Customers like the performance and value of the adapter. For example, they say it works perfectly and is great value for money. That said, some complain about the quality and connectivity. They say the cable is poorly made and starts misbehaving after a few days. Customers are also disappointed with the fit and sound quality. Opinions are mixed on charging and sound.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

263 customers mention220 positive43 negative

Customers like the performance of the adapter. They mention that it works perfectly, does the job, and is inexpensive. Some say that it plugs right in and works immediately, and that it's great for no-hands cell phone use.

"...I'm giving this adapter 5 stars as working perfectly, and being about one-fifth the price of the OEM version from BMW...." Read more

"...cable in one end, and her iPhone 4S in the other, and it works beautifully. Charges and passes audio great...." Read more

"Pros: inexpensive, works fine with 2009 BMW 335i and iPhone 4S...." Read more

"...over the weekend ($29.99) and to my 2009 BMW 135i and it seems to work perfectly...." Read more

50 customers mention50 positive0 negative

Customers are satisfied with the value of the adapter. They mention that it works well and saves them money compared to the dealer route. Some appreciate the efficient and pleasant buying experience and the excellent Prime service by Amazon.

"Pros: inexpensive, works fine with 2009 BMW 335i and iPhone 4S...." Read more

"...Value. You really can't beat this product just based on price alone - less than 1/4 the cost of the BMW version...." Read more

"Great price,works as advertised with my 08 550i with logic7only con wish cord could be 12" longeras it stands right now,..." Read more

"...on my display. It's a great device for the price and I definitely recommend it...." Read more

22 customers mention19 positive3 negative

Customers like the ease of use of the adapter. They say that all music is easily navigable, it does not require any setup, and it works as it says it does with the steering wheel. Customers also mention that it integrates with iDrive very easily, and that it allows them to browse and select songs by playlist, artist, genre, and other criteria right from the dashboard display.

"...I can control the streaming Pandora music via (forward, back, etc.) the steering wheel and radio deck controls...." Read more

"...2. Ease of use - did not require any setup. Connected it and the ipod option showed up on the stereo.3...." Read more

"...It even allows me to browse and select songs by playlist, artist, genre, etc right from the radio. Nice! I couldn't be happier with this." Read more

"Works well. No muss. No fuss. Once or twice I had to unplug and replug it to get to unfreeze the music but that could equally be the iDrive on my BMW." Read more

57 customers mention33 positive24 negative

Customers are mixed about the sound quality of the adapter. Some mention the sound is great, the volume level was much better, and it transmits audio and charges the phone. However, others say they have experienced the same audio problems with having the sound play on, the sound goes in and out periodically, and the music cuts out.

"...Charges and passes audio great. Connection is very good even with her Speck iPhone case on. The cable itself is very durable...." Read more

"...The BMW audio does not support podcasts so I have been making 'smart playlists' in iTunes to play weekly updated podcasts...." Read more

"...Audio quality is good, as well.3) Charges my Nano and iPhone.Cons:1) It's short...." Read more

"...The first cord had some issues with the music going in and out at times...." Read more

35 customers mention20 positive15 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the charging of the adapter. Some mention that it charges properly, while others say that it doesn't charge their devices.

"...Playback, control and charging all work great with this cable. Quality appears good, at least for the first 3000 miles!..." Read more

"...The bad:-- charging doesn't work in MINI Cooper S (2009);--..." Read more

"...The phone does recognize the accessories and seems to charge without any issues as it plays music.So far I am very happy with the adapter." Read more

"...Update: I just tested the USB side and it does not charge my older iPod. It plays nice on the 3.5mm, but no charge on USB. So I still need two cables!" Read more

68 customers mention17 positive51 negative

Customers are dissatisfied with the quality of the adapter. They mention that the casing that houses the circuit board fell apart, it's poorly made, and the cables stopped working after a few days. Some say that the cord had some issues with the music going in and out at times.

"...The first cord had some issues with the music going in and out at times...." Read more

"...I've read some reviews saying that the cables stopped working after a few days, so if I encounter this problem, I'll update this review...." Read more

"...The cable is thick enough, that when we run it outside of the console and lay the lid down, there's no fear that the cable will get damaged...." Read more

"...iPod needs to be series 3 or later ... iPod 2 operates, but only as with the audio cable, not via iDrive...." Read more

53 customers mention8 positive45 negative

Customers are dissatisfied with the connectivity of the adapter. They mention that it drops the connection to the audio equipment frequently, has very bad quality, and does not connect correctly. Some say that the adaptor has bad connections inside the cable and that the connection is not as secure as it could be.

