That depends on what type of song format, compression, etc. are on your card. I have all my songs in .wma format (at least half the size of the same .mp3 file). This gets me to 999 songs and well under 2 GB (currently 665 songs are 1.06 GB). If you rip your music at a higher sample rate then your info will vary so a 2 GB or 4 GB card will suffice most situations.

I don't think the car will read the High Capacity card though (I have a 4 GB SDHC card for my phone) but don't think it will work though have not tried it either.

 

just came back from the store. Purchased a $10 PCMCIA card, generic brand IConnect CF reader and a PQI 2 GB CF for $18. Total was just under $31 and it works great.

 

Good news
From what I've read, the best combo are CF and PCMCIA from SanDisk for fastest loading. Specifically, the Extreme III 4GB or 8GB (I'm using the 8GB with no problem in my 2008 Civic Hybrid), and their SDDR-64-784 Ultra PC Card adapter/reader. But.... SanDisk has stopped making those readers now, so the PC Card I finally settled on is the PPA 1134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812150014 Also available at Fry's for $9.99. It works perfectly. I tried using Delkin's CardBus 32 UDMA 45MBps adapter but the stereo just beeped at me and would not even close the rotating face. I think Honda's PC Card slot can only read 16-bit devices and not 32-bit. The PPA 1134 is 16-bit, but will still work in a 32-bit slot in your laptop, it uses native drivers in WinXP so no drivers are needed. It says it will also work on Vista and Mac OS (important if you don't own a 2nd CF reader that uses USB). http://www.ppa-usa.com/products/pcmcia/1134.htm

Happy loading!
Phil

 

I'm playing MP3's just fine in my 2008 civic hybrid from an 8GB SanDisk Extreme III CF card inserted into a PPA 1134 PC Card adapter. Both available at New Egg.com or Fry's. The trick is that you must reformat the card (FAT32) and cannot label it in Windows XP (eg. JBs_8GB or something cute). I'm happy to be using that slot now after having several online orders canceled when trying to buy the highly rated SanDisk SDDR-64-784 because it's no longer being made/sold.

 

The point is - you shouldn't need a card any larger than 2 GB and slow read speeds for the car. There is a constraint of 999 songs (thanks, Honda) so even my 2 GB Sandisk card has songs that can't be played because I have over 999 songs on it (.wma format). I wish Honda would have made it more of a "Y2K" liberty and allowed more than a 3-digit track number but it is limited so I don't fill my card with more than 1,000 songs -- what I do is have 2 or 3 of these 2 GB cards.

I recently bought a Nikon D200 and it takes the same CF card as the Honda but can take advantage of the larger capacity cards. I now carry a 16 GB, 8 GB, 4 GB, and a 2 GB card (all Sandisk Extreme) for 30 GB of photo storage and any one of those can double as music for the car (usually the 2 GB does until I need it as emergency-storage for the camera). The 1-week cruise through the Caribbean filled exactly all 30 GB of storage cards (about 5,000 photo all 10.2-megapixel .jpg and about 200 .RAW).

 

This sounds weird, but I have found that when I first pop the card/reader into the slot, if I hit the close button it will sometimes beep at me. But if when I pop it in, then pop it back out and back in again it will not beep (ever). Funny little thing but now I always do the double insert and no problems.

 

You can also just put in the card, count to 3, and then close the face. That should take less time than the dual-install step.