What's the best product for me to play my iPod through my car's audio system?

i currently use a radio adapter for my ipod. it plugs into the cig lighter, and you select the radio station to transmit on.

It can be moody, depending on the weather and, to some extent, where you are in the city. usually i have it on one station that i know works, but occasionally i have to change stations.

It’s a Belkin. I got it at Target for like $15. Works alright. doesn’t take power off the ipod either; cig lighter or a AA battery (which i don’t recommend – it dies quickly and is much less powerful when transmitting).

really, a radio transmitter is the only way to go, barring a new tape deck to use a tape adapter or installing an AUX jack to use the thing directly. both would be costly.

Thanks @eponymoushipster!! Okay, so I searched for Belkin on Target.com, and I found ones that ranged from $20 to about $90——what do you think the difference is between them?

@La_chica_gomela i don’t know. there are really fancy ones, and really basic ones. i went for the basic one. it’s black, has a car charger, and the FM transmitter is a little oval thing with a basic screen and up/down buttons for the station, and a wire into the iPod.

they might have fancier screens, memory features and what not. some also pull power from the ipod. if you want that, that’s up to you.

@La_chica_gomela In my experience, the difference between them is how long they’ll last. Mine ranged from 2 months to about 1½ years before simply ceasing to function.

I use a Griffin FM transmitter, though I use a “universal” one which means instead of the iPod connector it has a regular 3.5mm headphone connector. The quality is actually VERY great, I’ve owned an older FM transmitter from Belkin and it was a pain in the ass, but this new one from Griffin is awesome. Battery life is 5 hours, it charges through USB, there is no way to change or put in regular batteries, but I bought a cigarette lighter USB converter and since the FM transmitter can transmit while charging, it’s totally fine (as a plus, the cig converter was actually an “ipod charger” one, so it charges my ipod too as it came with a usb to ipod cable).

The price was OK. I wouldn’t go lower than $50 cause you really get sketchy quality. I doubt you’ll find any jack connector for under $100 either, so I would go for a radio transmitter. The best part about mine is that ANY mp3 player works with it, so anyone who has any mp3 player can put it through the car, very very nice. And the radio quality is amazingly awesome. The only thing I would not recommend it for is classical music, as you sometimes hear some background static when the music’s volume is low or the intensity is low.

I had a friend who bought an expensive FM transmitter/charger combo unit and hated it. So price does not correlated with quality at all. But I can recommend the one I’ve linked. I put it to the test on my recent road trip and it was a godsent.

I use a LineX PLL Wireless FM Transmitter.

Have had it for years. Runs on 3 “AA” batteries for months at a time. Has a much stronger signal than any Belkin. It ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done.

I also like that it uses the higher range frequencies (106 – 108 MHz). That typically yields better quality sound as the signal can transmit more information than the lower frequencies (down around 88 MHz).

Update: My dad actually bought me the cassette tape kind as a gift, and it works beautifully. Thanks for all the answers folks!