Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are basically 4 ways to play your iPod in your car: 1) Newer cars (typically 2006+) have an aux input which you connect your iPod to with the right cable. A direction connection like this is the simplest, lowest cost, and best sounding option - but you need a newer car. 2) On most cars without a dedicated aux input, you can hard wire a connection in the back of the head units with kits from several manufacturers (USA Spec for example). This provides sound quality as good as item #1 but can get a little messy as the hardware needs to be mounted (usually under the dash) and can be fairly expensive (approx $200 hardware, $50 to $100 install) 3) You can use a FM modulator with any car that has an FM receiver. This is low cost simple option, but the drawbacks are well known: OK sound quality at best, issues with static and noise from nearby radio channels. 4) For cars that have a cassette tape deck (remember those?!) you can use a cassette adapter like the Phillips here. My older Lexus has a cassette deck and I chose this option before I invest in adding a hard wire connection (#2) as described above. I figured I would least try it for $11 and I am very impressed with the sound quality! I would call it near CD sound quality. There is no hissing or mechanical clicking of the gears in the adapter. I also purchased the Maxell cassette adapter since they used to make the best cassettes back in the day and to my surprise it sounded much worse and had a loud humming noise. So I am keeping the Phillips and returning the Maxell and just ordered another Philips unit as a backup for long trips!