<p>For my daughter we ended up changing out her radio to allow her to be able to play her iPod. As she was on the road a lot and the drive to and from school was 18 hours, we decided it was a good investment. We kept her old radio so if we were to sell the car we would put the old radio back in and keep the good one.</p>
<p>The installer that we had thought the set up we used for my son’s car would not work for my daughter’s car which is why we went with the radio. After the fact, we realized we could use the cable, but the iPod wouldn’t charge as the cable plugs into the headphone jack, not where the charger plugs in. We could have lived with it not charging if it was going to only cost $20; we would have them sprung for a cigarette lighter charger and been done. Make sure there is no way you can use the adapter and cable from Crutchfield before you make a decision so you aren’t out of pocket like we were. Call and talk to them and double check.</p>
<p>Um, are we the only ones who’ve had good experience with FM adapters? Actually that’s not quite true … we’ve had three different FM adapters. The first two were total crap. But then we got a Kensington and have had good luck the past two years. A cassette adapter works pretty well also, but very few newer cars have a cassette player. BTW, my D’s car with the Kensington is a 2005 Mazda 3. No static issues at all.</p>
<p>NewHope - there is no cassette player in her car. I will ask around - someone I know must have the FM radio setup. Most of her driving is from school and back so she’s in the Baltimore/DC corridor a lot - lots of potential for interference.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this entire thread so apologies but almost all head units - your radio thing - have an input in the back you can plug directly into to. You only need basic instructions on how to take the front plate off, which usually involves a few hidden screws. These can be found by searching for your specific make, model, year. I took a few minutes and pulled out the radio, fed a cable from radio shack in so it comes out in an unobtrusive place and left a connector out so I could attach an ipod through its headphone jack or an extra ipod dock. I know people who’ve taken the time to run the wire under the edge of the carpet to the center console and then had a hidden ipod dock.</p>
<p>FYI, my AUX jack (in a different model of car) is not in an obvious place (not by the radio). Sounds like you have confirmed for sure that you don’t have one, but for anyone else it pays to look around. Mine is in the center console under my elbow, inside the little area there that can store cds, etc. For about $10, you can get a cable that plugs from the jack into your iPod or iTouch or iPhone.</p>
<p>^^Maybe Lergnom will come to your house and do this for less than $400!
The think with the steering wheel controls is a huge pain. I had a Toyota Sienna, and when the radio went bad on that (out of warranty), to replace it with a radio that would work with those controls was something like a thousand bucks. No thanks.
One thing: I don’t think scrolling through the playlist while driving is a good idea whether it’s on the iPod or on the radio console. The temptation is strong, though.</p>
<p>One more thing:
While I was skeptical about this, I noticed a significant improvement in sound quality when I upgraded from the super-cheap cable I was using to a higher quality one.</p>
<p>Hunt, that is useful info. My sound quality is okay, not great with the cable I bought. Maybe I should look for a better one.</p>
<p>Regarding scrolling, I found it impossible to do safely with my iPod while driving cuz the screen is so darned TINY. (Okay, and it is dangerous to put on my reading glasses while driving…). The iTouch has a bigger screen, so it is easier to do at a glance at a stoplight.</p>
<p>I’ll double check but I have read in numerous places that this model radio does not have the aux jack anywhere - back, front, side. That was what I was told when I bought it too. I think that changed the following year. I love the steering wheel controls - much less distracting than fiddling with the radio IMO. Both my can and my D’s have them. The steering wheel controlled replacement radio is $150 more than the regular one so the parts are a bit over $300 with installation being from $75-100 more.</p>
<p>I have no steering wheel controls so that wasn’t an issue but taking off the front plate usually means finding the hidden screw - often under the clock face - and then pulling out the radio far enough that you can see or feel the inputs on the back. Unless you have a multi-disk cd changer hooked up, almost any modern cd equipped radio will have what you need. It’s not difficult.</p>
<p>We use the Monster plug-in-the-cigarette-lighter adapter. It works very well for us. It does depend on having an unused frequency on the radio, though, so I don’t know how well it might work in a place like NYC (where I assume there are more “used” radio stations).</p>