There aren’t many products around so popular that car manufacturers are willing to build around them to allow drivers to use them in their vehicles. Such is the dominance of Apple’s iPod. The digital music player has a massive 75 per cent share of the worldwide market so it’s no wonder every effort is being made to accommodate it in the latest model cars.

It wasn’t so long ago that a 10-stacker CD was considered the ultimate in car audio. Today that looks rather puny when you consider having an iPod on board that can hold the equivalent of 1500 albums.

The first in-car iPod products, which are still popular, were transmitters which connected to the iPod and sent a signal that could be picked up on the designated FM frequency. The downside of these was the cable clutter and the fact you still had to use the iPod to control the music.

Other audio visual systems and headunits offered iPod connectivity with access to the music through the touch screen.

While these systems looked impressive they were often not compatible with the car’s steering wheel audio controls, which are designed so that drivers need not take their eyes off the road.

But as the popularity of the music device grew, so did the desire for car manufacturers to provide full iPod integration.

Mercedes-Benz has introduced an integration kit which seamlessly merges the iPod to the vehicle’s audio system. It is available for late 2005 models and most of the 2006 range including the C-Class, SLK, CLK, CLS, E-Class, M-Class and R-Class.

Other manufacturers with iPod integration kits available now or coming soon are BMW, Audi, Nissan, Jeep, Honda, Volkswagon, Mini, Volvo, Suzuki and Ferrari.

- Stephen Fenech

http://carsguide.news.com.au/story/0,20384,18692250-21822,00.html