I-GO may not have electric plug-in cars – yet – but there’s another way you can plug in during your next I-GO trip: with an iPod.
I live in Uptown, and the two I-GO cars I use the most are parked in the Bridgeview Bank lot at Broadway and Lawrence. One’s a Toyota Prius, the other’s a Honda Civic (also a hybrid). As an avid music fan (and critic – I’m a regular contributor to Time Out Chicago), I typically spend a few minutes surveying my music collection to select just the right CD for my next I-GO jaunt.
Until it dawned on me, belatedly, that my trusty #4436 (dedicated I-GOers know their favorites cars’ IDs by heart) comes equipped with an auxiliary input for my iPod. Duh. 3,458 songs versus a 12-track CD? Hmmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as an I-GO staffer I should’ve known this. But, like many members, I’m often making my reservations in a hurry and just clicking through quickly to the car I want and the specified time, so that nobody else can grab it when I need it. I don’t always look at the various search amenities on the online reservation site.
One of those amenities (in the “Find a Car” form) lets you choose a car equipped with an auxiliary mini-jack input (via the headphone port) for a portable digital audio player (or smart phone). Just check “AUX Input” and hit the search button. Lots of I-GO cars have the hookup: mainly new model year vehicles from ’06 to ’09, and lots of the Hondas (Civics, Fits) have them, although many of the Priuses and Scions are starting to get them, too. It’s often located on the dash console, but sometimes it’s part of the storage compartment between the front seats.
So stop by an electronics dealer and drop a few bucks on a mini-to-mini auxiliary cable cord (with two male ends) for your MP3 player. (The Apple version is pretty cool.)
Just keep your hands on the click wheel and your eyes on the road.
I-GO Car Sharing 