Clarion Car Stereo - It's hard to imagine a more feature-laden unit below $100. It sounds very good, with very decent FM range, but easily the primary strength of this unit is its versatile connectivity: USB for iPod or flash drive, front AUX input, bluetooth, and of course CD/mp3 (though some players have dropped this feature). The rear USB cable was important to me for concealing a drive in the glovebox, which I preferred to the convenience of front-panel USB access.

Bluetooth capability had not been a priority for me, but the handsfree calling system and music streaming work well, an unexpectedly big plus. The disc player loads much more slowly than my previous Pioneer models, but the USB file loading time is somewhat better, and that will be my primary source of music.

The main downside (minus one star) of the Clarion Car Stereo is its much less refined display of mp3 track information, and its far less capable search mechanism, a problem if using drives larger than, say, 2 or 4 GB. It has a two-line display, but only the top line changes to show file name, artist, etc. By contrast, Pioneer has developed a very nice scrolling search that can navigate much larger drives full of music. Still, with the Clarion Car Stereo you can tell what's playing, and eventually find what you're looking for on the drive.

Finally, I'll note that this unit fit my 1998 Corolla nicely, despite warnings from Amazon and Crutchfield that it wouldn't. Very easy to install, despite the many jacks hanging off the back -- a bit of a nuisance, but also part of the unit's great connectivity. All in all, the best deal currently on Amazon for features and price.