Originally Posted by
3Cforme
You will find a lot of U.S.-market cars have an aux jack. Some manufacturers will hide it pretty well - check the center console, within the storage area, even. A few have USB jacks that will accept an iPod. Some support Bluetooth audio (as with Ford Sync).
It's exceedingly rare to find any U.S. market 2010+ model year cars without at least an aux jack. Make sure you bring a male-to-male 1/8"-1/8" (3.5mm-3.5mm) stereo TRS cable (sample:
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Stereo-A.../dp/B0014299NW) or buy one at a Radio Shack or Best Buy or other electronics store upon arrival.
That said, as recently as 2008, I got an upgrade to a Chevy TrailBlazer that I was shocked to find did not have an aux jack. (I had the car for 6.5 days and looked EVERYWHERE for it.) Still, in the last year I have probably been exposed to 50 different makes and models of rental fleet cars and have never been without an aux jack, either in foreign or domestic makes.
I'm not aware of anywhere in the U.S. where a personal low-power FM transmitter is illegal. If the car has an aux jack (or USB port or Bluetooth audio support), though, I prefer them--better audio quality and less chance of interference.