The X5 was made in 2004, a time when BMW still felt it appropriate to habour a cassette deck behind the sat-nav screen. They were also generous enough to place a 6 disc CD changer in the boot.

Nowadays all this is junk – I just want to play music from my phone without wires. I found a Bluetooth Audio Interface on Amazon for just £33.90 delivered, and guess what? It works like a dream.

Stock photo:

Actual item:

Whip the CD changer out. Plug this in instead:

Tuck that lot away, connect the phone, done. A good solution with minimal faff.

The downside is that there’s no cable to charge the phone. I’ve acquired a 12V to female USB converter (£5.66) which I hope to fit soon to give an ignition stage 1 switched USB power feed up front.