Griffin iTrip AutoPilot with SmartScan

Comments about Griffin iTrip AutoPilot with SmartScan:

Rating - 4.5 stars (outside city)
Rating - 2.5 stars (within city)

Within 1 minute of opening, I got this working.

Instructions were very simple and easy to follow.

I was little skeptical to buy if this works for IPOD 3rd generation. IPOD at one point of time did say "device not compatible". But once I disconnect everything restarted IPOD and followed the directions again, never been a problem. So, even if you get that error, do not be panic. Try once again, it WILL work.

However, it takes little trial and error to get the best FM station that works for your location.

But the sad thing is as you move 20-30 miles away, that frequency may not be that good and you need to scan again. If you are outside big cities like Chicago, it is not a problem to find good quality FM Frequency that works for you at first couple of tries. I live in far west southern suburb of Chicago, it was little difficult to keep switching the stations, even though it takes very less time to find another station that might work, you need to divert your concentration, again not a problem if you have a co-passenger. I was driving to Detroit and till I left Chicago area, I was in dual minds about this. But once I was little away from city crowd, it worked like a charm till I entered Detroit area at which time I had to switch once again.

I heard this problem is there for ALL FM transmitters and no solution for this even for expensive models from other manufacturers, which makes sense and could be very true

What is applicable for city usage is... I also had to place the my IPOD as close possible to the antenna side of the SUV to get better result. and the cable is short. If this is little longer, it would have been no problem to leave that over dashboard or move around in the SUV for playing games in backseat passenger.