i love this idea and have often wondered why this isn't an option yet.

I can see how this would be helpful, but too expensive to be marketable. Tivo uses a hard drive which has motorized parts inside to record to magnetic discs. This would be terrible for a car because of the heat during the summertime and the constant shock from the roadway. I suppose you could include 2gb of internal flash memory, but you wouldn't be able to record very much. Also, to set a timer to record your favorite talk show, you would have to either have the car on at the time that it is set to record, or it would have to drain your car battery while the car is off.

Dual makes a player that you can hook up a USB flash drive to and record, but it doesn't have any capability to rewind / ff/ pause. http://www.twice.com/article/CA6341196.html

Also, do you really want to fumble around with record, rewind, and pause buttons while you are driving? I see potential for accidents.

I think this is a great idea, and I have thought of this before. I want it basically for the rewind purpose, as I think you do too.

I imagine missing a bit of what the radio was saying and turning a nob to rewind. That would be awesome...

flash memory space is getting cheaper and you don't need as much space to store audio as you do video, so cost wouldn't be as expensive as Tivo. With the latest sync radios from Microsoft, you could implement a voice recognition command, like "what was that they said?" and it automatically rewinds 20 seconds. and "live radio please" to bring you back to the live stream.

A year ago this was a good idea, now it is reality. You can google around and find info, including portable ones on Amazon. This is extremely simple and cheap to manufacture if you are already receiving digital (XM, HD) then recording in digital is simple. Dish network TV records up to an hour while you are watching so you can rewind at will, a low capacity radio recorder could give you 10 minutes or so. Flash memory is so cheap now it is almost free. It will not be long before there are many after market options, then factory installed. Just the whiny RIAA to deal with. Already car radios are starting to allow plug-in USB devices for potentially unlimited music storage. Imagine a USB port in your glove box so you can attach any size USB device.

The live pause idea is great.

But what about the times when you are listening to a show and you have to leave the car to go to a meeting, pick up the wife or whatever? I would also like a 20 minute record facility. Surely this is not beyond flash memory.

I'm with you, legs2041. I'm constantly wanting to hit the pause button while I go into a store or get out to pump gas. It's not that difficult or expensive. In fact, flash memory could record tons of audio. I've read an estimate of 250 songs per gigabyte, 16 Gb flash drive are on the market.

Light Bulb! Why not connect your MP3 player to your car radio and record as much as it'll hold - with the ability to use the MP3 player as an audio Tivo, allowing you to pick up where you left off - and carry it with you to finish listening out-of-car?