B&W Name Change Theory

It's not a name change. They have always been Bowers and Wilkins; they just choose to stop using their initials. I do agree that B&W sound too similar to BMW so I always say "B&W speakers" to avoid confusion. I also think Bowers and Wilkins sounds more elegant.

The cars that are hardest to sell are at opposite ends of the spectrum. They are the ones fully loaded with every option (too expensive) and the ones that come bare bones (no options).

I can remember getting a deal on a Corolla back the in 80s because it did not have the AM/FM/Cassette/4 speakers system that everyone wanted even in an economy car. It only had AM/FM and two cheap speakers in the lower dash. I took the car down to a car audio outlet, and with the savings put in a system that made the better one Toyota gave you a joke in comparison.

I like them using Bowers and Wilkens. The initials probably do sound too much like BMW. Now they can put a Richard E. Lord (REL) subwoofer in the trunk ... :-)

"IT IS A CAR, GET OVER IT!"

My car stereo is almost as fun to listen to as my home stereo, granted I've spent a decent amount of cash and time/work on it.

It seems that the vast majority of audiophiles completely dismiss the possibility of enjoying music in their car. I would like to emphasize that if done well, car audio can be just as dynamic as your high-end home system, and just about as fun to listen to. It's kind of like headphones, in that you have drivers very close to you on either side. There are a couple of comprimises, namely imaging is tricky (but who cares) and road noise, though both can be dealt with.

I doubt they are even Bose systems, it is probably a Delco unit wearing the Bose badge because of its reputation with the masses.

Yes, the speakers are probably Bose, the hardware whatever they usually use depending on car brand. I doubt Bose makes car stereos. They don't directly sell them after market.

There are some real nice after market car stereos out there.
The Creek C43 Audiophile Tuner and the Cambridge Audio T500 clone used a car stereo chipset. Michael Creek said he used it because the reception was much better than anything else he could come up with.