The USB car stereo is the latest development in bringing entertainment to the car driver. The history of the car radio isn't all that long but it has come a long way. I'm old enough to remember cars when having a radio was considered a luxury and you had to pay extra. I can even remember a schoolfriend whose dad had a car with a valve radio which was very unreliable but at the time it still seemed a little magical that you could hear music while you drove along the road.

Times have changed and we now have better stereo equipment in our cars than we had in our homes only a few short years ago. Now with USB connections we can carry in our pockets the same music we listen to at home and play it through the car stereo systems on our journeys by car.

A USB connection should mean you can plug your mp3 player or a standard pen drive/usb stick loaded with music or even a portable hard drive into your stereo and play all your music or listen to audio books or just about any other sort of sound recording you care to name.

USB car stereos are great but there do seem to be a few issues with the control systems when you playback your mp3 tracks and not every unit operates in the same way so it's best to check out the operation and features before you buy.

You can get units with bluetooth now which allows for a wireless connection between your car stereo system and your mp3 player which is great when you get it all set up and working but some people find that a tricky task and there may be some connection issues.

As with the USB input car stereo systems the man/machine interface can prove troublesome but a lot of it is down to personal taste. You may love the way the controls work but someone else might find it a cumbersome system to operate.

The bottom line is that USB car stereo systems are great for plug and play music. It is a whole lot easier to drag and drop music from your hard drive to your usb drive than it is to write your own CD of mp3 tracks or carry a whole bunch of audio cds around with you.

Bluetooth can be great but you have to have an mp3 player with blue-tooth as well as your car stereo system being similarly equipped but whether you usb or blue tooth the main thing seems to be that you are comfortable with how it all operates and controls the music you want to hear.