Many of my friends have iPods. Just about all of them have one way or another to listen to their iPods in their cars. I've tried several ways, some work better than others:
FM Broadcaster
This is the most common approach, and it's one that works for other portable audio players. I remember using an fm broadcaster to listen to cds years ago when my car only had a tape player. These work OK, but are highly dependent on the power source and the car's radio antenna. The one that best integrates with the iPod is the Griffin iTrip. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/
I carry one of these with me when I travel, and it works about as well as you can hope. While traveling, it is sometimes difficult to find empty stations, and the iTrip can let you select from the entire FM band (most of these things let you pick from 5-6 stations on the bottom end of the band, which isn't always effective). The iTrip is also self contained and portable, so you don't need to use it in a car; it works in a hotel room just as well. The problem with this portability is that the iTrip runs off iPod power. It doesn't seem to drastically effect the battery life, but it really isn't powerful enough to work in every car (Camry's are a little iffy, Ford Taurus' work better, Infiniti's are right out... oh, the joys of rentals).
Powered FM Transmitter
Same approach, but these things have 12v car adapters, so they aren't as underpowered - in theory, at least. A friend of mine just got a monster iCarPlay cable: http://tinyurl.com/2hpqz This appears to be the nicest product in this range in terms of simplicity, and it works well. It's just a cable that goes from lighter adapter to the iPod with a little channel selector on the cable. Easy to grab, easy to hide, and the quality is pretty good in Chicago. But, there aren't many conflicts in the channels it offers near Chicago. In south Florida, there are quite a few underground stations, and 88-91 are rarely free. The iCarPlay does broadcast stronger than the iTrip. My brother just got an iPod mini for his birthday, and I'm getting him one of these to go along with it.
This bucket also includes the TransPod http://dlodirect.com/, and it would have included the PodBuddy http://www.dvforge.com/podbuddy.shtml, except the DLO people leaned on dvforge and so they will not build the PodBuddy. I find that sketchy, and it completely kills any interest I would have in the TransPod. Although, it does give you the full FM band to select from channels, but tacky business practices trump product features in my opinion. Before all this happened, I simply thought that the TransPod was too big, and too constraining in that it was a holster, not just a cable. A cable seems to me to give more freedom to pass the iPod around to others in the car. Your interests may vary.
Hardwired - No Integrated Controls
Lots of cars have OEM cabling for CD changers. They generally follow a pioneer or some other cable standards, as the overpriced OEM changers are often made by one of a few audio companies. This is a very good thing, because you can get line-in adapters that connect to those unused cables (this is an either or choice - CD changer or line-in). There are many products depending on the car, so no links here. This is how I wired my last car up, and it worked really well. You end up with zero distortion/static, and if you put some effort into running the cables it looks neat and organized. One thing to note: in 2002, I was quoted $500 to install one of these. The one I bought was $30, and it took me about 10 minutes online to find out how to pop out my rear seats and run cables underneath them. I needed about 20 minutes of install time and I was done. If you have any ability with a screwdriver and your hands, you can do the install yourself on just about any car. These things are designed with the correct plugs for your car, so there should be no wires to cut or solder.
The only things I didn't like were the lack of charging of the iPod while using it (you are likely to find that using a car charger at the same time as many of these things will cause interference and background clicking or similar because the power is out of phase or somesuch). And, the fact that I had to use the iPod controls to control the iPod. It's a great, but not the greatest, interface to use while driving.
Also, note that some car manufacturers (MINI, and i hear one of the GM lines) are finally building 1/8" jacks into their head units. If you have one of these, you have the equivalent of this approach. Just no charging without a charger, and no control integration.
Which leads to:
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Hardwired with Integrated Power and Controls
This is what I use in my car today, and there are a few alternatives.
If you have a BMW, you can get their box and have a dealer install it (it involves removing the dash, and requires a special pin tool because it just gives you wires that need to tap into the head unit harness..) http://www.ipodyourbmw.com/. It's pricey and fairly limited, so even if you are installing it in a BMW, you should pass this one by.
For most other cars, there is the Monster iCruze. http://www.monstercable.com/icruze/
This one is also a bit pricey, but you can put it into most recent vehicles. It will work with head-unit or steering wheel controls, provides power to the iPod, and, if you want to spend a bit more, you can get a remote display so you can see what is playing in bright blue letters stuck somewhere on your dash. Everyone likes bright blue letters, no?
I haven't seen it installed, but looks like it would be a fairly nice product, and probably self-installer friendly. But again, it's a bit on the expensive side.
The one I have now is a Dension ice-Link Plus. http://www.densionusa.com/icelink_info.htm This one comes in a few different car specific models. They are 'about' to release a fibre version that will work with just about any recent higher-end vehicle. Apparently, folks like Porsche, Audi, Land Rover, Volvo, Mercedes, etc. have recently standardized on in-car fibre connections for audio, car info, and the like. My car doesn't have fibre, so I got the current product, an it works very well. It's fully integrated with the steering wheel controls, and it displays track info on the radio head unit. You can use either the iPod UI, or the radio controls and display. You can define playlists which map to the CD selector buttons on the radio, and you can also browse the whole iPod using either UI... should you not have everything in a playlist. Dension made the software upgradable, and upgrades are trivial. You put 'songs' on your iPod, plug it in, and play those tracks. A few minutes later you have an upgraded ice-Link. I've done it and it works very well.
The ice-Link is very small - smaller than a pack of Wrigley's gum. It came with a long cable which plugs into the CD changer jack in the car trunk, which I then ran up under the seats. You can select dock connectors - which you mount someplace on your dash, or a cable (what I use) that lets you pass the iPod around - and which is nice and easy to hide when you park. This install took me less than 10 minutes. In fact, I bought the ice-Link and took it with me when i went to take delivery of of my new car. I installed everything, even routed the cables under seats and all, before I ever drove the car out of the showroom. All the controls work well, and the text display on the dash is very useful (you see the title slightly ahead of the music starting, so you can skip/scan quickly if you want).
If you have a navigation system, their new software versions on the fibre product will display track art on the screen. You need track art to show how truly expensive your car/audio system is, you know.
This whole thing costs a bit less than $200, and is well worth it in context.
Summary
That's about it in terms of the current state of options. I would clearly recommend the Dension product if it works with your car, because it just works.
If not, or if you want portability, the Monster products also work well, but they're just not quite as slick.
And I still, though rarely, use my iTrip. Simply because I seem to be getting stuck with rentals with bad antenna placement these days.
