iPod in-car does not remember which song was playing

Solution to what seems like a common problem in cars with all MP3 players, including phones.

This is an issue that has frustrated me recently, after switching cars from a BMW 2-series coupe to a Mitsubishi L200 Barbarian.

In the BMW I had my iPod permanently installed in the USB slot, and simultaneously paired with Bluetooth. Whether I used Bluetooth or USB to play music over the car stereo, the system always remembered which song was playing, and the track position, whether I left the iPod in the car overnight or removed the iPod when I left the car and re-inserted it when I returned. This was perfect, and worked flawlessly for the three years I owned the car.

A couple of weeks ago I switched to the Mitsubishi - completely different stereo system, of course, but with both USB connectivity and Bluetooth, and the car recognises that it's an iPod when inserted.

However, whether paired as Bluetooth or not, when the iPod was plugged into the USB interface, the system unfailingly reverted to the first song on the iPod - in alphabetical order, and ignoring the active playlist - regardless of whether I left the iPod inserted or not. If I turned the car off and immediately back on, the system reverted to the start of the first song on the ipod (whichever was alphabetically first) and, annoyingly, **disabled the shuffle setting on the iPod**. Now, I found that I could use the car stereo's interface to set the shuffle back on again - but I had to do this each time I restarted the vehicle. But I had to listen to the first 20 seconds of the same song every time before being able to advance to another track.

It appears this is an issue with either the USB version of the car's stereo system, or just the way individual stereos work. Whatever the reason, the only solution I could find was to **bypass the USB interface entirely** and rely only on Bluetooth, but in order for that to work I had to use a USB adapter in the car's power socket for charging only, instead of the USB interface, so that the car doesn't see the iPod at all except via Bluetooth. It appears that the car is somehow resetting the iPod's local memory of song position and playback options (shuffle, playlist, repeat, etc) and just starting from song 01. Annoying to say the least, but not an Apple or iPod problem, because the same thing happens to other USB devices.