"...So, it would constantly disconnect. I thought there was a problem with this cable, but it's more of a problem with BMW's design of the glove box...." Read more

"...That means if you have an iPhone case (like LifeProof), this connector does not work because it is physically too large to get through the case..." Read more

"...Then it would play none of the tracts. Then it stopped recognizing an ipod altogether. I have tried multiple iPhones and iPods now to no avail...." Read more

"...This requires disconnecting and reconnecting the phone, which is annoying to do while driving especially given the depth of the console in the 535...." Read more

46 customers mention10 positive36 negative

Customers are disappointed with the fit of the adapter. They say the cable length is a little small and the chord is short. They also say the multi-pin connector is too large and does not fit the 7th gen iPod.

"...Cons: the plastic surrounding the iPhone connector is significantly larger than the one supplied by either Apple or BMW...." Read more

"...Charges my Nano and iPhone.Cons:1) It's short. So short in fact that you can't really use the phone while it's connected...." Read more

"...shell out for a new one (WAY too soon, IMHO) because it's no longer a tight attachment. Bummer for the price...." Read more

"...It's the perfect length for a Mini Cooper if you're going to put your Ipod in the drink holder or storage compartment in front of the gear..." Read more

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Michael the Skeptic

Works with a BMW R1200RT

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

Yes, this review is for using this adapter with a BMW motorcycle. I have a 2011 BMW R1200RT with the BMW Audio system. I'm also using this device with a iPhone 5, so I had to buy a lightning adapter to work with this.

At first it worked perfectly, but the problem was that the length of the iPhone 5 (compared with the 4 and 4S) plus the Lightning adapter plus all of the wiring made for a tight fit in the R1200RT's glove box (where the wiring for the iPhone/iPod sits. So, it would constantly disconnect. I thought there was a problem with this cable, but it's more of a problem with BMW's design of the glove box. I occasionally get the dreaded "NO USB" message on my dash, but I have isolated the problem to BMW's wiring, not this adapter (which is substantially less the BMW official adaptor for the motorcycle, which is the same as the automobile version).

I'm giving this adapter 5 stars as working perfectly, and being about one-fifth the price of the OEM version from BMW. I'm giving the BMW audio system 2 stars for not being user-friendly, for trying to crowd 1 meter of cabling in a tiny glove box, and for not designing their system for advances in the iPhone.

By the way, to fix my issues, I just bought an iPod Nano. Since the BMW Audio system on my motorcycle doesn't do the phone thing (to access the phone functions, I have to connect it by bluetooth to my helmet through the BMW Navigator IV...yeah, this is ridiculously complex), connecting the iPhone through the audio system right now has no advantage to me.

Conclusion: if you want to use your iPhone's music through your BMW bikes audio system (only the RT and the new K1600GT/GTL have it), you need this adapter. If you need the official BMW version and have the cash, go for it, but you'll run into the same NO USB problems. If you want to save a bundle of cash to spend on some farkle, then just buy this cable

One person found this helpful

Helpful

M. Kim

NON BMW car (2011 Honda CRV)! - works great!

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2011

Verified Purchase

Purchased this for my wife's 2011 Honda CRV. In some Honda's, there's a power outlet right next to the Aux. jack in the center console, so this was an ideal solution to consolidate cables. To preface, my wife's CRV has no pre-existing iPOD controls or compatibility built in. The main purpose for this purchase was simply not to have 2 cables (charging, and aux audio cable).

Plugged the usb and aux. cable in one end, and her iPhone 4S in the other, and it works beautifully. Charges and passes audio great. Connection is very good even with her Speck iPhone case on. The cable itself is very durable. The insulation is relatively thick, and the joints connecting the cable to the connectors are reinforced well, so there's no fear of bending or handling the cable.

We've also used this in our Honda Pilot, where the aux/power outlet is located inside the center console. The cable is thick enough, that when we run it outside of the console and lay the lid down, there's no fear that the cable will get damaged. Very well constructed.

Obviously steering wheels controls for these "non-compatible" cars don't work, because you're just passing power and audio through the cable, no data. Glad it actually works though for non-BMW cars (minus the controls).

