Syncing Contacts with Car

I think that's more a function of if your car supports it. Mine does, and it works fine.

There are a million online forums about this topic (trust me ... I've been researching it). I have the exact same problem with my 2009 Lexus GS350, and every other forum I've seen has said the same thing: iPhone's implementation of Bluetooth is pretty basic (read: aweful) and does not support most functions. So, no: you cannot sync your contacts with your car, and anyone who says otherwise is not being honest.

Works fine for my car. I just scroll through the list of contacts on my stereo and hit the call button.

But each car manufacturer bluetooth implementation is not always compatible.

If you go here: http://www.infiniti.com/bluetooth/phone.html and search, you'll find that phonebook download from the iPhone is not provided in the Infinity bluetooth system.

There are adapters that make this super easy, available online at stores like http://www.autosoundcentral.com and www.nextag.com/ipod-bluetooth-adapter/search-html

I've been following discussion threads and doing other research but have not found an answer to my question . . . is there any way to sync contacts from my iPhone 3G to my car (Mercedes 2009 C300) via bluetooth?

I read something about creating vcards in iTunes but that might not be the answer.

Any / all help will be GREATLY appreciated - Steve

Here is what I have discovered to date - it appears that the iPhone 3G does not store contact/address book information on the SIM card but rather stores this information on the phone's hard drive. As such, when the car display indicates that the car is ready to receive "business cards", what this means is that the bluetooth system is ready to import contact information from a phone's SIM card - NOT possible with the iPhone.

Because I had recently purchased my iPhone, and because I had my "old" phone with most (if not all) of my contact information on its SIM card, I was in luck !

The process will be time consuming for me (maybe a different type of phone would speed the process - my "old" phone is a Nokia).

The process I am using requires that my old phone also be "linked" to my car and then individually select each contact in my old phone and "send" to my Mercedes.

This process is working but takes time - worth it to me to have an "address book" in my car.

As a side note, as I develop more "contacts" in my iPhone, to incorporate them into my Mercedes address book will require that I manually retype the entry into my old phone's SIM card(referring to the contact information stored in my iPhone of course)and then send the contact to the car using the process above.

Lastly, someone suggested that the new iPhone operating system (due out next month) might do something to help us.

Hope this post helps others - Steve

It really is variable: my Lexus 400H ('06) used to work with single contracts from a Razr (but NO extraneous information was tolerated: had to be name + phone number ONLY);
BMW 328xi ('07) and Jaguar XK ('07) suck the whole address book down, alternate numbers and all - in the background!

EddieO

"There are adapters that make this super easy, available online at stores like http://www.autosoundcentral.com and www.nextag.com/ipod-bluetooth-adapter/search-html
"

Which one of those on the referenced page would that be? They all look like various BT add-ons to a car that doesn't have a handsfree interface. I think maybe they don't exists to make anything "super easy"

Eddie O