iPhones and Cars: What do you Use?

[lakaiordie]

i use the griffin road trip. although the site says it works with the iphone 3g. when i plug mine in i get the message. does not work with iphone. but it works, its pretty good once you find the right station. really adjustable, and charges it too. and i've never had a problem using the gps for like 30min or so at a time. phone doesnt seem to get hot. well that and i like to keep my car cold.

 

[grinny11]

http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Li...K2HO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1230317073&sr=8-1

I used the Kensignton LiquidAux Deluxe for my car with the tape adapter. Its great i put the iphone on the dock to charge and press the play on the remote and it auto loads up my music and plays it. Very simple which was my goal.

 

[Eso]

http://www.gromaudio.com/

Check if they offer one for your car, it's only around $65 and offers CD quality sound, charges the phone, and you can control it through your OEM stereo. I love it!

Awesome link! I just bought one.

 

[ivtecDOu]

i have an aftermarket deck in my rsx that has full control

 

[Lexoticstylez02]

Awesome link! I just bought one.

Glad to see someone has used my suggestion

You'll love it!

 

[cwerdna]

Almost all aftermarket cd players for cars these days have 1/8" audio input jacks on them nowadays. For example:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158XRF5100/Sony-XR-F5100.html?tp=5684

At only $70, this to me makes a lot more sense than a an FM transmitter for the same price. They are not hard to install either but if that's not your cup of tea, then buy it from a local car audio store and they will probably install it for free (in my experience, at least )......

Unfortunately, despite its cheapness, it instantly makes the car a target for break ins and theft. See my earlier post.

Besides my own experiences w/this, a friend of mine long ago had his car broken into for its stereo (detachable faceplate was in the glovebox, doh!) and college parking permit.

 

[lakaiordie]

i wish i had a line in for my iphone. stupid honda accord. if i wanted to put a new stereo i have to relocate a whole bunch of stuff. and it'll look ugly. the griffin road trip was my best choice. so if you have a car that needs a relocation kit for your a/c and other buttons. i say the roadtrip is your best bet. the arm works really good if you use the gps too. 100 bucks is a lot. but after using it. its worth it. i've watch a movie because it can swivel horizontal. and the sound plays through the car stereo and its awesome. i really like it.

 

[notintheleast]

Unfortunately, despite its cheapness, it instantly makes the car a target for break ins and theft. See my earlier post.

Besides my own experiences w/this, a friend of mine long ago had his car broken into for its stereo (detachable faceplate was in the glovebox, doh!) and college parking permit.

Then why do you have an iPhone or iPod touch? Its just going to be stolen from you if the wrong person sees it laying somewhere........

Silly reason to settle for inferior audio quality if you ask me. Anything that you have can be stolen. No one will break into your car and steal your FM adapter, despite it's cheapness?

And I just put a cheap one up as an example. You can spend around $120 on an aftermarket CD player and get a really great system with decent output. It will even make stock speakers sound better and push harder. Why spend around $100 dollars on an FM transmitter when you could spend the same amount on a CD player and get much better quality sound, not only from your iDevice, but CDs and other media too?

 

[cwerdna]

Then why do you have an iPhone or iPod touch? Its just going to be stolen from you if the wrong person sees it laying somewhere........

Silly reason to settle for inferior audio quality if you ask me. Anything that you have can be stolen. No one will break into your car and steal your FM adapter, despite it's cheapness?

And I just put a cheap one up as an example. You can spend around $120 on an aftermarket CD player and get a really great system with decent output. It will even make stock speakers sound better and push harder. Why spend around $100 dollars on an FM transmitter when you could spend the same amount on a CD player and get much better quality sound, not only from your iDevice, but CDs and other media too?

I can take my iPhone easily with me every time I leave my car. The same can't be said for an aftermarket head unit.

Thieves don't know how valuable the aftermarket car stereo is when they see either its faceplate or a blank area where the faceplate will go. They just think it's more valuable than a stock stereo of little value that won't fit right, look right or work in most other cars. For them, it's something they pawn, barter or sell to feed their drug addiction or whatever the hell else they do.

The last time someone broke into my car, I accidentally left a fanny pack in the back seat at 2:40 am parked in front of a house valued at $1.4 million per zillow.com. Within 30 minutes, someone smashed my window, stealing the fanny pack containing an old Pocket PC, iPod Shuffle, Jawbone BT headset, and my cell phone. My FM transmitter wasn't taken.

It was no fun to driving around for w/a smashed window for days until I was able to get it fixed, calling around for price quote and open glass repair places, and spending $200 fixing it.