9 people found this helpful

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MW

Works But Flawed

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Pros: inexpensive, works fine with 2009 BMW 335i and iPhone 4S.
Cons: the plastic surrounding the iPhone connector is significantly larger than the one supplied by either Apple or BMW. That means if you have an iPhone case (like LifeProof), this connector does not work because it is physically too large to get through the case opening. Apple's generic iPhone connector works fine with these cases, the neXplug does not.

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Racer dad

Worked great! - for five months.

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2013

Verified Purchase

Connects my 30gb iPod classic or my iPhone to my 2010 BMW 328i with no problems. The BMW audio does not support podcasts so I have been making 'smart playlists' in iTunes to play weekly updated podcasts. Playback, control and charging all work great with this cable. Quality appears good, at least for the first 3000 miles!

UPDATE after 5 months: Slowly, over the past two weeks this connector has died. It started by only playing some tracts on the complete list. Then it would play none of the tracts. Then it stopped recognizing an ipod altogether. I have tried multiple iPhones and iPods now to no avail. Not sure how a passive connector can die like this but, like so many others reviewed here, it did.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Alex

Works in my new F30 320d 2012 plate

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2012

Verified Purchase

I don't have the enhanced BMW USB option or sat nav, and only basic usb/bluetooth in the car. Therefore i ordered this cable to avoid paying the dealer about £43. Plugged my new ipod (160GB classic) into it via the usb AND aux connections at the same time and it works perfectly. I can see the screen give me options to play by things like album, artist, genre, playlist, individual track, etc.

However, i also tried to play music copied onto a 32GB usb stick and plugged directly into just the usb port, and that works too EXACTLY in the same way as the ipod.

The BMW software sorts out the music info by itself in each case.

So why bother with the ipod in the car then? Well, the only reason i can think of so far is that when i connect my ipod to my PC it will sync the songs played and update the playlists. I haven't yet figured out how to do the same using the USB stick.

Sound quality? Well i seem to think that the USB stick seems to sound better, but i've only tried out my new Y cable briefly for the first time today. USB sticks these days are very cheap to replace compared to an ipod so i might stick with the USB stick instead (despite having bought the cable - i had order it before i realised that the USB stick would work). I can't see what advantage the Y cable gives me at the moment.

What i would like either the USB stick approach or the Y cable ipod approach is to play all songs in order in an album, but for the albums themselves to be chosen to be played in random order, but i think this is a BMW software issue, as i don't think it can be done. At the moment i can only seem to play either all tracks sequentially or randomly within an album, or all tracks sequentially or randomly from all albums, but not all tracks sequentially in shuffled albums. This is even after if i have selected albums to shuffle on my ipod.

Incidentally my old ipod 3g does NOT work with the Y cable. I believe this is because versions 1-2 charge via firewire, whereas the later versions charge via USB. Hence as the car only has USB, then it has to be ipod version 4 upwards.

Note my comments only relate to the basic BMW audio with no fancy enhanced USB or sat nav - so i don't get album art. Also, just plugging in the apple USB cable doesn't work with my ipod as nothing happens.

Summary: cable works! (for the set up described above - but the the ipod has no advantage over the USB stick in terms of functionality, except maybe for later syncing with a PC. If anything, the USB stick approach is cheaper, and i think, has a better sound quality).

32 people found this helpful

mother3boys

Ok. Just ok

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

I purchased this 2 years ago when I got my iPhone 5S. I have a Mini Cooper Camden. The cable works ok most of the time, although I frequently get a pop up on my phone screen telling me the item isn't compatible with the phone and it stops charging, although carries on playing the music. I am however unable to change tracks from my steering wheel control buttons, although bizarrely I can change the volume from here though ..?!! I therefore have to press the phone screen to skip songs, which when the phone is on the passenger seat is not especially safe. I've persevered with this for two years, but if I hear of another cable which works more effectively I will switch. This one is ok. Just ok.

Dewyne

Works better than BMW's one.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

If you logically assumed that the regular BMW Bluetooth option would obviously include 'audio' as standard or at least function an iPhone from it's proprietary USB lead, then I truly feel your pain.

BMW dealers currently sell two Y cable types. A standard Y cable at about £43 and another with an additional in-line box holding a chip at about £49. Following the "get what you pay for' ideology, I ignored this obvious 7.99 "rubbish" on Amazon and made BMW test both 'high quality' cables in my late 2013 F20 BMW 1 Series (standard bluetooth and standard navigation options) with my iPhone 4 iOS7 and iPhone 4 iOS6.

