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
RUSH – Moving Pictures 40th Anniv. (Not sure which disc)
This is in my CD player- very limited release on CD but it’s here.
https://smallwonder.bandcamp.com/album/wendy-2
The best thing in the history of the world in my opinion
The Cult-Sonic Temple
Cheap Trick At Budokan.
One of the Dicks Picks series of Grateful Dead live concert albums – not exactly sure which one. I’ve got a caselogic case full of em that mostly lives out its days under my drivers seat but occasionally gets dug out and switched out.
Currently?
And Out Come the Wolves
zero skips on that one
I bought my 1997 E39 528i BMW in 2022 from Italian guy who got too old to drive. about 6 or 7 months into owning the car I realized I never checked the CD-changer. Turned it on, and voila there are 6 CDs with old Italian songs. I never opened the magazine since, never touched it, I just know there are 6 CDs with old Italian songs from PO. they are still there and there will be:)
Too lazy to hike to my parking spot to confirm, but likely choices are one of the following:
The Doors-The Doors
Miles Davis-Kind Of Blue
Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
Mostly for my work commute I just listen to Sirius XM, but I have a couple visor holders worth of CD copies (I don’t trust any car stereo with the originals) for when that doesn’t scratch whatever my current musical itch is.
For road trips, we go with the ~1K CDs I have ripped to FLAC and loaded on a micro SD card on my phone, current vehicles all have a AUX IN port.
It still amuses me that I can fit what used to be several shelves worth of CDs or vinyl records onto something the size of a thumbnail that is very usable for portable tunes.
1997 ZJ: had a factory-installed tape player; went through a couple of CD-based head units before ending up with the current one that in addition to CDs will also accept SD cards, USB input (x2), Bluetooth, and aux input. The last time it held a CD was shortly after installation, when I put a CD in to see if it would work. I don’t remember what it was.
2003 TJ: currently holds dust, I guess? It won’t reliably read discs anymore. The last thing I played in there was a mix CD I burned myself, but I’ve tried it with other CDs with no luck.
2009 WK: had a factory-installed 5 or 6 disc changer; shortly after I bought it I loaded it with CDs to make sure it worked, then ejected all the discs. Current head unit only does USB and Bluetooth.
2021 JL: no CD player. Salesman had a good laugh when I asked if it was even an option.
My car has a CD player but I have never once used it in the year I’ve had it. My last car also had one and in the 6 years I owned it, I think I may have used it twice ever? Ever since I got my first iPod over 20 years ago, I pretty much stopped using CDs except to rip them to iTunes to put songs on my iPod or iPhone, and I even stopped doing that over 10 years ago
2007 Toyota Solara factory 6disc indash cd player currently inserted:
Metallica: Master of Puppets
Zappa: Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
Pretenders: Pretenders
Public Image Limited: Album
Dwight Yoakam: A Long Way Home
Fingers crossed always that after 19 years the cd player keeps playing
The last vehicle with a CD player was a few years ago. I had Guided By Voices Bee Thousand in there when I cleaned it out before selling it.
my 20 y.o, 300k xc90 has some of my favorite CD’s stuck in it until i disassemble it and set them free. Included are:
-Joywave How do you feel now- great on the drive to skiing or biking
-Tom Petty greatest hits for when i want to sing in the car
-The Figgs Set 3 from my wedding cause they are close family friends and they rule if you like 90’s power pop and killer skills
-Old Crow Medicine Show cause they are amazing
-Yonder Mtn String Band Live show from forever ago cause they are awesome
-The Band Big Pink, b/c they are awesome, i even named a kid after a band member
That car is destined for the great crusher in the sky, so i should likely get to extraction activities whilst the Northeast experiences a heat wave
My favorite artist, Aesop Rock, put out his newest album on cassette, which I gleefully played in the cassette player of my 1998 BMW e36.
My ’17 Accord has a slot for a CD but I don’t think I have ever inserted one. I had a 6-CD player installed in the trunk of my ’01 Jetta. It had a couple of Cold Play discs, a pair of Moody Blues albums and a couple of mix discs that I burned from MP3s.
Mostly I listen to news or comedy channels via Sirius/XM these days. Once in a while, First Wave or The Bridge when I tire of the news and laughs.
My CD player has Delerium’s Semantic Spaces cued up for those times that I’m out of cell service and need tunes provided the old way.
Cheap Chinese plastic phone holder (shrug emoji)
I gave away my two favourite mix CDs I made for driving, but still have a dozen others in a little CD binder thingie I got as a freebie from outpost.com (remember them? They were basically like newegg before newegg). The most recent ones I played were Megadeth – The System Has Failed and Allan Holdsworth – Wardenclyffe Tower.
I made a mix CD of period- and lifestyle-appropriate songs when I got my ’88 SL. It included Kid Charlemagne and a few other Steely Dan songs, and son Fleetwood Mac hits.
An AOL trial that someone jammed in there decades ago. I had The Internet in my car before anyone and if I hit fast forward, it’s high-speed.
6 Disc
Confirmed, with the wife:
Bon Iver – Sable, fable
DMB – Under the Table and Dreaming
Tribe – Midnight Riders
Sarah McLaughlin – Surfacing
The other two slots, possibly:
Tool – Ænima (probably not, but possible)
Bon Iver – I, I (definitely a high possibility)
Counting Crows – Films About Ghost…
Nickel Creek – ‘self titled’
Nickel Creek – This Side
Radiohead – OK Computer
Radiohead – Kid A
We Bluetooth when not listening to radio, but do disc on trips.
“…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.”
This era was minimal cell phones and maximum trunk wattage. The tome of discs 4 a page in a 2″ 5 Star Binder is dedicated to the person riding shotgun. The 16 rack top discs were stored on the sun visor, in the order of the driver’s choosing. I was rap/metal on one end, Pink Floyd and Radiohead on the other.
I love pairing a drive with an artist on CD. It sets the mood.
I’m pretty sure I can guess your date or birth with a 15-minute margin of error.
Dad? Is that you? LoL
… Maybe
A mix CD that a relative burned for me 20 years ago. They were young and poor, but wanted to give something personal at the holidays. Still a cool present.
Not a CD but a cassette, I recently got my truck running again after ages of issues and my auto group gave me grief because “I want a New Duck” by Weird Al was playing from his Dare to be Stupid album in the video I showed off of the tach working.
The M240 has the only CD player in our household. Right now, it’s filled with Only Slightly Mad, by David Bromberg (who is also a goddamned treasure).
I love the album “Midnight On The Water” by Bromberg.
I don’t have a CD player in my current ’24 Golf R, but the music on my iPhone connected to that car with CarPlay are the same as the CD’s in my 1992 Maxima SE with 6 CD changer in the trunk and single slot in the dashboard, plus many more artists / genre’s on my iPhone. Eagles Greatest Hits, Linda Ronstadt’s Lush Life, Dan Folgelberg’s Greatest Hits, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Return To Forever’s Best Of, Yes’ Close To The Edge, and in the slot on the dash George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. I’m stuck in a bygone era musically and I am happy to be there. (I also enjoy Classical, Celtic, Folk Rock, New Age, and Big Band. I simply cannot get into current pop music, nor did I care for pop music from around 1970 onward). Pax Vobiscum.