By Kevin Massy
(August 8, 2007)

The in-car CD player is going the way of the dodo. Why carry stacks of discs on the road when you already have all your music stored on your iPod? Why not just connect your iPod to your car? Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of ways to play your iPod when on the road.

High rollers can just splash out on a new car such as a BMW, Acura, or Scion with a dealer-installed iPod dock. For the rest of us, there are a number of cheaper alternatives to get our iPods and our cars connected. For those still clinging to the age of the tape deck, a cassette adapter will do the trick. Equally quick-and-dirty is one of the many FM transmitters that plug into the player and broadcast your tunes over a radio frequency. Neither of these solutions, however, delivers great audio quality, and both require that drivers use the controls on the iPod itself to select tunes from behind the wheel.

If you're looking for a more integrated and better-sounding connection, there are a growing number of aftermarket car stereos and related gadgets that will give you full control and browsing ability over your song library without having to fiddle around with the iPod wheel. From dedicated "made for iPod" stereo head units with full-speed USB connections to slick interface devices like Harmon Kardon's Drive + Play 2, the field for iPod-to-car connectivity is growing all the time. Here we'll show you some of the options for iPod-to-car connectivity, including the basics on how to switch out your car stereo.