Halfords to offer £100 in-car digital radio package
Reaction to the Government's 'Digital Action Plan', confirmed earlier today, continues with the news that Halfords is to offer £100 DAB upgrade packages to the millions of car owners with analogue radios.
From this Sunday (July 11th), Halfords - which sells more than half the UK's car radios - will offer the Pure Highway DAB adaptor with an external aerial for £100 as a "We Fit" package. (Hilarious, Halfords...)
The retailer also plans to launch its own-brand digital in-car radio systems by Christmas.
Just one percent of cars on the road can currently tune into digital radio signals - and motor manufacturers have only pledged that 'most' new cars will be digital-enabled as standard by 2013.
Paul McClenaghan, Halfords Commercial Director said: "With government support for the switch over we expect to see a surge in interest in DAB from motorists. We have been working closely with suppliers and training our staff so that we are ready to help and advise customers on the how to make the transition to this new technology".
Halfords estimates the potential market for digital in-car radios to be worth £2 billion.
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Comments
I must correct myself as my car does not have 7 speakers but it actually has 11 speakers in total.
Some car manufacturers are including DAB ready stereo's in their cars like your S-max or people can purchase a DAB car stereo unit soon but it still does not answer the question for owners that have a manufacturers car radio and speaker system like me as i paid extra to have a Bose sound system in my Audi and also the car has 7 speakers built in, for that reason i will not be changing my head unit as if i did, A) you cant walk into a Bose shop and pick up a car head unit as they dont sell them and, B) car stereo's work on the usual 4 speaker setup / output and need a external amplifier to run more speakers but the point is that my Bose 7 speaker setup in my car is tailor made to work with the Audi / Bose head unit that was supplied.
So it's not as simple as walking into a shop and buying a new car stereo. There will be allot of people in the same situation as me who paid the optional extra for a better stereo system and surround speakers who will be miffed about this DAB change over.
I have a an S-max and this came with a Sony DAB radio (has FM also) and IMO it does sound better than FM (in the carat least), so the radios are available by these 'major' brands (well Sony anyway).However my daily commute involves going through a tunnel where the DAB signal drops out, but FM is still clear, so although good - not perfect
Did not know until you mentioned Clare that this unit has been out a couple of years as i noticed a 5 star What Hi-fi 2008 award. So yes maybe this has sold quite a bit as it's still for sale now.
I still don't like the concept, since this came out in 2008, allot of people now are using phones mounted on their car dashboards, those who use devices that warn them of speed camera's on their dashboard, those who have sat navs mounted on the screen, taxi drivers with the fare meters etc. I just think it's tacky to pop another external device along with the other things people use on a daily basis.
Ill be hoping that Audi find a way of upgrading my built in head unit or a mod to DAB.
I'll have a guess and say it is a small box very like sat navs are ... the only way you're not going to see out of your windscreen is if you are a mouse or a hamster-sized being.
You will see out of your windscreen just fine lol.
so how does that fit in with the rules about an obstruction free windscreen? what with my sat nav and my iPhone holder how am i going to either reach the radio or see where i am going.
On another side when returning to the UK in my car i will not hear about any traffic jams or other news info. Better "pack" lots of MP3..
there needs to be an European "standard" for this.
How come your pioneers, sonys and panasonics brand names never jumped in on the DAB built in car radios ? A lot of people i know complain that the signal drops out on their portables so what's it going to be like DAB radios on the move ?
Erm, the Pure Highway's been on sale for a couple of years so far. I'm waiting for exact sales figures, but market stats suggest it's sold loads...
What an ugly piece of kit, ive just been on Pure's website and this thing is not going to sell i think. You install this DAB tuner to the inner window like a sat nav, stick an external aerial to the same inner window and tune it into the current car stereo that you own already?! Not very nice or neat, imagine that you go on a journey and use a sat nav aswell as this DAB tuner stuck inside the window! good luck seeing out the window i think, lol.