Cherry Hinton Blue

Is there some sort of software update available to get this functionality? Like you, I think the update sounds half-hearted, but it's better than just getting numbers 1 to 6 on the screen and having to guess what on earth they mean.

Sony Ericsson do a quite serviceable (and fairly cheap) Bluetooth receiver if there's a way of plugging it into the system via an analogue input. I mentioned it in this thread because I wondered whether the iPod MP3 Player :winky: Integration Kit could double up as an analogue input?

Does the iPod integration system use the big flat iPod connector, or does it take the sound from the headphone output? Just wondering, because if it used the headphone output (or if there was another way of getting an analogue signal in) then the iPod dock could double up to be a connector for a Bluetooth device using a receiver like the Sony Ericsson MBR-100. Lots of mobile phones are quite acceptable MP3 player alternatives now.

Parthiban - You're right of course: I'm using "iPod" in the "Hoover/Sellotape" sense. I should really have said "MP3 player generally". And you're doubly right about Bluetooth; my Sony Ericsson W880i mobile phone, not an especially expensive model, can carry as much music as the 6 CDs in the Lexus - and I always have it on me. Car audio is letting the world pass it by. Phil (pobrown) - Fair point, but DAB is still a lot better than MW for those stations not on FM (Five Live, TalkSPORT, etc), even if we discount the DAB-only stations. Thanks everyone!

The top-end system does have a multi-disc CD/DVD player which has an "MP3" badge on it. Now, if I could stick six DVDs' worth of MP3s in the unit, and it gave a track/artist display, I could get 400-500 albums in the system and there'd be no need for an iPod. Can anyone tell me if this is possible? Somehow it sounds too good to be true. My local dealer didn't know, so I'm planning to take down a DVD full of MP3s to find out...

I've just had a demo and an extended test drive in a 2007 RX400h. Very nice, and I'd certainly like one. But why is such a technically advanced car let down by such an antiquated audio system? The dealer kept telling me all about how the "Mark Levinson" label meant audio quality of the highest standard, but he was reduced to mumbling excuses when I asked where the DAB radio was. For goodness' sake, it's 2007, surely we shouldn't have to listen to BBC Radio Five Live on medium wave in a car which costs more than my first house? Quite ordinary in-car audio manufacturers seem able to make complete digital radio/CD units for well under a hundred quid. I wouldn't mind if it was an optional upgrade, but it isn't. Optional upgrades, however, do include the generous offer of a cradle to plug your iPod into, for an amount considerably in excess of the cost of the iPod itself. I gather connections like this come as standard in some cars which would almost fit into the boot of the RX400h. I'd expect top-end audio manufacturers to have moved on by now and offer slot-in iPod systems as an option. Now that I would pay two hundred quid for, if they existed. It got worse. As I pulled down the lever into "drive", a previously-obscured slot was revealed. It couldn't be, could it? Yes, it was! A cassette player! In 2007! Now, don't get me wrong, I grew up with TDK and Maxell. But that was twenty years ago. I think I still have a box of tapes somewhere in the loft, but I doubt my home cassette deck, pensioned off in the nineties, would still record new tapes. Even now, I can't stop giggling about this. Am I some sort of bleeding-edge audio nut? I don't think so. I just want to listen to BBC Radio Five Live in decent quality, and play stuff off my iPod without paying through the nose for the privilege. The dealer fetched details of the 2008 RX400h - perhaps my wishes would be granted. Er, no. I get a nice blue "hybrid" badge if I wait for the new model though. :duh: