I took Jeff's suggestion and got one of the Belkin adapters myself. It works great. Here it is: Auto Kit for iPod w/ Dock Connector. You'll also probably want one of these: 12-Inch Shielded Stereo Audio Cable.

 

I believe I have the same one. I also paid about $30 at Target or Walmart, can't remember. The Belkin has a connector that goes in the bottom of the ipod (not the headphone jack on the top) and charges it in addition to handling audio output. The cigarette plug of the Belkin has the electronics, plus a volume ****, and a standard headphone jack (1.5mm I think) line amplified output. You just get a male-male headphone jack cable and one end goes in the Belkin output, the other into the aux in.

I dunno if just using the headphone out->aux in does this too, but with the Belkin you never have to turn the ipod on or off. The ipod turns off a minute or two after you stop the car, and comes back on at wherever it left off when you turned off the car last.

 

Bobfl,

It took me a few minutes of surfing to figure it out, too. Check out your settings under Edit --> Preferences --> Importing (it might be on the Advanced tab, depending on your iTunes version). If you're currently set to ACC, then the only conversion option you'll get when you have music selected is...ACC.

Change that to MP3, say OK and close the Preferences window -- then try your conversion again. It should give you a "Convert to MP3" option now. Kewl?

 

This aftermarket device seems like a good way to integrate your ipod with the TCH's navigation system and built in aux ports.

http://www.vaistech.com/sli.html