As an avid lover of music (and puns), this thread strikes a chord for me.

There are exceptions, but in my estimation, the only thing that makes just about everything good better is the right music. Obviously, that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

For me, there are a number of factors that determine what music is best suited to a given situation. When driving, the main factors seem to be the surroundings, the time of day, the weather, the destination, and, when all else fails, the mood I'm in.

There's some stuff that more or less always works (classic rock comes to mind immediately). Some music seems to lend itself to more specific situations. For example, when driving through open country, I really enjoy listening to some real country music. No, I don't mean that pop with a cheesy steel guitar line or violin sequence they call country on the radio. I'm talking about something like Hank Williams or Johnny Cash, or any of a number of more obscure examples of artists following in their footsteps. Try the Flatlanders while driving through Eastern Washington (which looks a lot like parts of West Texas, from whence the Flatlanders hail). If you've never appreciated hearing a musical saw, this will bring it all together for you.

I also like country rock quite a bit when on the open road. A few examples would include Wilco, Drive By Truckers, The Jayhawks, etc. On a rainy night, in the middle of nowhere, I can think of few sounds more appropriate than Son Volt's first album, Trace. Talk radio can be good at night, too.

When driving around town (any town), I tend to prefer rock (classic, hard, indie, or otherwise). Seems to fit the hustle and bustle better than anything else.

When driving through the mountains or on logging roads, lots of different things work, but I generally tend toward straight music (little or no singing) for such locales. Something I got into while in college that seems especially well-suited to mountain driving is Indian classical music. Training the Western ear to properly hear this sort of music takes time, but coming over the top of a pass at the intense peak of a 45-minute raga really seems to maximize the drama and beauty.

Of course, now that I have kids, I can't usually listen to some of this stuff while driving. The wife and kids basically subject me to whatever they want to hear. It's not always bad (my kids like some of my wierd stuff), but I don't like driving as much as I used to....