Cheap car SD/USB/radios

27GBP or 33 with VAT

26 GBP, 32 inc VAT

as telling me that

Cheapest I can find quickly is 50 odd quid on Amazon, dunno if it's any good or not:-

I bought a JVC one from Amazon a couple of years back for 50 notes but that doesn't seem to be available any more.

eBay.

I have one of these in my MX5:

Not cutting edge, but it works well enough - even streams music over bluetooth from my iPhone and people have reported that the hands free is OK even with the roof down at 50mph.

My last 2 came from the remainder area at Aldi. Put the first in the pre-Defender 110 and after a few years it worked fine but got Alzheimers, so had to be programmed every trip. Might have been the car electrics anyway. When we changed to the Disco, we treated it to the next remaindered. It remembers which is good because I can't remember what the buttons do. I think the first was 19.99, the second 29.99 or maybe less. Definitely not more. Has sockets for cards etc.

They now seem to have less overstocking of these sort of things, but I seem to remember seeing one a few weeks ago.

The Lidl/Aldi ones that come up every so often are pretty good - but about 40 quid.

Or Ebay for a secondhand unit?

Bought one from Aldi yesterday, £50, CD/mp3/usb/sd/bluetooth/aux input & remote, stuck it in my motorhome yesterday, sounds good.

8 days left.

Aldi 19 June £49 may be some left. year warranty Full function Bluetooth car stereo A2DP music streaming ? transfer music wirelessly from mobile device AM/FM RDS radio (30 preset stations) Plays CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3/WMA music formats Front Aux-In for iPod connection USB input and SD card reader Multicolour LCD display Flip down detachable fascia High power 4 x 40W

The multicolour display on my 7311 is quite muted in pastel shades and not garish like the ones I've seen in Halfords. (or maybe I found a display setting and can't remember)

All the Tevion stuff I've had is still fine.

2GB MP4 player - about nano size, FM output. 8GB MP3 player - about shuffle size - used with radio. CD/MP3 USB/SD radio 7311. Tape to USB MP3 with aux input for turntable.

Unlike the Creative ZEN player I got my niece 3.5 years ago. It 's display died last summer 4 months before the 3 year insurance expired. She was 14 when I got it her and had a "history" with electrical stuff so I paid the 50% extra for the insurance which included accidental damage. She got a new Zen Xi.

I bought a similar spec Tokai LAR-209 for my caravan. It seemed basically OK, but as I tried its various functions, problems began to appear.

I contacted Pixmania, from whom I bought it, for clarification, but they don't seem to be able to help. I enquired:

"Using one of my 8 GB USB sticks, only a small portion of the tracks are recognised and played, despite all non-MP3 files, including hidden ones, having been deleted. Some of the same files on a 2GB SD card play without problems. Why is this?

A 32 GB USB stick is not recognised, "Error 15" is displayed. What problem does this indicate?

Are SDHC cards (greater than 2GB) compatible with this unit?"

The manual states, rather unhelpfully "The MP3 formats acceptable are limited." What does this mean in practice? Limited by what? How does anybody discover which formats are acceptable?"

They initially just asked me to send it back, so I said

"You are now ask "To clarify yet again, it has never been my request to return the radio, I simply need my questions answered. Surely it is cheaper and quicker for all concerned to move information rather than hardware?"

They said: "Thank you for your e-mail and I would like to inform you that only the manufacturer Tokai will be able to answer your questions. Please contact the manufacturer Tokai."

Which is pretty much full circle, as I have asked for Tokai contact details several times. Previously they said

"I invite you to return your unit for repair as you cannot get in touch with Tokai in the UK."

They have now gone silent.

The name is so common that I haven't had any luck Googling for the manufacturer.

Chris

No, it's cheaper and easier to give PITA customers a refund and hope they don't come back again.

Pixmania have a huge european B2B operation supplying wholesalers and other companies with that kind of product, which they have sourced in the far east and branded themselves. They probably want to keep the name of the OEM manufacturer quiet for business reasons, and you get drowned out searching for "Tokai" in Google. Same as the old days of DSGi (Pixmainia's owners) and the names Saisho, Matsui and Logik.