Nulaxy/AmazonMost cars these days natively support Bluetooth connections in one way or another. Most automakers began including the technology in the early 2000s, and it became standard equipment by the early 2010s, making your car maybe the ultimate cool Bluetooth gadget to use with your phone. However, it's also true that there are tens of millions of older cars still on the road as of 2026, and many of those older vehicles don't have Bluetooth. For people driving those cars, a Bluetooth car adapter can help bridge the gap to let them use their modern devices in their older vehicles.The technology for Bluetooth car adapters hasn't changed too much in the last 20 years. When I was younger, I had one such adapter for a 2007 Chevy Equinox, which I owned until 2017. While the radio was perfectly usable, I had a base trim model that didn't include an auxiliary (AUX) jack, and with phones losing their headphone jacks late in my ownership of the car anyway, a Bluetooth adapter made the most sense for enhancing my listening. Adapters have gotten a lot better since then, mostly thanks to improvements in Bluetooth technology, but they're still available for just about every type of port your car can possibly have. So if you're on a journey to make your vehicle Bluetooth-enabled, there are plenty of excellent car adapters that can help your cause. Some of those adapters will even add Android Auto or Apple CarPlay to your car if it's equipped to handle it, bringing your car up to date with modern standards. Here are some of the best Bluetooth car adapters that you may want to consider.AdvertisementAdvertisementRead more: 10 Audio Brands You Might Not Realize Are Owned By SamsungUSB port: AAWireless TwoAAWireless/AmazonThe AAWireless device started life as a crowdfunding project, with the goal of bringing Android Auto to infotainment displays that didn't otherwise support it. That included late-2010s Toyota models, which had had Apple CarPlay for a few years but didn't include Android Auto until the turn of the decade. The second iteration of the device, called the AAWireless Two, is the most recent iteration, and it improved quite a bit from the first generation. It's the one we'd recommend today, and it's available on Amazon for around $65.To use this device, plug it into the USB port on your car (yes, it only works on models new enough to actually have a USB port). If you have multiple USB ports, you want to use the one that you would normally use to connect to wired Android Auto. Once connected, you pair the AAWireless Two with your phone, go through a setup process, and then you can use wireless Android Auto on your car's infotainment display. Since this is wireless Android Auto, this mostly serves as a DIY upgrade to car models that only have wired Android Auto. The AAWireless Two pairs over Bluetooth, and you can stream audio, use Google Maps, and perform any other standard Android Auto tasks, just like you could if you used it wired. Modern vehicles are starting to include wireless Android Auto as standard equipment now, so eventually dongles like this won't be necessary. Used cars that still support wired-only are pretty common, though, so this dongle will remain relevant for many years to come. USB port: Crux ACP-WLZCruxWe didn't forget about Apple CarPlay users in building this list. There are dongles out there that also add wireless Apple CarPlay to vehicles that already support wired Apple CarPlay, and the Crux ACP-WLZ is about as good as it gets. It's about the size of your thumb and plugs into your car's USB port, and once everything is set up, it lets you use wireless Apple CarPlay and all the features that come with it. The box also comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter and a right-angle adapter to help it fit into various car sound systems. AdvertisementAdvertisementUnlike AAWireless, which only works with Android Auto, the ACP-WLZ works with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, making it a suitable choice for households that use both. Crux says that it's also compatible with any stock head unit that supports wired Apple CarPlay and any aftermarket head unit that does, as well. Other than those extra features, the ACP-WLZ is quite similar to AAWireless in terms of day-to-day functionality. Plug it in, pair your phone, and use it. This product, along with its predecessor, the ACP-WLX, is highly regarded, and the overwhelming majority of user reviews say that the dongle works as expected. One major downside is that it's not available everywhere, so it has largely escaped the notice of prominent review websites that usually look at these sorts of products. Consider it more of a diamond in the rough. AUX port: Ugreen Bluetooth 6.0 Car AdapterUgreen/AmazonThe Ugreen Bluetooth 6.0 Receiver is probably exactly the type of gadget you had in mind when you opened this article. This little guy is plug-and-play, which means it just works in any vehicle that has an AUX port. You simply connect it to your phone over Bluetooth, plug it in, and stream music over Bluetooth to your car stereo. It has a built-in battery that Ugreen says is good for about 15 hours, depending on your usage. It also supports phone calls, and you can take it out of your car and plug it into your stereo at home if you want Bluetooth functionality there. Feedback on this adapter is quite good, be it from professional reviewers or social media users. This dongle's predecessor, the Ugreen Bluetooth 5.4 Receiver, was also rather popular in its heyday. You can technically go for either one, but we think that the Bluetooth 6.0 upgrade is worth it. It only costs a few extra dollars and adds some hi-fi elements, like the newer LDAC (Low Delay Audio Coding) Bluetooth codec support, which is a boon for those with high-end speaker systems in their cars. Otherwise, the two products work pretty much the same way with the same reliability. AdvertisementAdvertisementThere are probably hundreds of these types of gadgets on Amazon, and the technology here is mature enough that pretty much any of them will work just fine. However, Ugreen has the best mixture of features, value, and modern amenities (like LDAC), making it stand above the rest.Tape deck: Asvita Bluetooth Cassette AdapterAsvita/AmazonIt's been quite a long time since new cars had tape decks, but with retro audio making a comeback, cassette players seem to be back on the menu. For those with older cars who want to stream Bluetooth audio, they can use their car tape deck to do this with something like the Asvita Bluetooth Cassette Adapter. This interesting little gadget replaces the tape reader in a standard cassette player with an adapter. You pipe in music over Bluetooth, and then the adapter uses your car's existing cassette tape player to play the music out loud on your car stereo. There are only a handful of these cassette Bluetooth adapters on the market, and we believe Asvita is the best available. Most of the other models require external power, either from a USB port or your car's 12-volt port. In contrast, the Asvita has a built-in battery that lasts for up to eight hours and charges in under two hours, which means you won't have extra cables all over your cabin. Asvita also says that the battery will last for up to 168 hours on standby, so you can just leave it in your car all week and charge it on the weekends when your daily commute is over. This adapter is also usable in retro cassette players and home stereos with cassettes, which means you can take it out of your car and use it elsewhere. And just like that, it's possible to listen to Bluetooth streaming on that 1980s Walkman you have lying around. 