Customer Rating:  
Summary: Utterly worthless
Comment: This item would be great if it found stations that were open...but it doesn't. And it would be awesome if it would maintain the signal over more than a mile...but it won't. And yes I tuned it with the radio off, junk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If it doesn't work, it's your own fault.
Comment: I was a bit nervous about buying this fm transmitter at first. Some of the reviews made it sound horrible. I have previously owned two other transmitters (not zune). This one outperforms them by far. It seems like some people are giving it bad reviews just because they don't fully understand how to use it. As long as you are smart enough to turn it on BEFORE you tune the radio to its frequency, it will work fine. If someone is not capable of using this, maybe they shouldn't be buying electronic devices.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dont be fooled by its name...
Comment: I realize when it comes to FM transmitters than you're usually S*** out of luck, but I bought this one with high expectations as it had the brand name attached to it and a far more costly price tag than most transmitters, so what can I say? I was sold before I heard anything about it. What I got was an overpriced awful piece of equipment. I tried to tune into the station before I turned on my radio like the top reviewer states (btw, he must work for Microsoft or something) and it was just pointless. I also live in Los Angeles county which is as urban as it gets and nothing worked. I really gave it a try but received NOTHING beyond static. Even the 10$ transmitters that I bought on eBay worked at least to some degree. This one doesnt work at all. Its a shame as it does have some nice features going for it; the magnetic holder and grip pad cant make up for the fact it doesn't work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Functional only for spoken word in rural areas
Comment: Personal, low power FM transmitters are always going to be lower-fidelity. The Microsoft Car Pack v2, however, is nearly unacceptable for any use.
I live in Tucson, with a bunch of open space on the radio dial.
I do not have a metalized energy reflecting windshield as is found on many newer vehicle models.
The MS Zune Car Pack v2 only works when the cable is snaked up so the transmitter is on the passenger side, a foot away from my antenna. I can't reach the head unit at that point, and I can only place my Zune on the dash, but it works.
Even placed by the antenna, the unit is only good on spoken word podcasts. Music quality is terrible, high frequencies like symbols often turn into noise.
This unit causes/receives occasional bursts of static both during podcast play, and when the Zune is stopped.
The auto-search function sucks, despite every "secret" and "trick" about getting it to work written. Here's a hint: If secret tricks are required, it's not a well-designed product. The station it finds will *not* be the best. I was able to find much better "blank spaces" manually.
It has two buttons to save presets; I would like at least 3; I've found that useful when driving to another city.
I suspect either the power transmitter is set too low, a bad radiating antenna in the unit, or a mismatch inside the unit. I have considered taking it to work and hooking it to a spectrum analyzer to compare it to my iPod transmitter.
I have an old Kensington FM transmitter for an iPod (Model K33185); it plugged into my dash almost 4 feet, and lots of plastic, metal, and glass between it and the antenna. It works great (only a slight loss on cymbals, never any break-in and could even overpower weak radio stations), had one less cable (transmitter was in the plug/display) and had three presets.
If you want to listen in your car, I recommend:
- Buy a new stereo and a Zune stereo adapter kit.
- Find an old Kensington Universal FM transmitter and run a USB cable to charge the Zune; note the newer Kensingtons are also written up for low power much like the Zune car pack.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Better then I thought
Comment: I bought this praying it would work for me luckily it did. I live in the Chicago land area and our air ways are flooded. During the morning and night hours this device works great for me, with very very little static. The trick is having the car pack turned on and tuned before you power on the radio. Afternoons is a bit tricky I tune to a different station with a tad more static but not horrible. The sound quality is not something that you would expect from a stereo but it is decent. I bought this so I would not need to carry around tons of Cd's and listen to my favorite music and it does just that.
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