Recently I acquired a lovely new 2009 Acura CSX, which I have really enjoyed driving these past few months. One of my favourite features of the car is that it has a USB port which I can plug my iPhone into and play music through the factory stereo system.

However one significant beef I have with this option is that the controls on the factory system are terrible for selecting music. I have 3770 songs in my library, and scrolling through them with a slow-to-react wheel is definitely not the most efficient method of selecting music. Especially when I need to do it quickly and get back to keeping my attention on the road.

To circumvent this problem I’ve gotten into the habit of picking an album or playlist before I get into the car and then plugging my phone into the USB port. Once that happens, you relinquish control of your music to the car’s controls, which, as previously mentioned, are shitty.

But I shouldn’t have to do that. I want to be able to quickly find what I want to listen to and get on with the driving. I hate to say it, but I think Ford’s Sync technology actually does a great job of this.

One way that I like to listen to my music, and maybe this is weird, is to put my library on shuffle, find a song from an album I like, then turn shuffle off to hear songs from that album. I can’t do this in the CSX, though, because it sorts songs by song name and not by album.

My solution is to create a playlist with all the songs in my library sorted by album name as opposed to song name. It should allow me to do what I want to do – scan through a bunch of songs until I find the one I want and then turn off shuffle to hear that album.

Despite my grief with using the system this way, I should say that the USB port in the car is a really amazing feature and something that sold me on the car originally.