Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A bit of automotive audio history: New Car Demo Tapes. Let's try putting an 8-track player in a modern car! They don't include CD players in new cars these days, since physical media is less common. But another automotive sound artifact lost to the sands of time was a demonstration tape included with a new car factory stereo. As recently as the mid-1990s, a demo cassette was included. But by 2003 my new car included a CD with no demonstration media. So where did these demonstration tapes come from, and why did they go away? In the 1960s, the timing was right: Lear Jet invented the 8 track format, and Ford included it with their new cars. Most people had records at home, and the only their portable option previously might have been a tinny sounding AM transistor radio. As the doomed 8 track format gave way to the more versatile cassette, the trend continued for a few more years. But demo CDs were never included with new cars at the same rate as tapes. (They seemed to be mostly for higher-end systems.) One thing I like about the whole concept of providing a demo tape is the people who made these 8 track players and sent them into the world felt they had to make sure that the products worked independently. Today, we're at the other extreme, where we buy hardware that's useless without an underlying connected service, i.e. satellite radio. I also find it interesting that as car audio has put us in more control of what we hear, it seems like we're headed toward less control of the car itself! Now we're able to make our own very individual music choices so it's unlikely an auto maker in the future would attempt to produce a "mass appeal" selection of songs and distribute them on physical media...
0:00 Acura's little known 8-Track Option?
0:28 Custom Auto Manufacturer Tapes
0:54 Pontiac's Exciting Sound for 1972
1:24 A Splice-less repair
2:08 Cadillac 1974: Across the Wide Country
3:03 Chevrolet Concert Sound Stereo
3:21 Don't try this at home
3:33 Ford Audio Systems Demo Tape (1990)
4:00 Kenny G Driving Hazard
4:15 A brief historical search
5:30 Conclusion (with real horse!)
Playlists with the songs I could find:
Chevy: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucdGXHLfcVTaw1HNPJPoKP-q
Cadillac: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucdQNxUvD1GWZpM5r66UQEvu
Pontiac: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSuce5k9FYVYJS4A8KaXDSjVM7
A bit of automotive audio history: New Car Demo Tapes. Let's try putting an 8-track player in a modern car! They don't include CD players in new cars these days, since physical media is less common. But another automotive sound artifact lost to the sands of time was a demonstration tape included with a new car factory stereo. As recently as the mid-1990s, a demo cassette was included. But by 2003 my new car included a CD with no demonstration media. So where did these demonstration tapes come from, and why did they go away? In the 1960s, the timing was right: Lear Jet invented the 8 track format, and Ford included it with their new cars. Most people had records at home, and the only their portable option previously might have been a tinny sounding AM transistor radio. As the doomed 8 track format gave way to the more versatile cassette, the trend continued for a few more years. But demo CDs were never included with new cars at the same rate as tapes. (They seemed to be mostly for higher-end systems.) One thing I like about the whole concept of providing a demo tape is the people who made these 8 track players and sent them into the world felt they had to make sure that the products worked independently. Today, we're at the other extreme, where we buy hardware that's useless without an underlying connected service, i.e. satellite radio. I also find it interesting that as car audio has put us in more control of what we hear, it seems like we're headed toward less control of the car itself! Now we're able to make our own very individual music choices so it's unlikely an auto maker in the future would attempt to produce a "mass appeal" selection of songs and distribute them on physical media...
0:00 Acura's little known 8-Track Option?
0:28 Custom Auto Manufacturer Tapes
0:54 Pontiac's Exciting Sound for 1972
1:24 A Splice-less repair
2:08 Cadillac 1974: Across the Wide Country
3:03 Chevrolet Concert Sound Stereo
3:21 Don't try this at home
3:33 Ford Audio Systems Demo Tape (1990)
4:00 Kenny G Driving Hazard
4:15 A brief historical search
5:30 Conclusion (with real horse!)
Playlists with the songs I could find:
Chevy: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucdGXHLfcVTaw1HNPJPoKP-q
Cadillac: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSucdQNxUvD1GWZpM5r66UQEvu
Pontiac: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvdr2fcSSuce5k9FYVYJS4A8KaXDSjVM7
