If you've ever wanted to stream music and phone calls through your car speakers, the good news is that your car doesn't have to have Bluetooth built-in. Tethering your phone to the car via an auxiliary cord works, but it's not always ideal. Plus, with rumors that future iPhones won't have a headphone jack (and by the time you read this, that day may already have come), even the auxiliary cord option feels like a thing of the past.
What you need is a Bluetooth car adapter. This allows your car to receive a Bluetooth signal and then transmit it directly to your speakers. There are different options for the type of car adapter you want.
Wired Bluetooth adapters stick somewhere on your dashboard, wherever you go, and usually have a few control buttons and a built-in microphone. The microphone is for calls or voice control and the buttons are for making/receiving calls and listening to them, so the adapter should be placed within easy reach.
An auxiliary cord plugs into your car's 3.5mm audio input port, while another attached USB cord plugs into your car's power supply.
The auxiliary board and USB stay plugged in, so they continuously draw power while you drive. So wired Bluetooth adapters never need to be recharged.
Tip: If your car also doesn't have a USB port, look for Bluetooth car adapters that include traditional car chargers, so the USB cord can plug into one first.You can get a solid Bluetooth car adapter for no more than $50 and some are often much less. Recommended is Belkin's Bluetooth car kit which currently sells for $48 on Amazon. It also offers multi-device pairing so you can connect two smartphones and switch between them. More affordable choices are SoundBot's Car Kit for just $17 on Amazon or Anker's SoundSync Drive for $18. The first two include traditional car chargers.
Wireless Bluetooth receivers plug into your auxiliary input port like wired receivers do and essentially pop out of that port when they run out of battery. Just plug yours in, turn it on and you're ready to go. These are more discreet, but must be recharged. Most tend to last 5-10 hours on a single charge.
Tip: One downside is that wireless receivers often don't have built-in microphones, so making phone calls is less than ideal.
Most, if not all of them, charge via a micro-USB cable. If you have an Android phone, you probably have a lot of them lying around anyway. But even if you don't and your car has a USB port, you can charge the receiver directly from your car without ever having to bring it inside.
A solid option on Amazon is the top-selling Mpow Streambot for $16 with 10 hours of use, 120 hours on standby, and 1.5 hours to fully charge. Another popular alternative is the Mediabridge Bluetooth Bullet for $20, although it only has five hours of battery life.
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