[macdonaldj]

Hi there,

I've had a little search around these forums but struggling to get a definitive view on the question I had.

My girlfriend has just bought a 2005 Vauxhall Corsa SXi. It has the CD30 factory-fitted stereo, and for Xmas I want to get her a kit so she can play mp3s and/or use the phone handsfree through it. She has an iPhone 3G, and I have a 3GS which we would like to use in the car. Currently we have a lilttle Griffin iTrip, but the quality is questionable and the battery life is terrible.

From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be an option to have both music and phone capability without removing the factory-fitted stereo, buying a fascia adapter and putting in an aftermarket system. Am i right in thinking this?

Anyway, I'm not keen to do this because of the cost involved, so the next best thing would be to find a kit that can play mp3s on her iPhone through the car speakers, while charging the phone as well. I have looked at a few options for this, specifically the Dension ICE>Link, the Connects2 iConnect and the iPlug-RDS but I'm not sure whether

a) all of these are compatible with her car, and an iPhone 3G?
b) which has the best sound quality (they all seem to connect via the aerial input so is there any difference?)
c) which has the best features? The iPlug-RDS claims to show the ID3 details on the car display using the RDS function which is pretty cool...any other things I should know about?

If anyone can give me any insight into these products I would be very grateful! Also, does it make sense to get it installed professionally, or is this a job I can do myself? I fiddled with car sound a bit before when I was in uni so have a basic knowledge of electrics etc, but certainly no expert.

Many thanks!

[sam_roberts30]

hey matey. have a look at talkaudio.co.uk. its the place to go for anything car audio.

in my opinion the best (and only way i'd go) is to go for an after market headunit. I have an alpine ida-x305 which is fully compatible with the iphone 3g and 3gs. seriously though, dont discount dedicated units. they sound way better and some have on board dac's so you dont use the ipod ones.

hope this helps

[davemcc1]

as above post , best way is to go aftermarket HU with av in and bluetooth there not that expensive really. have a look on corsa-c.co.uk in there ICE section maybe a few more bits of info there