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I have one that is similar to this one and use it almost daily. I like it better than the iTrip ones because you don't have to add any radio stations to your iPod, just plug it in and the device holds the station info.

http://www.target.com/iBLAST-FM-iPod-Transmitter-White/dp/B000J4MP50/qid=1196437936/ref=br_1_50/601-2103129-4720160?ie=UTF8&node=14234261&frombrowse=1&index=tgt-mf-mv&field-browse=14234261&rank=pmrank&rh=&page=1

I've had experience wit both the radio station models and the ones you use with your tape deck. The radio station versions are fine for a while and then as you drive you start getting noise. The tape deck versions always seem to have a quiet hissing sound. The only thing that works the best is the dock where you connect a cable directly to your car radio. This is an expensive undertaking.

Why not just buy an apple gift card!

Best of luck,

I have an itrip that I like just fine. A friend of mine has a radio one that has a stronger signal on it, she ordered it off the internet somewhere, you could do a google search for something like that. You apparently have to tell them which radio station you would like programmed into it.

Sorry, not terribly helpful. I like my itrip though... :)

I've found with the radio ones that it depends on how populated your area is with radio stations. They work fine way out in the back country, where there are plenty of empty spots on the dail, but in the metro NYC area, they're absolutly terrible because there is not a free spot to be found. You New Yorkers just have too many damn radio stations!

Oddly, I've had the opposite problem that Rosie's had. My FM transmitter works fine while driving around the St. Louis area because there are enough buildings around to block out those far-reaching radio stations. Whereas when I drive home to my small, rural hometown in central Illinois, I pick up stations from miles and miles away because because there's nothing out there to block the signals.

While I can't offer much help on which one to buy, I would recommend buying one that plugs into her cigarette lighter. My wife and I tried a couple of FM transmitters (before I eventually surprised her with a car stereo with an auxiliary input) and we noticed the cigarette lighter ones do a better job of getting the transmitted signal out there than ones that require batteries or run off the iPod's power source.

I agree with SpaceMonkeyX- the FM transmitters that require plugging into the cigarette lighter for power seem to work better than the non-powered transmitters. I had a Griffin iTrip for my old iPod, and it was only ever ok.

A few months back, I picked up a Kensington transmitter/charger (http://us.kensington.com/html/6402.html) and have been pleased with it, as it is very easy to change stations when on road trips. It's a little pricey, but all of the charger/transmitters seem to be the same price. It comes in black & white.

Check to see if there's a dedicated iPod connector made for her car stereo. Many head units from vendors like Sony and JVC can control a remote CD changer, designed to be mounted in the trunk of the car. The same companies have released devices which hook your iPod into their changer interface, so you can control it the same way you'd control a CD changer. These devices aren't terribly expensive, though they may require installation. You won't have to worry about FM reception hassles, though.

If you want the deluxe solution, check out Harman Kardon's Drive Play, at http://www.harmankardon.com/drive-2/ Expensive, and requires installation if you want it wired into your car stereo, but it also functions wirelessly and gives you supreme control over you iPod while on the road.

i agree with sunspot42 above.

The kind that transmit through your radio are ok, but they leave a lot to be desired. Because your sneding it thorugh the radio, the quality is not that good at all. If they use the regular headphone jack as well instead of the dock port, you loose even more quality

I would look into what kind of car she has. Some newer ones have ipod jacks built in, and others have what is called an "aux in" jack. with this you could buy a standard mini to mini plug, it looks like a double ended headphone cord. Or other cars have a special hookup, these are usually on the back, that allow you to buy a special plug and it hooks right to the ipod. As the choices get harder to install or more expensive the quality goes up and up.

I have a cord hooked into the back of my car stereo and then that is attached to a "Sik Imp" (search that) and you can see what it does. it converts the regular audio line into a dock connector, for increase in quality. I didn't stop there though, i hooked that into a regular ipod dock and then molded that in to a custom little piece that fits into my car's console, so it looks like it was part of it. so i have a dock connector sticking out and the ipod plugs right in. it's a more time consuming choice, but it looks great.

