I need a FM transmitter as my car doesn’t have an Aux in and has a factory fitted stereo which isn’t easy to remove. Can anyone suggest one that works?

Just got one from Tesco Extra for 9.95 – has little buttons to select frequency rather than software (I had an original iTrip, it was a bit flakey) – works like a charm. Can’t remember the brand but its a little black tube that plugs into the dock, and has a charger to plug into your ‘accessory adaptor’.

None of them do – I went there and they are universally useless.

Get one of these instead

Plugs directly into the FM input at the back of the radio and cradles are available for most cars.

Try looking on Ebay for a second-hand one too as often people sell them when upgrading cars (I did with mine).

I’ve got a Belkin one that does the job. It’s got a scan function that looks for clear frequencies which is ok.

The sound’s never going to be the same quality as plugging the thing in direct, especially in built up areas where clean frequencies are harder to find.

Used a Griffin one – has all the same problems that they all do. However given how noisy the car environment is – good sound quality is not a problem!

Before they were legal, the chinese imported ones used to be really good. They had a nice strong signal and worked well. Now they have made them legal and reduced the powere output the are a bit pants.

How well they work depends a lot on where you live, if you have tons of radio stations in your area you can struggle to drive far without constantly re-tuning.

I am now looking for a new car sterio with aux input!

There are some online tutorials for ‘upgrading’ your transmitter – it works but makes a mess of the housing. Mine ended up taped together.

I had something like the Denison, might even have been one, in my old car – it had a jog wheel and screen too. £25 off EBay – the story I heard was they were trying to get rid of B&W stock as they no longer sold since the colour iPods were released!

@ £70 (plus possibly a powered aerial adaptor depending on vehicle) I’d buy a new stereo with an Aux In.

got one of these gear 4 follow me dock

good sound quality, transmits the song data via RDS as well.

paid 39.99 at HMV last year

What car is it? There are sometimes hacks or ways around the aux-in thing.

Its the range of frequenies the transmitter used thats important, you want one with a range thats wider than the range typically used to broadcast on. Some transmitters start at 88mhz, some at 87mhz. You’ll get the least interference at 87.

They are still a rubbish solution – whatever gizmo you use its not going to be better than, or much cheaper than changing the stereo

Jabra Cruiser2! Pretty impressive, simple, FM and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. Used mainly as a handsfree kit, but supports A2DP too. Portable with no wires, so great for holiday hire cars. Auto scans for free FM channel and gives voice prompts.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLAA_iEskc&feature=related[/video]

I also have a Connects2 box which emulates a CD multiplayer and gives a direct 3.5mm audio input. Sound quality beats any wireless FM solution hands down, but the Jabra isn’t bad.

Got a Griffin for £28 at Tesco. Set it at 87.6 and it works fine. A lot less cash or faff than hardwiring. Sound quality is as good as any other FM reception and the car remains unmodified for insurance purposes.

Much of it depends on the car it is going in. If the aerial is to the back of the car (physical aerial or manufactured into the heated screen) the signal might not be strong enough and you can get typical weak signal interference bursting into the channel just as you would if you were trying to listen to a radio station just out of range.

That’s a fair point MF. My aerial is at the front and the transmitter works well. My wife’s aerial is at the back and the signal is quite weak.

Yeah – I used mine in a Vauxhall (dis)Astra and, 4 different transmitters later, I gave up and paid out for the Dension. If I had got that in the first place I would have saved myself a fortune.

the car is an 04 reg fiesta Molgrips. Appreciate any further advice.

I’ve got 2 Dension Gateways in our cars: a 100 in the Golf that was pretty simple to install and works brilliantly and an early 500 in the XC90 – this was bought off eBay (£120 which is cheap) and the car sometimes has a problem seeing it, but I suspect that it’s because the car hasn’t had a software upgrade for about 5 years!