iPod Connect in 2008 Package 5 no Bluetooth

Scenario - Have recently bought my first-ever MP3 player, which is an Apple brand iPod. I have a 2008 Package 5. I don't own one of those Bluetooth thingies that make me look like I have something coming out of my ear and don't intend to buy one.

My car has an AUX hookup of some kind inside the console storage compartment. What do I need to buy (or should I have gotten something included with the car) to let me hook my iPod up to the car stereo system to be able to listen to my new iPod?

If I should have gotten something included with my Package 5 purchase, I didn't get it.

Also, if I take the iPod into our household's 2008 Package 2, will the same hookup work?

Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

Incidentally, I tried to search this site for answers to this question, but I got so many messages referring to older models or Bluetooth or just mentioning iPod incidentally that I gave up and just decided to ask the question. If this has been asked and answered many times in the past, please feel free to refer me to another answer, but I'd prefer one that's specific to the 2008 model year Package 5's or other packages that have the same capability in this regard as Package 5 (for instance, 6, because all it adds are the leather seats).

Finally, one more thing - I prefer brand-matching components. If there is a specific cable manufactured by either Toyota or Apple, and there is a less expensive one that will also do the trick, my preference is for either the Toyota or Apple brand item, not the less expensive one. However, let me know about less expensive ones, especially ones available in BRICK AND MORTAR stores, so that if it takes me a while to get an Apple or Toyota one ordered online or through the dealer, I can still get something to tide me over. Thanks again.

 

dogfriend, thanks very much for these links and for being the only person so far to step up and answer this question.

The first one starts out by referring to the use of "audio wire that plugs into external speakers and the back of your computer." Can you or someone else point me in the direction of the acquisition of such a wire?

A response to this one then mentions a "Belkin kit". I didn't follow the link to the web site because I noted in my original post a preference for (a) an Apple or Toyota brand item or (b) an item made by another company that I can go pick up in a brick and mortar store (such as Radio Shack or Wal-Mart) and pick up without waiting, not for something I have to order online and not have in my hands within the hour.

The second one also mentioned "Belkin". So, is Belkin the only manufacturer of these? Can I buy a Belkin brand item in a brick and mortar store?

A person responding to the third one said:

"Just buy a cable at [W]al[-]mart, that both sides of the plug fit inside the headphone jack. Cost is about $5 - $7 for a nice thick one."

Can someone please give me the specific name of an item, or a generic name that would be on such a box? Ironically, I don't shop at Wal-Mart very often. I usually only drive to work one day a week, Tuesday, so I was hoping to get something tonight before the World Series game so I could have the use of my iPod in my car while driving to work tomorrow. However, there is a Wal-Mart on my way to work that is the only store that sells general merchandise that is open at that time of the morning. So that's why I mentioned it earlier in the message. If I could run in there and find something, I'd at least have the use of the iPod the rest of the way in plus on my drive home.

So, to summarize:

1. Still looking for 2008-specific instructions if any are available that differ from earlier model years.

2. Still looking for Apple or Toyota brand connection device information, if such devices exist.

3. Still looking for information on connection devices that are available in brick and mortar stores.

4. Still wondering if my 2008 Package 5 was supposed to come with such a connection device.

5. Looking for information as to whether this Belkin brand that others have touted is available in brick and mortar stores.

6. Looking for information as to how such a package containing such a connection device may be labelled at Wal-Mart.

Finally, thanks again to dogfriend for stepping in to supply me the links to the three threads, and thanks in advance to anyone else who can answer some of the above numbered items.

 

Thanks again. I'll keep an eye out for the Belkin brand in stores. I don't know of any Apple brick and mortar stores around here. I noticed that you're in California, and it's possible that they don't stray far from their roots.

My desire to avoid online purchases, despite possible lower prices (even when shipping is added, sometimes due to not having to pay sales tax) and a greater range of items to choose from, is due to a few factors:

1. Being able to go out and get something that day, as long as it is available in some store in my area.

2. A living situation in which no one is home during the day to sign for packages sent by shippers other than the U.S. Postal Service. At least there's a 1 in 6 chance something sent via the Postal Service will come on a Saturday, but I'm not always home then, either. If something sent USPS absolutely must have a signature, or it's too big to fit in my small apartment lobby mailbox, at least the Post Office is in my neighborhood. I just have to wait until Saturday to go pick it up. Not good if attempted delivery was Monday.

