I've worn out one of the cassettes using it a lot to play tunes in the Jetta, I have replaced it with a new one and it's working great (perhaps the player heads are more robust than the cassettes?).
In the Vanagon, I have an iPod, USB and min-jack as inputs on the stereo... all are more reliable and fewer moving parts. The one thing that keeps failing is the remote control... means I have to get up to turn off the stereo at night. Life is sooo complicated :)

regards, Peter Kraiker
turbowesty@gmail.com
kraikerphoto.com / studiofstop.com
'82 Westfalia 1.9TD 5spd
'05 Jetta Wagon 1.9TDI 5spd

On 2011-02-22, at 2:19 PM, Steven Johnson wrote:

> Interesting how and why we hang on to the "old-school" stuff.  (I still have
> my vinyl....Not on the road..)
> I think that you might consider an FM mudulator signal that allows for an
> auxilary input which gives a
> somewhat better sound than your cassette adapter or those FM tranmitters.
> If you want to keep your
> cassette player in good shape, I'd think you'd want to not keep scratching
> the heads with the cassette
> plug-in thingie.....
> 
> Just my $.02...
> 
> Steven
> 91 Westy