Most pre-recorded tapes were as cheap as possible and if you left them in the car player on a hot day, the tape would stretch -- I used to buy the record versio

Most pre-recorded tapes were as cheap as possible and if you left them in the car player on a hot day, the tape would stretch -- I used to buy the record version and tape it to a TDK SA-90 (chrome) tape which was of much higher quality and thus more resilient and I could usually get 2 records on it (one album per side). If the tape ever got damaged, it could be re-taped from the record (plus the artwork/booklet was always far better on the record than a pre-recorded tape). Did the same thing with CDs until MP3 players became prevalent.