Comments on: Review: Griffin RoadTrip with Smartscan

By: Kristie

Kristie — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:20:19 +0000

Having the same problem with going over bumps and disconnecting, is there anyway that can be fixed?

By: HugeLetdown

HugeLetdown — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:26:23 +0000

I got this as a gift last Christmas and the thing is absolute garbage. After having it less than a year it is completely worthless. My girlfriend and her brother got the same model and they are having the same problems. If you go over the slightest bump the ipod will pause. It doesn't charge half the time and is very loose in the lighter port. Needless to say I am very disappointed in the poor quality of this product.

By: Jared

Jared — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:29:31 +0000

Two quick points not mentioned yet. I bought this back in January, and have been using on my hour+ commutes as well. There is a tiny aux plugin on the device, so if your vehicle has an aux port, just buy a male to male connector cable and it should work (I haven't used this feature though). Also, for whatever reason the iPhone refuses to play video when it's plugged in! It will gladly play the audio track to the movie, but the screen itself is full of a single frame, the first one on the video file. This is frustrating because often when I have passengers that would love to watch a TV show, or YouTube videos, and have the "surround sound" of the car speakers do their thing as well. It's admittedly a very small screen, but hey, some us are rich enough to install DVD players! I know the new Belkin one does, and specifically supports "widescreen mode". I may look at trying to get my hands on one of them. It's a shame, cause I did drop $100+ on this, and no where on the packaging do they warn you "no widescreen or video support". So consider this your warning.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:38:05 +0000

I'm in the same boat as NotPleased. This thing was absolutely awesome for about 5 or 6 weeks. Now, I wouldn't recommend it as a paperweight. It loses its connection constantly; repeatedly gives warnings about how it's not an approved device, etc. I have a Chevy Silverado with 3 outlets, and they are all VERY tight on the plug. So, I think the connection problem is in the swivel end. Either way, I pissed this money down the drain, apparently.

By: NotPleasedAtAll

NotPleasedAtAll — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:47:45 +0000

GotHot this shortly after gettig 3G iPhone. Started out great then about month after (when I could no longer return it) the thing started to crap out. It has gotten progressively worse and it's been only 3 months!

Bad reception. Saysq it's not made to work with iPhone. Randomly disconnects. No longer stays properly in lighter...

Overall, I just paid $70 for an expensive car charger. I want my money back!

By: VinceLomardi

VinceLomardi — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:14:17 +0000

I like this device. The nano is perfect for it. My 4g works with it ok, but there is no back support and im a little concerned over time i may damabe the ipod port, but this may be unlikely since the ipod is stong metal and probably is rigid enough to support itself. 8 of 10 stars.

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:20:12 +0000

I've had my RoadTrip for the past 3 weeks. Here are my observations:

I think I got a slightly older model, so it did not include a 3G iPhone holder.
Not a huge deal because I use a PowerSupport casing (the thin one). I found a holder that would hold both the iPhone in the casing with the provided holders.
I get a 'This is not an approved accessory' warning everytime I plug in the 3g iphone. Not a huge deal, but something to be wary of.
I live in a crowded FM area, SmartScan worked pretty well and I now have a good signal. There's also a nice tip on Amazon.com where a reviewer switched the Roadtrip to EU mode to get some different FM Bands.
Signal Quality is fine, although not tremendous, but my car does not have an AUX in or a cassette player.
I've found that bouncy roads car jar my iPhone out of the connection or smack it against my dash. But it isn't the arm part that is weak, it is the connector at the 'cigarette lighter'.
Speaker phone doesn't work very well, I can hear the person, but my voice comes through 'echoy'.

Overall, it is a good 'one step' solution for most cars. I'd like a better way to answer calls, and it'd be nice it it were a little sturdier. But I can't complain for a $65 investment.

By: iPhoneMilk

iPhoneMilk — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:40:34 +0000

wait a second... Rene's canadian?? =p

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:33:23 +0000

I too have a 1+ hour commute. A few weeks ago I finally gave up on waiting for a good FM transmitter and opted for a speaker doc that now sits in my passenger seat and plugs into a power adapter that plugs into the "cigarette lighter". There are all kinds of speaker docs on the market but beware of any bluetooth models as I don't believethe iPhone 3GG will support that for playing music (I learned that the hard way when I tried out a Motorola handsfree unit, somthing to do with A2DP). Though the model I bought is rechargeable, I elect to plug it in because when running off battery if I go over a bump and the connection is interrupted it shuts off the unit. The speakers are probably superior to my VW Beetle speakers and if a call comes in it does defer to it.

By: Sean Peters

Sean Peters — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:56:00 +0000

I would be very wary of these things - I bought an FM transmitter for an older iPod, and it was all but useless. The reception was so poor that the system was unusable. My solution: my truck has a tape deck, and I just got one of those tape deck adapters and plugged the iPod (and now the iPhone) into that via the headphone port. Works great. Of course, tape decks are not seen too much anymore, so this may not work for you.

By: matt_wood87

matt_wood87 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:00:17 +0000

FM transmitters are the only way to do this for the majority of cars on the road. aux in ports are limited to most cars made in the last 4 or 5 years.

By: Franz

Franz — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:13:24 +0000

FM transmitters are such an old way to do this and typically poor audio quality. Griffin has the TuneFlex AUX SmartClick and most cars have AUX port now days. The AUX port is no digital out, but it is vastly superior to an FM transmitter. I'd love to hear a review of that product. It also has the merit of being new, unlike the Griffin RoadTrip with Smartscan which has been out for quite a while.

By: Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:18:36 +0000

Smartscan just works. You press the button, it finds the best station, and you're good to go. It remembers the station as well (least it always did for me), so -- as stated in the review -- set up was a breeze.

By: matt_wood87

matt_wood87 — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:33:00 +0000

you fail to mention the "smartscan" in the review, and this would be one of the key selling points for this product. how do you know which station to tune your radio to? does the smartscan find the best available channel for the radio (by scanning the full range of frequencys then selecting the channel), or just the first one with little interferance? does it remeber which channel it was tuned to when you last had it turned on or do you have to retune it everytime. It would be nice to see a complete review of this product!