Sunday, February 6, 2011
Ready... Cassette... Go!
According to the New York Times, which is never wrong except when its reporters just kind of make crazy **** up, no 2011 model-year vehicle is offers a cassette option. Humorously enough, the absolute last vehicle to ever offer a tape deck was the 2010 Lexus SC-430, a two-door convertible that retailed new for $68,405. I don't know how your brain operates, but mine finds it extremely difficult to fathom an image of a Lexus SC-430 buyer sitting in the dealership ticking over the options (18-inch Machined Tourmaline Wheel/Tire upgrade, for example) with the tip of his gold-plated Parker pen and saying,
"Oh, yeah, and, by the way-- throw in that tape-deck, too. I've got some great Weird Al tapes left over in the glovebox of my mistresses' Audi R8."
Be that as it may, reading this article made me rather nostalgic for my first car which, of course, had a tape-deck, and I was actually fortunate that it did. My 1990 Ford Crown Victoria was a retired police car. As such, many police cars are manufactured with a radio-delete option which, as you might suspect, deletes the radio, leaving a very unfortunate space where the car's radio would have been. The reason being is that police commanders could then be sure that their officers weren't cruising the streets of America listening to Stevie Wonder or, maybe worse, Stevie Nicks when they should be listening to, you know, their police radio. Plus, the temptation to play Ray Charles's "Busted" whilst driving criminals to the local lockup would just be too tempting for some badge-jockeys.
http://mymasonicapron.blogspot.com/2...ssette-go.html