Hey, I recently bought a new car stereo because my old one broke itself. The glue came off the backing and when it would fold out, it got caught and pulled wires and stuff loose inside. Anyway, the new one I got is the Panasonic CQ-C9901U. It can play MP3's and hook to an iPod. This is a very good thing because I have 549 CD's and that would be hard to have in my car. I can put those onto around 60-70 CD's in MP3 format. However, that is 43.5GB, so if I just got an iPod that can hold that, I'd be all set. The problem is that I don't want to pay much for an iPod like that. I think I need to get the 60GB one.

Does anyone know of anything?

It would help greatly if you told us where you live.

Probably a freebie coming with a 2 year cellphone subscription, pawn shops, eBay..
Or your local fence (jk)

I'm pretty sure that you wont get a free one legally... But if yes, i'm interested

I live near Eugene, Oregon. That's in the United States for those of you who don't know.

Did you try ebay? Does it have to be an iPod?

Woody

I tried eBay but wanted to see if there was anything better. It doesn't have to be an iPod but it has to be able to hold at least 43.5GB and hook to an AUX-IN port in a car stereo.

If you were r-e-e-e-a-a-l-y desperate, you try one of those banner ads you see on the web all the time. How they work is you have to subscribe to a bunch of trial services and try each one out for a certain period of time. They are gambling with the fact that you will either buy into one of the services you tried or will, in your laziness, forget to cancel the service once the trial period ends and get charged. I know someone who got a free Xbox that way, but it is a huge pain in the @$$ because you have to remember everything that you signed up for, most of the trial software you might try contian spyware/adware, and the conditions and how and when to cancel the service are just asinine, plus sometimes you cannot cancel very easily and you have to fill out useless forms or call somwhere and sit through a bunch of instructions. Long story short, the road isn't easy but you can get your Ipod free.

Nice, maybe I'll try that way. I'm not desperate. I just have time.

Be careful though, some might be scams and the person I know might have just gotten lucky.

in that case, get a job and buy an ipod...

Or you could ask randomly ask close friends for money, like so:

Idec: Hey <name of friend here>, could you loan me a couple of bucks for a... uh... a twix bar?

friend: uh, ok.

Heh, that's a cool idea. Alas, I do have a job. I just didn't want to wait until I saved enough for an iPod since I already waited a while to have enough for the stereo.

Also see if you have a Apple store near by. The Apple Store up here in Cincinnati sells older generation refurbished iPods. I am not sure about they price but I could have picked up a 60GB iPod photo for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, they don't sell refurbished current generation iPods.

Either way, you are looking at spending over $200 for a new or refurbished unit. Many websites also sell refurbished units. Your best bet will probably be eBay though.

I wouldn't try those subscription services as they are a pain. You will spend countless hours trying to pick a certain number of services (I think you have to pick 3 of them), keep those services for the 14 day trial, and then cancel all the services.

Seriously, nothing is really ever "free" in life, especially something as popular as a iPod.

Actually, I've been thinking of using a USB hard drive instead. The problem is that my head unit only has a way of connecting to an external device via RCA or a DIN cord. Now I just have to find some kind of DIN cord/USB adapter.

A external hard drive won't work. The only way it would work is if your stereo accepts USB input. Other than that, you will be stuck with getting a device that can outout to RCA left and right audio.

Keep in mind that you will have to purchase a portable dock adapter to get this to work with a iPod. The iPod itself can outout to RCA left and right audio through the headphone port but it is recomended that you purchase a car adapter with a line-out port, this will give you better quality and it will charge your iPod. There are many brands out there but a good line-out car adapter will cost you around $30 or $40.

There are hard-disc inclosures that are for media playback such as the Mvix or Izak.

edit: spelling

My girlfriend has had very good success with one of the free ipod sites - she received both a 4G iPod and a Shure e2g. You do need to be incredibly diligent with the trial offers so that you don't get dinged a lot of money though, and you need to keep tabs on where your order is going after you've handled all of the offers. However, they did "misplace" her order for a HP laptop after she completed all the offers on that - last time we heard, it was in the mail...

That said, I have nowhere near the diligence to follow through with stuff like that, so I'll definitely avoid it. But at least some of them do work.

but that in itself renders the iPod not free.

I would agree. Additionally, I don't think that the amount of time spent on signing up for these trials then canceling them and the right time really makes these "free" iPod giveaways worth it. eBay is probably your best bet or check your local classifieds. You just need to watch eBay though. The other day, I saw that a 60GB iPod photo (basically a 4G iPod with a color screen and photo features) was sold for the same price as a 60GB 5G iPod.

You should be able to pick up a 60GB or 40GB iPod for $200 or less though, just as long as you don't mind getting the older generation ones. Good luck in finding a 5G for less than $200 (unless it is a used 30GB model and the person selling it is generous).

Okay, no more free iPod talk on HA. This attracts too many spammers to the forum.

Also realize that you will get swamped with e-Mail spam and probably regular mail spam as well when you sign up to one of these "free iPod" pyramid schemes. Those sites sell their contact data to marketing firms, no matter what they say in their privacy policy. Ultimately you will always pay a price.