Can I listen to iPod through old car stereo?

I have a somewhat geezery car, too, and had the opposite experience. I actually found the FM transmitter to have better quality than the cassette adapter, especially if you live in a cold climate. The metal doohickey (don't mind my lack of tech brain today) doesn't do well in a cold car. With the FM transmitter, I live in a decent-sized city (not huge, but metro is 1.something mil) with tons of radio stations, and found the "right" frequency through trial and error. Once I found the good one, it's been all good. It's more of a PITA when I travel outside that range, but for city driving, it's been the best solution. Added bonus is that if you have a car that could get digital signals via satellite or whatever, the iPod + FM transmitter combo will transmit that to the car stereo. Cassette solution doesn't.

Extra bonus is that the FM transmitter will usually charge the iPod. Cassette solution doesn't do that either, as it uses the headphone jack.