We bought the Mazdabator just before the mp3 craze truly took off, which means our car is pretty much the only one on the road that doesn’t have an auxiliary port to plug in an iPod. We’re limited to CDs and the radio, and that sucks – it’s what I imagine life was like before the Industrial Revolution, complete with cholera and Typhoid Mary’s deadly peach melba reducing life expectancies everywhere.
To get around only being able to listen to 20 songs at once instead of several thousand, we use an FM transmitter. It used to be an excellent workaround, until technology took another leap forward – now I’m experiencing a wide variety of increasingly ass-marbling problems that have me wanting to sell the car and get a new one, all because I hate the radio.
Yes, I’m aware of how utterly ridiculous and first world that sounds. I kind of hate myself for it, but only until I get into the car again and oh look it’s the 1700s and I need doctor orgasms to cure my hysterics. I’m tired of the static, clunkiness of the transmitter, and other people: if I drive by anyone using any kind of device on the same frequency, it bleeds over and plays through my radio instead of my own music. It happens way more often than it used to, and is getting worse – this morning I was stopped at a traffic light when someone in a car near me unintentionally forced their music on my ears. This would be annoying enough – I was really into whatever the hell I was listening t0 – but the final insult to injury was the song that bled in.
Mother FUCKER.
Ed, we need a new car.
what up, jerk cat
delicious juice dot com 
Couldn’t you get an aftermarket stereo with an auxiliary port? Or do you also want a new car?
in my 2004 kia, I just use an adapter in the lighter, and tune it to a fm station and voila.. that doesn’t work for you?
That’s what I do now, but the transmitter likely isn’t strong enough to keep other signals from butting in. Plus I’ll soon be getting a multi-format charger for the car that uses the lighter for power – so I won’t be able to keep the transmitter plugged in.
Sounds like you need a vastly more powerful transmitter! Overpower THEM for once.
If I had that power, I would play the filthiest music known to man and force it onto everyone’s ears. YEAH!
Ed actually pointed me to a kit made specifically for the Mazda 3 that enables aux audio, so I ordered it. No one will ever force Michael Bolton on me EVER AGAIN.
You can likely get a box that interfaces with your stock stereo for under $200 (probably with free installation) from Future Shop, Best Buy or online elsewhere. I bought one and hooked it up myself to my Toyota Matrix and it gave me two audio line-ins. It usually plugs into the cd charger port that exists on most stock stereos.
I got mine (pictured here): http://www.flickr.com/photos/retrocactus/425506097 from Circuit City back in the day but it was available from Crutchfield.ca as well. It’s made by USA Spec and this one was called DF-TOY. Couldn’t find a Mazda specific one but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Never liked FM transmitters since our local airwaves are kinda brutal…even worse when you go on a roadtrip and have to change it every time you hit a new city.
Doh! I was slow to reply and missed your response about the kit…