Griffin Tuneflex Aux Smartclick car iPod dock

The Tuneflex Aux Smartclick is an iPod dock for your car.

The main unit has a section to which the iPod or iPhone attaches, connected by a sturdy but flexible metal shaft to a plug that goes into the cigarette lighter socket (12v socket on newer cars).

Once it’s all plugged in the player will charge from the car’s battery, and you can play songs from it too. This requires a car stereo with an auxiliary input (headphone-style) socket, because that’s the only way to get sound out of the player - a cable is supplied that goes from the Tuneflex to the car stereo’s socket.

It won’t work with non-Apple players.

Sound quality was very impressive – much better and with less chance of interference than the more common products which broadcast your iPod’s signal over the radio. There’s a wireless remote control supplied, which can attach to the steering wheel and has large buttons for play, pause, and track skipping.

We found the shaft not quite flexible enough, and while it fitted one of our test cars, it was too small for the other one, leaving the iPod inaccessible. You could of course connect the iPod directly to the socket, but this product allows it to charge and makes a handy stand.

The RRP is high but it’s cheaper online, and if your car has an aux input socket it’s a good buy.