I understand why the after market car stereo thing came about-Detroit equipped cars with pretty lousy radios. I reacll that as late as the 1990’s the standard FORD radio was AM only! So, it made sense to buy a new car, then take it to a stereo shop, and have the lousy OEM radio replaced with something decent.
Now it seems, this is gone-all car makes offer very sophisticated audio packages-like Jensen, BOSE, harmon-Kardon etc. So who buys aftermarket anymore?
Also, why do people steal OEM car radios? they would have to be next to worthless, today.
Getting a BOSE package that comes with your car (or Boston Accoustic, in my situation), is about the same cost as getting an aftermarket product installed. The premium sound systems often still come with the same deck as the regular systems, and a lot of people (myself included) want more features than the OEM deck offers. I didn’t replace all the speakers like I’ve done with every other system I’ve installed, but the factory deck just didn’t have the capabilities I was looking for. I also added 2 12" subs, so even the speakers needed a bit more push.
Um, people who buy used cars? 
Seriously, I have only bought one new car in my lifetime, and I’m 48. That leaves quite a few old used cars for which I could have needed an aftermarket stereo.
Factory car systems are not cost competitive with aftermarket systems. It doesn’t matter what the price range is. I have a low end JVC system in my car with a USB port that is better than the factory stereo it replaced. As the price increases so do the options.
In my Mazda, the Mazda price for a multi-disk CD player was nealy $500. IIRC, I got an equivalent player including installation for less than $150 at Circuit City. Even the Mazda dealer told me I was better off buying an after-market player.
FYI, this was back in 2003… maybe some things have changed.
We bought a new car in January. The old one died, and we needed something cheap and right away, so we bought the best choice (for us) that was on the lots. That turned out to be a base-model car with radio only in it. When we have the bucks, we’ll get a Sirius radio/CD player installed. We weren’t going to dick around cruising car lots for one with the right stereo in it or bother with special order.
Or people with old cars. I just ordered a mp3-able car stereo for my 12 year old car. I like to keep a car for 10 years, so the ability to upgrade from CD to mp3 to whatever the hell is going to be the standard in 7 years is cheaper than getting a new car.
When we bought our new car, we said we were going to replace the head unit at some point. We’d replaced it in all the other cars we’d ever owned, so why not this one?
Well, it was a 2003 Volkswagen Golf with the “Monsoon” sound system. And it sounds pretty damn nice for a factory radio. Sure, changing out the head unit and adding better speakers would make it even nicer. And we might get there…someday. But we’ve enjoyed the system as it is, and 4.5 years later, we still haven’t been strongly* motivated to replace the factory set. Part of that is also that we don’t want to change the stock look of the dash.
*The only thing that makes me unhappy is that the stock stereo doesn’t have an auxilliary jack for our iPods. I will deal with that eventually, as we’re planning to keep this car for years to come.
Word. I’ve got one (my favorite !) which will be 18 this year. I think it still has the original cassette player in it.
I can’t really see them ever going away. If you can still buy a new car with no stereo system, an after-market will always kick its ass for the same money given just a little knowledge and a good installer. My used SUV had a crappy sound system and I just went into the local electronics store and got an MP3 compatible head unit for $150 installed and it has given me no problems in the past three years. I have spent about the same on various after-market speakers and they aren’t competition level but they sound great even at high volume. An equivalent factory stereo and speakers would have cost 2 or 3x that and maybe more. Factory stereo systems have always been a rip-off even though some of them are quite good now. The value still isn’t their though from a pure sound perspective.
There are always hobbyist and people that want maximum base or whatever else they are into. That is a big enough market to keep them going.
Jensen makes a very sophisticated audio system? I think the best Jensen can hope for these days is to being resigned to building OEM parts for the sort of garden variety factory systems you speak ill of in your OP. That and being the bottom-of-the-barrel special discount shelf item at Worst Buy. A bit like Rockford Fosgate.
Brand preferences aside, Shagnasty is right … the aftermarket will always come up with something better to top OEM no matter how much OEM tries to catch up, and aftermarket brands will invariably deliver more quality and more features for the money. That is what makes it aftermarket.