Further update to my last...
I went ahead and bought the kenwood KCA-ip500 adapter. I found a shop on ebay selling them for 39.99!!! brand new. This is much cheaper than normal retail price of around 99 squid so was well chuffed.
I spent a frustrating 3 hours fitting it. Technically it was easy, just a case of getting the stereo out, plugging it in the back and making a small, discrete hole in the glove box for the cable. The hassle was with taking out all the bottom dash units to make it a neat job and to be able to pass the wire to the back of the head unit
The glove box in particular put up one hell of a fight before i eventually managed to get it out of the dash!!!
Still, all back together now and the tunes are bangin
. I found a good place for the actual adapter box too, on top of the heater tubes directly behind the glove box. All neat and tidy and best of all, with the ipod in the glove box, there's no signs whatsoever to passing theif scum that you've upgraded ur ice...
It took a while to understand how to operate the ipod via the head unit with regards to finding the right playlist etc, but the instructions do make sense and its just a case of getting ur head around it!
All in all I'm well pleased with this method of connecting the ipod to my car stereo. Its pretty cheap, provides excellent sound quality with no interference and is totally discrete. Its safer too as you don't have to fiddle around with the ipod to change tracks, its all through your HU. But if you're gonna fit the adapter yourself, be prepared to go to war with your dash for a while....
keep it v dubya