I went with this unit because of Alpine's iPod interface, so this review is from that perspective. The GlideTouch is probably fine with a single CD, but with the number of tracks on an MP3 CD or iPod, it completely falls apart. Scrolling with the GlideTouch never gives you the same results... sometimes you move 1, sometimes you jump 2, sometimes 10. You have to keep eyes on the display to know where you are, which while driving is a feat. Find an artist you want to listen to and click, it starts playing the first album. Clicked into the wrong artist? You start back at the beginning of artists...each time. Want to play something else? It doesn't remember that you navigated by artist previously.

The easy way to fix all of this would be to allow the user to use the knob, to quickly and easily scroll through items. You spin it one click, it moves one item, you spin it fast, it jumps through the list. Push down selects an item. The GlideTouch is much better suited for a soft-button application, rather than scrolling.

The interface could be a bit better too: no track# for iPod albums/playlists, elapsed time instead of remaining time, the only way to see the track name is w/o the artist/album... etc.

This unit is great in a lot of ways... audio quality & appearance are good. I'm sure it's great as a stand-alone unit playing audio CDs. If you're wanting to use this with the iPod interface... consider yourself warned.