To the eventual embarrassment of the parts staff and myself, both cables were only able to manage connectivity intermittently after several frustrating attempts - I took a rain check of the prices against performance and spent nothing.

After some days, I said what the hell, same thing's only £7.99 on Amazon. I'll take the punt and learn the lesson if necessary. It wasn't necessary. This £7.99 Y cable is much more reliable and well-built than both BMW leads i witnessed. It connects both the iPhones firmly every time.

If you manage your music nowadays in a convenient streaming service like Spotify and connect your iPhone with this cable to stream Spotify, it'll merely act as a cheap minijack-to-minijack (aux) lead allowing you to hear the iPhone's global audio output only. No control over your Spotify app functions whatsoever. You can adjust your car's overall aux volume and that's it.

Sidenote to car manufacturers...
------------------------------------

Car manufacturer's are really really behind in the audio technology dept, yet audio is such a natural mod-con in a car today. Radio is no longer sufficient in this rapidly evolving technological age of control and individual profile management. The future is wireless, audio streaming. No wires, discs, USB's, downloading, renaming, recompressing, organising, or normalizing - nobody has time for all that Web 1.0 nonsense anymore. Integrate streaming services into car systems directly with WiFi and terabyte drives for offline mode - Hmmm, I suppose we can dream can't we?

One person found this helpful

Rod Mcpherson

Doesn't work

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Cable connects to my iPhone 4s and starts playback but will stop at least once and often couple of times during each track. I then have to select audio in my car and restart the connection which I don't want to have to do every couple of minutes - it's a pain and not very safe if you are driving.

I was prompted by Amazon to write a review of this product and they advised that if I was going to give a review of less than 3 stars to contact the seller before reviewing.
I did this and got an email back as below, it was good of them to come back to me but I'd have preferred if they had checked what the problem was. (I was doing all of what they suggested already so it's not fixed the problem)

Hi can you make sure there are no cases, covers or bumpers on your device and follow this;

Installation Instructions

Plug in both parts of the cable, (USB and 3.5mm AUX jack) first to the AUX on your BMW when the car is off, then start your car then switch to AUX, then plug in your iPod or iPhone (do not plug your device into the cable, before you plug the cable to your BMW)

***Please also make sure your device is running the latest iOS.

One person found this helpful

Beemer Cooper

Works well in the 2013 countryman

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

I've read all the reviews on this product and have mixed feelings re: people's experience in this. I'm not sure if the options you have on your vehicle makes any difference, so I might well share what I have that are relevant on mine:
Chilli pack for cooper s; full Bluetooth with USB; standard radio BOOST

I wanted to connect my iPhone (4) and play music during my 30 mile journey to work. Tried the white cable (as some people find this works for them), well apart from charging the phone, it doesn't work. The car recognises an iPod is connected but says 'the cable currently in use is not supported'. I suspect those who find the white cable working and can even use spotify might have the full office function option on the beemers, that option allows you to access all apps on your phone and without it the white cable might just not work. I can't say for sure s haven't tried in a car with that option.

With some hope in mind I ordered this y cable. And it works, right away. The key is to plug it into the USB and aux input first, when engine is off, then switch on engine, then plug it to your iPhone. I once plugged the phone before igniting the engine and the car didn't even recognise there is an iPod plugged in. Pretty straight forward as said in the product description really! The cable is of good length, however I think it suits the bmws more as it is somehow a bit untidy on the mini centre rail. Another small issue I have is the volume - you need to put it a lot higher to hear it at the same volume compared to radio, DAB or CD, or USB (I tried an old fashioned MP3 player which is on USB base and it works). Doesn't help if you have a Diesel engine which in the countryman is rather noisy on the motorway, but that is the prob of my car rather than the cable. Sound quality wise it is as good as the other media channels.

Considering the price, it's really worth a shot. No point getting the bmw or mini one, and absolutely no need to buy the £120+ snap in adapter. Recommend anyone to give it a try, just one thing - follow the instruction in the product info paragraph, or what I said above. Good luck.

14 people found this helpful

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Compatible Devices	MP3 Player
Connector Type	Auxiliary
Item Dimensions LxWxH	11.81 x 0.2 x 0.2 inches
Brand	Mosuch
Item Weight	0.22 Pounds

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iPod Adapter Charge and Audio Cable with USB and 3.5mm for Select BMW and Mini Cooper Car Models - Control From Your Wheel

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