Spooky SW, my first car was a 1974 Mercury Capri (I believe they were made for Ford out of Germany IINM) got it off a used car lot in Omaha after a tornado dented the front end from a flying 2x4 (big discount!) But man that thing turned into a POS needing constant maintenance. I had some kind of radio/cassette deck in it that played well though. Drove it home from the service in '78 all the way down I-80 from Omaha to Sac. all alone and couldn't have survived it without the cassette player. Of course radio was almost non-existent with so much empty land out west. Mainly listened to a rip I did of Eric Clapton concerts recorded off the radio KBFH onto a TEAC R2R and then onto the cassette.IIRC an '03 Forester is a pretty manly man car. My transport is just the opposite, a little 2012 Mazda 3, hatch back. It handles great going around curves fast, approx 30 MPG and better acceleration than expected. Bought new in 2013 it has not quite 50k miles on it so I imagine it will be the last car I have.
But the factory sound is not good. No matter what I do to the bass/treble it is either boomy & muddy, or shrill & harsh. Take your pick. CD/AM/FM & analog mini jack for phone. It does Bluetooth playback from phone but that just sounds even worse. As I said earlier I'm not much of a casual listener anymore so usually it's just me & my thoughts.
In olden days I had a new '77 Lincoln Mercury Capri hatch back. Memory can be kind to things but I remember it having quite good sound, for the time period. Craig stereo 8 track in the glove box. Factory speakers in the front doors but to the players rear output I had two, KLH 8" 2 way speakers in the rear hatch area. Hooked up a la Hafler. Careful adjustment of balance made it a great listening experience. Until a passenger blocks the right front speaker.
Oh, & the most fun thing about tape play back was that it didn't fade out like radio going through tunnels...