12V port: Nulaxy KM18Nuxaly/AmazonThe Nulaxy KM18 is likely the other type of adapter you might have had in mind when you came to this article. This is one of a large and old family of products that plug into your12-volt port and then use FM radio signals to beam your music to your car stereo. This is the kind of adapter I owned with my aforementioned Chevy Equinox, although mine was a different (and much older) model. Nulaxy's model is more modern, with better overall features than the one I had. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe KM18 works by connecting to your phone over Bluetooth. You then set the same radio station on both the device and your car's radio, and you'll be broadcasting from your phone to your car's system. Be forewarned, though, that this setup doesn't work well if you select a station that gets good signal in your town. Also, if a nearby vehicle just so happens to be on the same FM radio frequency that you've chosen, they might hear your music over their radio, too. The KM18 comes with the moderately recent Bluetooth 5.4, along with support for phone calls and several equalizer (EQ) modes, and you can connect your phone to the adapter with an auxiliary cable, as well as Bluetooth. This one requires a 12-volt power source, so unlike many of the other adapters on this list, it will probably have to live in your car. On the plus side, it has two USB ports that you can use to charge your phone, making this a good two-in-one gadget for your commute. No port: Avantree RoadtripAvantree/AmazonMost Bluetooth adapters need a port of some sort, for power or transmission, but not all of them do. The Avantree Roadtrip is an excellent example of such an adapter. It works similarly to the Nulaxy KM18: You pair your phone to it with Bluetooth, and then set your car's FM radio to the same station as the Roadtrip to listen to music. The difference is that this gadget has a built-in battery, so it doesn't need to plug into any ports at all. Since its transmission is also wireless, that makes this one of the few no-port Bluetooth adapters you can buy for your car. The built-in battery is removable and replaceable, but it also comes with a 12V charger in the box in case you need to charge it up on the road. Unlike most other Bluetooth adapters, the Avantree also comes with built-in speakers, making it a good option for cars that have blown or otherwise inoperable speakers. Customers and reviewers alike think this is one of the more thoughtfully designed adapters on the market, and its 22-hour battery life means it should last long enough for most car trips. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Roadtrip is also one of the most expensive options on the list, clocking in at $70 on Amazon when not on sale. There are a few products like it in the wild, but not many can stand up to the 4.2-star rating and solid reviews from Amazon buyers that Avantree's model boasts.AUX port: Qudelix 5KQudelix/AmazonThe thing about audio technology is that it's largely universal. Bluetooth works the same way on car adapters as it does on the best Bluetooth speakers on the market. That means you can usually take any receiver and use it in your car as long as that receiver has the proper tech. One example of this is the Qudelix 5K. This is an audiophile device that you would typically never see on a list like this, since it's mostly used to power high-end headphones while streaming high-quality Bluetooth audio to them. It also just so happens to be one of the best such receivers on the market.The thing for us, though, is that the Qudelix 5K also has all the tools necessary to be used as a Bluetooth adapter. It connects to your phone over Bluetooth, and it outputs audio from a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. All you need is a double-ended headphone cable, which you can easily acquire on Amazon for under $10. Then just plug this device into your AUX port, and you have high-end Bluetooth audio piping into your car. When you get where you're going, you can take the Qudelix 5K inside and use the USB-C port to connect with your wired headphones, stereo system, or even your PC. There are several products in this category that would work equally well, like the FiiO BTR17. However, the Qudelix 5K is an excellent value in this space (at under $100), with tons of positive reviews from professionals and customers alike, so it's the one we'd recommend looking into first. How we chose these Bluetooth car adaptersJaromond/ShutterstockThere are hundreds of Bluetooth car adapters available on Amazon and other retailers, so there was quite a bit of culling that needed to be done to build this list. Here's the process we used to do that.AdvertisementAdvertisementFor starters, all the products above that are available on Amazon (which is most of them) have received at least 4.1 stars (out of five) based on thousands of buyer ratings. They also have at least a few dozen reviews on the retailer's site to show that people actually use them ... and like them. From there, we ensured that all the above products had professional written reviews and were commonly recommended as solid Bluetooth car adapters from trusted publications and user reports on social media.Finally, every device above is the most recent iteration of its product lineup. For example, you'll likely find more press on the Ugreen Bluetooth 5.4 Receiver. However, the Bluetooth 6.0 model is the most recent, which means it has the most functional version of Bluetooth while also having more features and better future-proofing. Once all of these factors were taken into account, the above list popped out. Enjoyed this article? Sign up to BGR's free newsletter and add us as a preferred search source or follow us on Google for the latest in tech and entertainment, plus tips and advice you'll actually use.Read the original article on BGR.