Do you care about car audio?


I like nice cars and I appreciate the fact that I've been fortunate enough to lease and drive some very nice ones.  I would never drive a luxury car out of warranty, but that's not my point.  My point is, as much as I love audio, I never really had any urge to upgrade my car audio system.  Whatever came with the car was totally satisfactory to me.  Right now, my car came with a somewhat upgraded Meridian stereo, but it is not the full-blown surround/subwoofer deal.  It sounds fine and I've never wanted more than a standard decent car radio had to offer.  
Do you people have any enthusiasm for upgraded car audio as opposed to stock?  Then again, truth be told, I've never listened to the fancy car setups and I might be tempted if I thought it was that much more enjoyable.  Who knows. 
chayro
i have $24k in my truck stereo. my speakers are Focal K2s. my amps are Mosconi Zeros. my subs are Illusion Audio 12" shallows. Mosconi DSP. subscription to Qoboz hi-res streaming.
 i win trophies with this system. it gets moved each time i get a new vehicle.
i have all the seats, carpet, console & door panels removed to completely sound deaden.
this keeps the road noise out & the music in.
where are you? wanna hear it?
My new BMW comes with Acoustic glass option to reduce road noise. Thicker glass all around,  It actually works quite well. I always get a higher end car stereo in all my cars. I think its a bargain compared to what you'd pay for a stand alone system. 

Porsche for instance, you get an entire Burmester system for around 6k. That would be an impossible feat if you bought the components separately. Granted, car audio will never sound as good because of small spaces and glass all around. But, of course, it makes a huge difference.
So far I've tried : 

Bose in Maserati GT - complete trash 
Bose in BMW - garbage 
HK in BMW - acceptable  sound 
Bang Olufsen in BMW - better than HK but quite mediocre 
Mark Levinson in Lexus - quite good 
Bowers and Wilkins in BMW - so far best sound I've heard 

Jeep currently features Mcintosh system in their SUV's. Im curious about that. Has anyone heard it yet? 
It is truly sad that most of the folks on this thread has settled for less in their vehicles. What is also disturbing is that they make excuses to why they do. Are we becoming more like our kids, lol. I can’t stand any Factory car systems. Such junk. No matter how nice my car is with its performance and driving experience (Porsche, Viper, etc), not having a good sounding system makes me want to stop driving after 30 minutes. If you don’t like settling fir an okay stereo system in your home, why even do It in your vehicle unless you truly don’t give a darn and your just all hype with your system in your home. It’s so funny how folks get caught up in the high end names of these manufacturers putting car audio crap in these late model cars and calling it sound quality. Oh, and don’t forget, charging you a premium for it. If you only knew what’s behind the badge, you would shed a tear or two. You can definitely create excellent sound in your car as you do in your home. I am sure of it. I use to compete in IASCA competition for sound quality. Is it a lot of work?? Yes it is, just like it is a lot of work to create the best sound in our home. Don’t settle for less and miss out. Treat yourself to having the best system in your automobile. You won’t regret it. 
I've always upgraded car stereos. In today's world, however, you don't always have to go aftermarket, since automakers finally realized music needs to sound good in your car too. 

Again, today peeps are into earbuds versus decent speakers. Depends on what you want.