Pioneer makes some great cassette players. Kenwood is another great company. Shop around at newegg.com, ebay.com and Amazon.com.
Yes most portable cassette players get radio and also record as well
Portable cassette players, commonly referred to as a walkman, was introduced July 1st, 1979. Portable cassette players were most popular in the 1980's and 1990's.
No, new cars nowadays do not have cassette players. Most new cars have CD players and radio. It will be possible to customize your car and add an cassette player, but there are no new models so you have to usen an used one.
Most cassette players nowadays supports playing dolby and records at the same time. This is one example -> O Coby O - Portable Am/Fm Cassette Player/Recorder or Sony Standard Portable Player/Cassette Recorder.
Yes most cassette decks will have no problem wiring into a new car.
The reason that so few cars have cassette players in them is because technology has evolved and music is rarely produced on cassette anymore. Instead, most cars come equipped with a combination of a CD player, satellite radio, and/or input for mp3 player
Some boomboxes are still made with cassette decks, but you might have to do a fair amount of looking to fond one. Most boomboxes now come with compact disc players, and even connections for MP3 players.
Yes, the heads on any cassette player does need to be cleaned periodically. You can purchase a cleaning cassette and solution that cleans the entire tape path. The cleaning kits are available at most retailers, and online.
The TDK SM-X and Sony UX PRO are the two most widely used cassette brands. Sony appears to be more widely available in recent years than the TDK which dominated the industry in the past.
It is possible to find tape players at most major retails stores online. Amazon.com is one of the most common sources.
Portable audio CD players have evolved in many ways. In fact, they evolved from bulky cassette players to walkmans (portable CD players) to what is most common now, Mp3 players that do not require a CD.
I think that SanDisk players have the most variety of styles and colors of any other brand.