I'd personally love to get a better head unit and better speakers then the stock junk in my other car (aforementioned 350Z w/no audio input jack) and would if there were no such thing as theft. Having had my cars broken into twice so far (first time was for a stereo) and knowing others who've been victimized is deterrent.

When your car w/aftermarket stereo gets broken into, let's see if you change your tune on this.

 

[hexonxonx]

Unfortunately, despite its cheapness, it instantly makes the car a target for break ins and theft. See my earlier post.

Besides my own experiences w/this, a friend of mine long ago had his car broken into for its stereo (detachable faceplate was in the glovebox, doh!) and college parking permit.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what kind of stereo is in the car these days. If they think it's at all valuable, they will steal it. One Christmas eve, my car was broken into and the stereo was stolen. I had the face of the stereo in the apartment with me and they still stole the stereo. The likely did it just to say haha it doesn't matter.

Now I live in a house and my car is always in the garage.

 

[notintheleast]

I can take my iPhone easily with me every time I leave my car. The same can't be said for an aftermarket head unit.

Thieves don't know how valuable the aftermarket car stereo is when they see either its faceplate or a blank area where the faceplate will go. They just think it's more valuable than a stock stereo of little value that won't fit right, look right or work in most other cars. For them, it's something they pawn, barter or sell to feed their drug addiction or whatever the hell else they do.

The last time someone broke into my car, I accidentally left a fanny pack in the back seat at 2:40 am parked in front of a house valued at $1.4 million per zillow.com. Within 30 minutes, someone smashed my window, stealing the fanny pack containing an old Pocket PC, iPod Shuffle, Jawbone BT headset, and my cell phone. My FM transmitter wasn't taken.

It was no fun to driving around for w/a smashed window for days until I was able to get it fixed, calling around for price quote and open glass repair places, and spending $200 fixing it.

I'd personally love to get a better head unit and better speakers then the stock junk in my other car (aforementioned 350Z w/no audio input jack) and would if there were no such thing as theft. Having had my cars broken into twice so far (first time was for a stereo) and knowing others who've been victimized is deterrent.

When your car w/aftermarket stereo gets broken into, let's see if you change your tune on this.

I have had my car and my home broken into having thousands of dollars worth of music equipment, guns, electronics and other Valuables stolen(they took the stock cd player out of the car ), so I know it sucks. They broke the back window, and three of the side windows on my car, one of which was one of the small triangular ones that cost a whole lot more than the regular ones. I rode around with plastic taped up there for about a week...

I understand where you are coming from, I just don't think that because something can be stolen from you or it makes it more likely for you to be stolen from is any reason not to have something. Like I said before, anything you have can be stolen from you. I wasn't trying to attack or offend you, I just don't see the logic in discouraging people from this viable and sensible option just because it can be stolen from them. It sounds like you live in a high crime area, which is not the case for everyone (although I don't and I've still had break ins).

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about all of your bad luck. But like I said, I've been there too. Its just very sad that these messed up people keep other, good, people like you from letting themselves having nice things.

 

[liquidtrend]

i have a scion xb so i have an ipod and aux input. i choose to use the aux input because the ipod plug is outdated and i have been to lazy to research on the newer model plug that charges the iphone 3g.

i love my box.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I've got a Pioneer headunit with dock connector and love it. I get the "accessory not made for iPhone" message but that's only because the unit isnt shielded from GSM interference. All the functions work fine though.

I've had three pioneer headunits in 10 years, never taken the face plate off and not one has been stolen. Of course I don't live in a town with a high crime rate. I'm not saying it can't happen it's just not a deterrant for me.

 

[Me1000]

I use an Alpine iDA-x001 which has since been retired, and replaced by the iDA-x100...

It is a tad bit on the pricey side, but IMO worth EVERY penny!
I love this receiver!

That isn't mine, but with the installation kit it comes with a small spot to store things, so i drilled a hole in the side of it to run the iPod cable through, and I just hook my phone up to it and let it rest in there.

 

[sdsvtdriver]

I can take my iPhone easily with me every time I leave my car. The same can't be said for an aftermarket head unit.

Thieves don't know how valuable the aftermarket car stereo is when they see either its faceplate or a blank area where the faceplate will go. They just think it's more valuable than a stock stereo of little value that won't fit right, look right or work in most other cars. For them, it's something they pawn, barter or sell to feed their drug addiction or whatever the hell else they do.

The last time someone broke into my car, I accidentally left a fanny pack in the back seat at 2:40 am parked in front of a house valued at $1.4 million per zillow.com. Within 30 minutes, someone smashed my window, stealing the fanny pack containing an old Pocket PC, iPod Shuffle, Jawbone BT headset, and my cell phone. My FM transmitter wasn't taken.

It was no fun to driving around for w/a smashed window for days until I was able to get it fixed, calling around for price quote and open glass repair places, and spending $200 fixing it.