3. Still a small reluctance to use a credit card online. In fact, I keep my credit card in a room at the other end of the apartment from the computer. I tend to bunch my online purchases. When there's something I absolutely must do online with a credit card (such as to guarantee a hotel reservation or register for a conference), I tend to take care of everything else I've been meaning to transact online.

 

No, it wasn't too late at all! I've had so many distractions the past couple of weeks that I haven't had much time to devote to programming my iPod or trying to get it hooked up to the car.

I stepped into the neighborhood Radio Shack where I had bought the iPod and was waited on by the same guy who sold it to me in the first place. I believe he is either the store manager or an assistant manager. He sold me a $12.99 wire that has the headphone-type plug at both ends. This past Tuesday (the day of the week that I drive to work), more than a week after I bought it, I finally remembered to bring it out to my car, along with the iPod, which I'm not bringing to work every day yet (even though it will come in handy on the days that I take public transportation to work). But I hadn't removed it from the packaging, and it turned out to be one of those packages where you have to have a scissors or something even tougher to get it open.

So, before leaving work on Tuesday, I cut it open with the scissors I have in my desk. I got out to the car, but I couldn't find a way to plug it in. I realized that the AUX outlet inside the console between the driver and front passenger seats is designed to take in plugs that in the past would have gone into a cigarette lighter. There's also a hole under the glove compartment that I think may also be designed for such plugs.

Thus, maybe in addition to the leather seats, a package 6 also has a place to put in a headphone-style plug to distinguish it from a package 5. On the off-chance that a package 5 does have a place to put in this plug, can you (or someone else) please describe how I can find the place in the car in which to plug this in?

Although I had earlier expressed a preference for certain brands even if they were more expensive than others, I had never imagined that the ideal part would be as high as $59. I saw some Belkin brand items in the upper two-digits in the just-described visit to Radio Shack plus a return trip tonight (in which I emerged empty-handed from the store). That's one reason why I jumped at the $12.99 part that the salesman recommended. That was in the $10-$20 range I figured I'd end up spending for such a contraption. I may yet end up with the $59 one you have described.

I have no desire to hook up a cell phone in the car, so if there is a variation that doesn't have a "12V splitter" (whatever that is), maybe that will save me some dollars.

I didn't want to spend $50, let alone $500, so I think I will pass on this option. I do intend to have long playlists. And I may one day end up with satellite radio, if the newly-combined XM and Sirius come up with a plan that allows me to get both the NFL and the major league baseball package. (It was maddening when the two sports ended up on separate networks, and now that they are combined, the way to get both of them appears to be to get Sirius - the one that has the NFL - along with something called "the best of XM" but doesn't include major league baseball in that package. I recently got some extended exposure to Sirius in a rental car on vacation. I was sorry it wasn't XM, because I had more interest in baseball than football that week, but it got me considering getting satellite for the first time.)

Thanks again for your advice, as well as to the others who have responded so far. Maybe I'll end up with something this weekend.

 

I took a better look at the AUX device in the console of the Package 2 that our household has that is not the car that I usually drive, and I saw that it is indeed something that is designed to take double male device (something about the number 3.5, if I recall correctly). I then looked more carefully at the one in my car, and sure enough, it's the same. So, probably on Tuesday, I'll be hooking my iPod up with this.

I have learned a lot in the past few weeks from the replies to my original message plus the ones in the links posted by dogfriend and visits to local stores. Thanks for bearing with me throughout this.

 

Success!

I successfully connected the iPod to AUX using the two-headed headphone jack this morning. I know that my tastes probably don't match yours, but I celebrated by playing Neil Diamond's 1996 album, "Tennessee Moon", which was one of the first albums I had loaded onto the iPod because I was taking it on a trip to Tennessee. I got through 12 1/2 of the 18 songs by the time I got to work.

I didn't listen to the iPod after work because I don't have much music on it yet, and I wanted to listen to both the Mary Martin and the Julie Andrews "Sound of Music" CDs.