What’s In Your CD Player?

Now that we’re into 2026, it appears the era of CD players in new cars may be truly over, though it has certainly been effectively over for much longer. According to AutoBlog, Lexus and Subaru were the CD player holdouts in 2025, and even if some models hold on into 2026 with CD slots in the dash, it’s safe to assume no manufacturers are adding CD players to their cars moving forward.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of cars still out there rocking CD players, of course, even if it’s been a good long while since any CDs were actually rocked therein. Or maybe you’re slipping discs in and out of your dash on the regular. Heck, maybe you’re still burning your own mix CDs, of which our pal Kristen Lee over at MotorTrend will surely approve. That’s why we’re Autopian Asking.

And while this is certainly an opportunity to brag about the highly tasteful tunes you’re blasting via a laser bouncing off pits in a piece of aluminized plastic, the question may provoke some of you to ask it of yourselves with more emphasis on the is: “What IS in my CD player?” Dark Side Of The Moon? Sebadoh’s Harmacy? A slice of ham? A Kraft Single? 

Back in the day, you probably had a zippered case bulging with CDs freed from their fragile and space-eating jewel cases. If you think scrolling a Spotify screen is distracting while driving, try clumsily flipping through a fat tome of plastic pages balanced on your knee, then extracting the disc you want and swapping it with whatever you’re ejecting to be replaced. Much whirring and clicking later, music at last.

So we ask you: what’s in your CD player right now, if you have one? What used to be in there when you had one?

Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com