I just got the 2003 intrepid with the factory CD/Radio in the dashboard. I have long since stopped burning music CDs and have been using my 20gig MP3 player through the cassette deck of my previous car. I considered getting the CD stacker as an option, but who can give up 1500+ songs at ones fingertips for 5 stacked CDs, (cost of the CD stacker is roughly the same price I payed for the MP3 player!)? My plan is to use the CD input line originally for the optional CD stacker to now plug into the lineout of my MP3 player. The problem is I have no clue if behind the factory radio is a RCA line-in or if not, what does one recomment to run a wire to the front of the dashboard to plug in the MP3 player to the CD line-in from behind the back of the Radio? What colors, if not a RCA input, are the line-in, left/ right if it is part of the radio's wiring harness plug in? I hope in the near future all factory radios will have a some type of line input on the front iof the radios for additional input options., or offer some type of built in mp3 player which you can upload music into its memory. It sure beats filling the center storage space with jewel cases. Thank you for your help!
Are you referring to an optional factory external cd player unit? And using the radio's input for that component, to hook up an mp3 player? If so, I doubt you'll be successful as usually they use DIN plugs with the factory components. Also, even if you managed to get a DIN cable to splice in to, the sound inputs would almost certainly not be compatible and you wouldn't be happy with the way it sounded.
As for the future, I don't think the manufacturers will offer stereos with those features any time soon. Closest thing I've seen was for the 03 accord (and I'm sure many other vehicles by now) you can get an external CD player that mounts right in front of the gear shifter, and it is mp3 CD compatible.
They do make aftermarket decks with front-panel auxilliary inputs. Aiwa and JVC and maybe some of the other brands offer this feature. (https://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-GTiYeB7FXn7/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=62700&I=570CDCMA01&o=m&a=0&cc=01&avf=N). And of course nearly all brands now let you get a special adapter cable to plug in to the stereo's cd changer connector, that lets you use that as an auxilliary source.
I would get a new after market head unit that plays cd,cd-r,cd-rw, and mp3 formats. Then you can burn cd's in mp3 and get 100 hrs a disc. aftermarket is always better than oem. or get a kenwood music keg that you can hook up to the factory head unit.
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Big Dave