have several devices i use with it. Always in the car is an Awia XPZ3C 3" mini-cd mp3 player (holds about 4 hours of mp3 music on a $0.50 cdr). Often I use my pen-sized Sony mp3 player. On my longer commutes, I listen to Audible.com books via my thinkpad laptop (yes, I've got a 12v power supply for it). I also have had several passengers plug in their devices (typically cd players, but ipods, mp3, etc. too).

I did have to file a small notch in the faceplate door's corner for the cable to come out of the faceplate (without pinching the cable). You'd never see if I didn't point it out. I then hid the cable by wedging it around the edge of the audio and climate control panels, and into the ashtray area - there I connect whatever device I'm wanting to use. The awia has this cool cradle that recharges it, and it happens to fit in the empty panel below the radio - it looks like it was made for the car!.

So for me - the cassette was the best decision they could have made (unless they had included a 'line-in' since I like using my laptop's audio for books). Second best would be to have a 6 cd-changer that supports mp3 discs (most will play cdr, but only if audio files - mp3 is 11 times more efficient, and 1 regular cd holds over 10 of my favorite cds).

The other day, my 13year old found a cassette tape in a drawer, and asked what it was! He of course has mp3 cd players. I don't think he's ever hear music from vinyll!

galaxygrrl

Books on tape during long drives. Listened to the unabridged version of the Godfather on the way to Yosemite a few weeks ago -- book is better than the movie!

hokusbenz

thats usually the case galaxygrrl. that is why i usually try to read the book first if a great movie is coming out. and oh yeah, i used my cassette deck..... a few times. whee

galaxygrrl

Yes, that is true, but the only reason I said that is the Godfather is such a good movie. The movie had things that were better -- ie, the ending with the cuts back and forth from the muderers to the church.

Duffer

I listen to book cassettes on long drives.

nrl1

Books on tape -- works great!

paulmoody

I guess that 'books on tape' and 'other devices' uses of the stock cassette suggest that MB wasn't too far off on its decision.

session

if audio fidelity is an issue to you, you would not be listening to music in a car, either.

horizon

Which models have tape decks. Is this an option you guys are discussing?

paulmoody

I guess I don't care about the sound quality in my car (I do at home, where I have hi-end audio and use cd's and direct tv cd quality sources). But when I'm in my car, i'm just wanting a soundtrack for my life - i'm driving, and the music is not my focus. I don't buy a car for its sound system - instead, I care about driving feel, performance and reliability (some places up here have no houses for 15 miles - a real problem if you break down when its -15degrees!). As for MP3 format - the music i listen to sounds fine with the 11x reduction in redundant data - not as good as the cd originals (the reason I don't download music), and given the french speaking country music stations i have available up here - its a godsend. I do think that having 50 songs on a device about as big as a fountain pen is great - better than not having it - holding out for better quality means no music snowboarding, kayaking, working out, etc. Call me easy.

trench

Here in the US, MBs come with a tape deck standard - prior to the MY2003 the dealer could install a glove-box mounted CD changer. However for 2003 there will apparently be an in-dash CD player available, as well as factory installed changers.

Cheers, BT