Others say...

"Beware"
I have an Infiniti G35 coupe and have been using a standard cassette adapter just fine. Based on this, I felt that the SmartDeck would be a great upgrade. However, it would not work at all! No sound, no skipping tracks, nothing. It just switches fron side A to side B and then ejects. The price was great but you may have to return it. Be Prepared.

"Just doesn't work"
Should have believed all the other negative reviews. Didn't work in my Honda Civic and didn't work in my Nissan Altima, both with original manufacturer tape decks. In both cases, the tape deck whirred for a bit, then ejected the SmartDeck.

"Positively HORRIBLE; don't waste your funds"
To say that I've wanted to throw this *smartdeck* out of my car window countless times may be a strong indication of how poorly it works.

Never have I encountered a product that works so poorly. Don't even CONSIDER owning this accessory if you live in an area of the country that dips below 60 degrees; it seems the product works even worse in the cold!

Upon pluggin my iPod into the smartdeck, the adapter makes my iPod jump, from song to song, playing the first 1/2 a second of each. It's rare that I'm able to get the adapter to play the iPod normally.

I will no doubt be shopping around the competition for a stronger, more reliable piece of equipment for my iPod

"When It Works, It's the Best Available Tape Adapter. But..."
I've read many of the reviews of the sorely disappointed, and I understand their complaints since I've also experienced many of the same problems. There are, however, some workarounds that might help some of the stuckees...

Regarding too-high-gain leading to static, I've learned through trial and error that the not-so-SmartDeck volume is fairly random due to variations in mechanical position of its head relative to the tape deck head. If the volume is set too high (or low), try plugging the SmartDeck in and out a few times, or reach your finger in and see if you can jiggle its position. Picking an especially loud song while you do this will help you to know when you have successfully adjusted to a good volume. Unfortunately, this workaround doesn't work for all iPods... although I can always successfully find a good position with my 4th generation 40GB iPod, I've noticed that the output from the iPod mini is significantly louder, and therefore, much harder to adjust this way.

Regarding the tapedeck-spits-out-SmartDeck problem, I've noticed that I only get this problem when the SmartDeck is cold, usually first thing in the morning (clearly, this is the tape deck thinking the SmartDeck is a jammed tape). Try warming the SmartDeck by blowing warm breath into the hole where the fake "tape" is, then put it back in. In cold weather, the deck itself is also going to be cold, so you may have to do this several times until the entire car warms up. It seems to me that this problem has become less pronounced over time -- I rarely have to do this more than once nowadays.

Unfortunately, I don't have a workaround for the intermittent track-skip/FF problem. I have seen that once or twice, though in general, that feature tends to work for me (both track skip, and track FF/Rewind). I have a suspicion that this is another cold weather problem and a side effect of the spits-out-tape problem, but now that I have a workaround for the latter problem, I've not seen this problem in over a year.

Ironically, if you manage to avoid all these warts, the SmartDeck is the best-sounding adapter I've ever heard. Plus, the auto-on/off feature is much more valuable than you might think (and no one seems to complain that this feature is broken). With the four other adapters I've tried -- two cassette, and two FM transmitter -- I cannot tell you how many times I forgot to turn my iPod off when I exited the car, then came back to a dead iPod. Nevertheless, the warts are pretty obnoxious, therefore I must deduct 3 stars from this otherwise 5-star product.

P.S. After about a year of use, I discovered that the spits-out-tape problem becomes progressively worse with age. Even warmed up, the cassette would often spit out, completely ruining my mood and listening experience. One day while playing my daily game of "tape in / tape out", I warned the adapter that I only had sufficient patience for 6 rounds. When the adapter popped out the sixth time, I tossed the adapter out the sun roof. Hey, he had no one to blame but himself ;-) Still one of the best decisions I've ever made.

"Would not buy it again"
Works in '02 Suburban. Gain is too high and not adjustable, so when changing tfrom radio ro CD to ipod, it blasts you with volume and also the sound quality is compromised by the too-high gain. It does not charge the ipod, nor can it be connected to a charger because it necessarily uses the docking port on the ipod. Belkin makes (made?) a charger that plugged into the docking port and then accepted an earphone jack from a separate tape. The Belkin solution had a gain adjustment, which was very useful, but it was not possible to use the vehichle's tape/CD controls to control the ipod. Using the tape/CD controls works for on and off, and it is great that the ipod stops when I switch to the radio or turn the car audio off. Going to the next song or backwards works with a delay that is not terrible. When I use the car controls I am in shuffle mode, so it's ok. If I want to find a particular song, I pick up the ipod. If the SmartDeck was had gain adjustment and a charger, it would be a lot better. We really need to pop the ipod into a hole in the dash and control it completely from the dash, with all the ipod screen infor visible on the car stereo. Until then, the SmartDeck is a couple steps forward and a couple steps back. Becasue of the gain issue, I would not buy it again unless it had a gain adjustment.