I got tired of the static from a FM based iTunes adapter and called Volvo to get the something better. I just returned from the dealer, having paid nearly $1000 to get an iPod adapter installed and was looking greatly forward to having my entire music collection available in the car. But what a big disappointment!

You can not use the Ipod User Inteface to select what music is to be played! Have the engineers at Volvo been designing with their heads under their arms, or are they 80+ years old and completely out of touch with the capabilities of consumer electronics?

In essence, they have stuck a 10CD user interface on top of the iPod and expect you to use this. Don't they know that a full iPod contains 15,000 songs?. Expecting a UI that has been designed for 100-150 songs is the worst piece of engineering I have seen in a long time!

You can structure your music in up to 9 playlists and browse through them by clicking (but the display can only display two digits and restarts at 1 after hitting 99). If you spread your playlists out evenly, this means about 2,000 indivividual clicks on the butting (no you can not hold it in but need to click for each song). With two clicks a second, that means almost 20 minutes to get to a song. IF you don't loose track of which multiple hundred you are in on the way. And at least to get there, you would need to carry a list of all your songs to find the number. A printout from iTunes with 50 lines per page means you would need to carry around more than 300 pages of paper to find your way in your music (and reprint every time you add to your music collection).

Is is nice that you can control playlists from the steering wheel, but WHY Volvo have you cut out control from the iPod. It renders the iPod almost unusable. People play a lot of music by album, for instance Operas, Symphonies or Sound Books. The iPod has excellent controls for selecting by Genre, Album, Artist or Song in addition to the playlist feature. Why not reserve the last CD channel for direct control from the iPod?

I will raise this as a complaint with Volvo today, but does anyone share my sentiments and know if Volvo is planning to improve this?

I am also very open for suggestions for alternate (non FM based) ways of connecting my Ipod that retains the controls from the Ipod.

My stereo is an HU803.

I have an Ipod adapter and can't say that I agree with you.

Controls and display of the Ipod does not match that of the factory stereo.
So they did what they could only logically do.

CD selector = Ipod Playlist selector
RANDOM or RND = Ipod Shuffle
and other obvious controls to Skip Next Track and Volume.

The factory stereo was not designed for an Ipod, if it was, you would have a different display and additional controls. The Ipod adapter serves to merely interface an existing factory stereo (pre-Ipod design) to the Ipod.

I suspect Volvo cut out control of the Ipod as a safety issue. You should not take your eyes of the road to mess around with the Ipod. Volvo would never deiberately design anything to compromise safety.

I like my Ipod out of sight out of mind.

If you want the Ipod to play in a particular sequence you can always manipulate this on the Itunes playlist. I also reserve a playlist fo when I have other people in the car and want to demonstrate something.

If you have that many songs, I find that the problem is actually with Apple's Itunes. I can't structure my directories to match my playlist. Everytime I add a new song, I have to search for it on Itunes to reassign this to a playlist. Cumbersome when you are adding many tracks at a time.

The whole point is that playlists are fine for a specific purpose, like songs for a party or for a specific event, or simply favorites. The real value in the iPod (and iTunes) is to play artist, album or genre and keep your entire music collection on it. Having to manipulate playlists all the time is a complete waste of time with the controls already available in the iPod.

As for car safety, natural use would be to select music before driving, and disable during driving if that was the intention, just like the TV on the RTI.

The real problem here is that Volvo has imposed a design suited for 100-150 songs on something that carries 15,000 songs. Have you tried clicking to song number 2000 on one of your playlists? It takes about 20 minutes if you try, since you have to click once for every advance (and the stereo is slow, so it only takes about one click per secone. And you can not even produce counts to get there without correcting for the fact that Volvo counts to 99 instead of 100, so you need to add one for each 99 passed to stay in sync with any list you have made for your songs.

A complete waste of money. I will revert to a top quality FM solution again. I was using the Transpod, but did not find the quality good enough. Does anyone know if the Harman Kardon kit is good quality?

[Forget] the expensive solutions, i'd find out which pins on the connectors conducted the analog signal, and adapt a stereo headphone cable for that. Then use the ipod as you would with headphones etc... This is assuming it isn't a digital transmission though, but i'd doubt is.

Hey Julian265 any link or tips on how to find the analog signal? My 2000 s40 is out of warranty and I wanna hardwire my XM or Ipod to the radio. I do also have a trunk mounted cd changer if that makes a diff in finding wires.