Highly unlikely the car will recognize a NTFS drive. imo
I believe the problem was caused by the various formatting tools i used.
I agree. USB drives usually created in a SuperFloppy format, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535(v=vs.85).aspx#gpt_faq_superfloppy, the media is treated as a single partition. No partition table and no MBR I think. I suspect your drive has both of these at this point and the car can’t handle it.
See if you can find a utility that will format the Cruzer as a superfloppy. RMPREPUSB may be able to do it.
