I have been thinking and rethinking my approach to this project for quite some time. I had always thought about using a Pi for it, as it is what I am used to playing around with, can have Bluetooth/WiFi added, could be hidden in the glove box etc.

While that may still be the long term goal I'm thinking about trying a somewhat different aoproach to get a simple system up and running...

I was was recently updating our media devices at home (one Android box and two Amazon Firesticks); we use Kodi, with the Paradox wizard install. Whilst looking through the builds I noticed that there was now a 'Music Build'. The description said it was tailored for in-car and audio streaming etc.

I stuck it on my phone and had a look at it; it seems great, has plenty of music add-ons, but is dependent on a WiFi connection.

It was at this point I started pondering... What if I use this approach? I could get an old handset, add a beefy microSD card for storing music, set it as a hotspot (to allow other devices to connect to it), and enable Airplay and the web interfaces to allow control from the passengers.

I could even go as far as adding a scheduler app to run Kodi on startup and turn the phone on/off when power is applied to the phone (by the car being started).

Hmmmmm...!