Help me pick out an FM Transmitter?

[noiseredux]

Zigs, the first one you linked (Griffin iTrip) is the one my wife has. Works just fine for us.

[Ziggy]

Awesome. That's probably the one I'm gonna get.

[noiseredux]

Awesome. That's probably the one I'm gonna get.

what's cool is the cigarette adapter is just a USB so you can use it to charge any USB device. She uses it for her iPod and I use it for my android phone.

[Hazerd]

What kind of car is this relic with no tape deck or being able to change out the deck?

just curious.

[Ziggy]

What kind of car is this relic with no tape deck or being able to change out the deck?

just curious.

I figured some one would ask eventually. It's a 2005 Buick LaCrosse.

So you'd think, "Nah, I'm sure you can switch the deck out." Well of course, but it's not that simple. I remember looking a few years ago, and I couldn't find the mounting bracket/bezel thing. I searched again when I was making this thread, and you CAN find it now. The minor problem with this is that the bezel is black, while my mom's stereo face is the matching wood grain. That's not that big of a deal, personally I wouldn't care. It wouldn't look bad. My mom probably would care though.



I couldn't find a pic of the dash with the wood grain, but my mom's car has the matching wood grain around the stereo. Actually, the entire control area is all wood grain in her car. And oh yeah, the face of the buttons wear off as seen in this pic. Very annoying.



And that's the mounting bezel.


But I wish it was that simple. Now here's the really fun part. You can swap the deck out, but then you'll loose the door chimes and any other car sound that goes through the speakers (On Star - which see doesn't use, but IDK what other sounds there are). You have to get a special modulator thing that loops through the wire harness to retain the door chimes. I found it for $50 on Amazon, but the reviews say that it junk and fails after a while. There's one on Crutchfield for $100 or more. That's just a lame expense right there. Even if the $50 one was decent, that's just a lame expense.

But it's not over! She'll loose the steering wheel controls, and I know she would NOT want that. They do make wire harnesses that will let you use the steering wheel controls with a new deck, but of course, they'll only work with certain decks. And it's another expense.

So here's the breakdown:

non-wood grain mounting bezel
only select model decks (has to be compatible with steering wheel controls)
steering wheel control wire harness
door chime thing

Is it worth it? Well if it were my car (which it would never be - I hate that car) and I loved it and was planning on keeping it indefinitely, I would definitely go for it. Moms are funny though. It doesn't matter that the computer she uses was built by me, or that I completely remodeled her bathroom from the ground up INCLUDING new lights and whatnot, she would be afraid that if I switched her deck out that it might cause a fire. That fact and money aside, I don't think she'd wanna do it anyway.

My plan was to get the FM transmitter and just cross my fingers that it's not too bad. I figure I'll run all this past her just so she knows it's a possible option, but I doubt she would want to.

what's cool is the cigarette adapter is just a USB so you can use it to charge any USB device. She uses it for her iPod and I use it for my android phone.

Yeah, I noticed that. I noticed more and more things are like that now. Pretty cool.

[CRTGAMER]

That wiring is a nightmare with On Star tie in and the door chimes going thru the car speakers. I imagine you could get a dealer upgrade with either an Aux input CD player or at least an add on a cassette deck to use an adapter. Very likely to be costly though.

I really think you should buy local for the FM transmitter. To test for ease of use for your parents and hear the results for yourself.