Putting more bump in the CR-V's trunk...

[Billfred]

...or, more realistically, the spare tire well. (The tire is bolted to the back of the car, so it's empty.)

Alright, here's the story. I'm sure you've all heard about my CR-V and its quirks/problems (read my blog if you want to know all the gory details).

The big problem with my car--erm, "light truck"--is that it's got a cassette player. My collection is all CDs...and the few units that I could possibly afford all appear to look like trash when placed within the confines of my car. (Is it such a bad thing to want a nice, simple, basic black CD player that doesn't light up neon blue, flash, or play video images on an itty-bitty LCD screen?) I've got a CD player with a car kit, but it looks just plain ugly. So I think I've hashed out a basic plan...

Step 1) Obtain a wicked cheap laptop. (Or a really small PC, if it can sandwich into a spare tire well.)
Step 2) Equip the computer with wifi, if it is not so equipped. (This way, I can send newly-ripped CDs without having to rip them from the back of my car.) Same for a decent-sized hard drive. Enough to hold a few albums.
Step 3) Either find a car adapter or a power inverter to power this PC from the cigarette lighter that is in the back of the car.
Step 4) Attach an FM adapter so I don't have to use the tacky cassette adapter.
Step 5) Roll out.

I've just got a few problems with this setup, and I'm hoping someone here can help me with it.
1) When the car starts, power is cut to the cigarette lighters. This forces my CD player to lose power as well, meaning I have to not only turn the player back on, I have to start from the beginning of the album. I think I could solve this on a laptop by leaving the battery in, so that it'll stay booted.
2) How will I be able to control the computer, especially starting the music? That's quite a distance between the spare tire well and my bum--and I don't want to run a wire between the two, since that's the thing I'm trying to avoid whenever I can.

If you know any easy tricks around any of these problems, let me know. If you see a problem I didn't, let me know. If you are willing to give me any of the parts I would need on a cheap to free basis, let me know.