I dunno what I find more baffling, the fact the ipod is the be all and end all for one journey or a charging lead would somehow magically make a bog standard cd player play the ipod

Have you ever tried a 14 hour non stop drive? You need entertainment, trust me. And like i said before i dont fancy the local late night live in German. I couldnt put up with the scorpions wind of change all night either.
Its all sorted now anyhow. I have transmitter thingy. Hopefully, it works.