I want to create a music cd to listen to in my car.
before doing the conversion, what is the best format to convert from to acheive a good quality?
Should my existing files be in wav format to convert to cda or mp3 to convert to cda......or maybe another format. Right now they are in 16 bit wav.

Is cda the only format that will play on a normal car cd player?

Also, What is the best software to do the job?

it has to be cda to work in normal cd player and wav is the best format to burn audio cds from there is heaps of programs that let you burn audio, I use nero it does a good job.

WAV is the best format, but if your burning software supports making audio-CD's from MP3's, you might as well do that, because there shouldn't be a difference in sound quality.

there is a difference in sound quality between a lossy source and a lossless one.
like mp3 and wave files

If you use Nero to burn an MP3 it is still converting the file into a wav in order to write it to the CD. It's no better just easier.

If the source is mp3 (lossy) and you convert it to wav (lossless) technically there should not be any quality loss unless the conversion app does it incorectly. Personally I never had any problems with Nero but some may find using Winamp or MMJB or something better, as I said shouldn't really matter.

You might want to read this thread as well:- http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=138751