I'd personally love to get a better head unit and better speakers then the stock junk in my other car (aforementioned 350Z w/no audio input jack) and would if there were no such thing as theft. Having had my cars broken into twice so far (first time was for a stereo) and knowing others who've been victimized is deterrent.

When your car w/aftermarket stereo gets broken into, let's see if you change your tune on this.

I completely understand. I have upgraded audio system in one of my cars, but left the stock headunit for this reason alone. Sure, I'd like a nice radio with BT and an AUX jack but I'm not willing to bet the 1k of equipment that it'll be there after I come out of the mall.

I have been looking at the adapters from usa-spec. Their adapter plugs into cd changer controls on the back of factory radio and allow you to control the ipod/iphone from the head unit. The only things holding me back is the price and the fact is comes with an IPOD/IPHONE 2G charging cable and you have to spend another $20 for a cable that'll charge the 3G (even though it will charge the 2G, 3G and ipods, they don't include it in the package. dumb).

I've been waiting to see if another company like PIE comes out with a factory adapter that charges the iPhone 3G.

 

[SFStateStudent]

i use the griffin road trip.

That's sweet; I wonder if it will be upgraded for MWSF '09? (if they show up)...

 

[cwerdna]

It sounds like you live in a high crime area, which is not the case for everyone (although I don't and I've still had break ins).

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about all of your bad luck. But like I said, I've been there too. Its just very sad that these messed up people keep other, good, people like you from letting themselves having nice things.

Nope. I live an upper middle class area which is the most expensive zip in San Jose (95120, see http://www.dqnews.com/Charts/Monthly-Charts/Mercury-News-Charts/ZIPSJMN.aspx for median home prices, $910K right now ). The break in happened in the same zip. That evening, apparently a bunch of other vehicles near that house were also broken in to.

A few months ago, they were several broken car windows around me. I don't know if anything was stolen but somewhere between 30 (according one neighbor one the police came out to his car) and 60 car windows (according to another neighbor by the time police came out to another's house) were smashed that night. There was a football game that night at the local high school and I guess someone didn't like the outcome.

The other break in happened when I was in Vancouver BC. The stereo was $300 (in the late 1990s) and didn't have a detachable face. It had a flip around motorized faceplate and a security code. They stole it anyway.

The replacement I bought had a detachable face and luckily never got stolen.

The SF Bay Area is pretty variable. Some areas are horrible (like parts of Oakland). Even the better parts get their share of thefts. Example: At the one of the nicest malls in the South Bay (Valley Fair), a woman either got carjacked in the parking lot or her car stolen. She was yelling ffr people to help and a junk car (probably driven by the thieves) was abandoned w/the doors opened, blocking traffic.

 

[hexonxonx]

It doesn't matter where you live, crime will still happen. IF I were a criminal, I would choose the more expensive parts of town simply because I know I would find more things worth more money.

Get a police scanner and tune it in to the frequencies in these kinds of neighborhoods and you can hear for yourself.

 

[notintheleast]

All crime rates and such put aside, I still think it's sad that anyone will not buy something that they really want just because they are afraid it will get stolen.

As I was saying earlier, someone stole my $2500 guitar out of my car (along with the stock cd player and some other stuff), but that didn't make me not want to have a guitar anymore. Nor did it discourage me from taking it places and leaving it in my car if I had to. Luckily I have an insurance policy just to cover my music equipment, because I only had liability on the car.

For anyone to say you shouldn't have something because it is likely to be stolen is just silly.

According to that logic, then you shouldn't be born because you're likely to just die from it.

 

[ronsju]

Buy an auxiliary cable and an ipod car charger. Granted your car has an auxiliary jack, most cars do. The FM transmitter is crap. The aux cable is CD quality. This was probably posted earlier but I just want mention it again. I have been using the aux cable and charger for 2 years now, its great.

 

[Eso]

Nope. I live an upper middle class area which is the most expensive zip in San Jose

Gee, if I were a thief, would I steal from the most expensive zip code in the area, or the projects... That is a toughie...

General note: Aux-in does not technically mean CD quality, it's just that there is no loss from the original quality of the source. After all, we are talking about mp3's here, the best of which are considered near-CD quality.

 

[gotzaiPhone]

I have a new GTO and a buddy of mine hard wired a 30 pin connector directly into my radio so I have great sound, the songs pause when I turn the car off and it powers a 1st gen iPhone. I had to buy that scoche adaptor to power my 3G. In my DD neon, I have a JVC head unit that came with a 30 pin connector that also pauses the music when I shut off the car and powers a 1st gen iPhone. I also need my adaptor in that car too to power my 3G.