Wow, everyone, thanks for your help. No, her car doesn't have an iPod hookup (it's an older (pre iPod) Volvo). I think that she looked into this herself, but sort of dead-ended where I did because there are so many products out there, but none that seem that great. I think I will get her one of the newer model radio station ones that plug into the lighter and have the scanning technology to find a good radio station (we are in the NYMetro area, but not near many tall buildings).

Oh, and gift cards are strictly prohibited (per Mom) at our Secret Santa :}

I have an older kensington FM transmitter (non-electronic display they don't sell it anymore) that works pretty well.

I live in chicago, sometimes it gets fuzzy in certain areas, but overall i ahve been very happy with it. Away from the city and the burbs, it works perfectly.

So as a brand, I would say try kensington.

I live in Chicago, and do all my driving in the city. I bought an iTrip and could never get it to work very well (volume and interference problems). It was seriously awful and unusable.

I bought the cheapest cassette deck adapter I could find to use in my boyfriend's car (< $10), and it works _great_. (For my own car, I ended up purchasing a new iPod-compatible Alpine stereo, which is fantastic. But I needed a new stereo anyway, since the factory-installed one went kaput.)

I have a Belkin Tunecast that I picked up at Costco just over a year ago. At first I was disenchanted because of all of the static and signal clashing I experienced (in and around NYC). But then, after some practice, I finally figured out how to use it. In a nutshell, you pretty much have to tune into the lower end of the FM band (87.9 - 91.9) in order to get a free frequency or to be able to overpower an existing signal (NPR signals in this range are always pretty weak). In the city itself and northern NJ, 90.5 is the only one that works consistently well. For Long Island I keep it locked at 89.3, with only an occasional dropout or two on the LIE on overpasses.

Despite the fact that you are listening through the radio, the sound quality is surprisingly full and crisp- perhaps just a hair or two shy of CD quality. It is definitely far superior to the regular FM radio broadcast quality. Unfortunately my existing head unit is completely integrated into the console of my car, so there is no way I can swap it out for a unit containing an AUX line in. Still, I am pretty satisfied with the Tunecast.

I have a DLO Transpod (http://www.dlo.com/products/TP_black_Prod.tpl?command=showpage&cart=) for my old subaru that has a CD player and no tape player adapter. The device itself has enough setup permutations that it should work with most car setups (it comes with an extra arm if you need it). I live in the NYC area and haven't had many issues with interference or static. This is because the transmitter is powered by the car--which makes the signal strong enough to transmit your ipod tunes over the radio. Unlike many older fm transmitters, you can also set it to almost any frequency, so you can set it to any station on the dial between 88.1 and 107. In addition, the transpod powers your ipod while you're using it. I don't know what your budget is--this retails for around $79, but I bought mine on ebay months ago for less than $50. Good luck!

I agree with Rosie -- since our airwaves are so crowded, there are no pure static channels on NYC radio. The radio tuner models are frustrating at best. I drove cross-country with one - it was fine in smaller cities and great in the middle of nowhere. But useless in NYC.

I had a friend with a hard-wired version that they rigged into the glove box - if your sis is in the city, go with that kind of system.

I just used one of those cassette adapters. They're really cheap, and work for a long time. Not very chic, but efficient.

The iTrip works well where there are few stations. In my experience, here in the Twin Cities, it sucks beyond compare.

Unfortunately the radio-cassette adaptors don't work in all radios. Some "think" the cassette is broken and simply report "error". My VW GTI did this all the time.

Hi Robyn,

On my road trip this summer with a girlfriend, she had the Monster iCarPlay Wireless Plus FM transmitter, and I was impressed by the quality. Digital tuning is a must, and it takes patience to find a station sometimes, but it pays off in the end.

Another option is to contact a place like Best Buy and talk to their car installation folks, giving them the make, model and year of the car, and see if there's a way for them to run an auxiliary line from the back of the stereo into the glove box or from near the floor with enough extra to make it to the dash console area--and how much it would cost for them to do it. I personally use an auxiliary jack that inputs on the face of my after-market stereo, for my iPod (through the headphone jack, with the cord that looks like two headphone jacks), and haven't found any noticeable difference in quality. Depends a lot on the quality of her speakers, I would imagine, and I'd venture to guess with hers it would be fine.

Good luck!