Driving a 2010 Chevy Camaro 2SS last week, I was reminded that it's light years more advanced than the muscle cars of my youth. Back then, an 8-track tape player, a set of Craig PowerPlay speakers on the rear deck and an EQ booster hanging from the dash was the ultimate in car audio. Yes, I'm really that old.
The Camaro SS I tested had a nine-speaker Boston Acoustics audio system, a CD/MP3 head unit with AM/FM/XM radio, a USB port in the center console for plugging in an iPod or a USB drive loaded with tunes and an aux-in jack.
But the downside of having so many music choices is that sometimes I just don't know what I want to listen to, which is why I've been listening to Pandora a lot lately. And why I was stoked that the bitchin' Camaro's Bluetooth audio feature allowed me to wirelessly stream the Internet radio service.
Bluetooth audio is sort of a sleeper car tech feature: A lot of people don't know what it is or what to use it for, including some of my esteemed Edmunds colleagues. But we break it down in a recent feature story and video.
I'm always surprised when I find out that someone is a fan of Internet radio and that they own a smartphone and drive a car that has Bluetooth audio -- but don't use the feature to listen to it in the car. While the sound quality isn't the best, it's cool to be able to stream music from the "cloud" while in a car. And it's also convenient since you don't have to carry any type of media or cables to connect a portable device.
Of course, you can always just plug your smartphone into a car's aux-in jack. But with Bluetooth audio you can conceivably leave the device in your pocket once you've paired it with the car, and the Camaro supports the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile, which allows the head unit to also control a compatible Bluetooth audio device.
Listening to an Internet radio station via Bluetooth audio while cruising in a Camaro is something David Wooderson would never have dreamed of. And it makes modern muscle cars like the Camaro that much cooler.
By blueguydotcom
on April 4, 2010
12:51 AM
Yep it's handy. Rarely listen to the radio but I like to flip on pandora via bluetooth in my car too.