First Experience with CarPlay

Hardware
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I’m in Illinois for Macstock this weekend and the car I rented for a day to visit some relatives in northern Illinois came equipped with CarPlay. Honestly I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to CarPlay (since I haven’t been shopping for a new car since I was introduced). This is my first experience with it and I came away fairly impressed. The navigation features were much better than Audi’s built-in nav system and using an iOS interface on the vehicle’s big built-in screen is better (and probably safer) than the iPhone mount I use in my car. I’ll definitely be looking for CarPlay capability next time I’m in the market for a replacement vehicle.

Given how good of an impression it makes when you actually have a chance to use it, it seems like Apple should be pushing to get CarPlay into as many rental cars as possible. Has anyone else gotten interested in CarPlay after encountering it in a rental?

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My car came with CarPlay. Long story short, I will not drive a car without CarPlay. Unless it’s a Benz :wink:

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3

I used it in a rental last year in the Netherlands and recently bought a CarPlay head unit for my new (used) car - total with installation was about $1000 but that included a backup camera as well. I love it.

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I love CarPlay and I would love wireless CarPlay even more! I wish my car audio system can be upgraded to support wireless CarPlay because plugging in the cable every time I get into the car can be cumbersome.

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Yes I totally agree. I would always like having it working wirelessly.

6

My Honda Odyssey has CarPlay, it’s great when it works. There are times when it glitched up (3-4x) and Honda has the classic line of “it’s Apple’s update fault”. For a while, I was jealous that my old accord didn’t have it.

Then, I broke down and purchased a model 3 earlier in the year…no CarPlay for me again…

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I thought about wireless then I realized that I’m always charging my phone in the car anyway.

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My new car finally has CarPlay (2018 Peugeot)
And frankly, I can’t believe how simple and useful i is.
Far better than the standard in-car systems from the car manufacturers.

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9

I used CarPlay in a rental a year ago and have been thinking about installing a new head unit for it ever since. The $500+ cost is hard to take (especially compared to the $30 dashboard mounts we bought instead) but I’ll be damned if the next vehicle we buy doesn’t come with it!

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Yeah it cost me 20% of the cost of the car, but still worth it!

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I had a CarPlay about a year ago in a rent car absolutely enjoyed it. I just checked Best Buy south of Austin Texas and a Free insulation for CarPlay kit.

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They can’t get it just into rentals. Automakers have to start building it into the lower trim levels on their cars and they aren’t going to do a different infotainment unit/software just for rental fleets. Rental agencies aren’t going to replace OEM parts with aftermarket just to get CarPlay into their cars, and they aren’t going to spec most of their cars up 2 trim levels just to get CarPlay (which automakers use as a differentiator to get you to buy a more expensive car).

And rental agencies sure aren’t going to pay $80/year to keep it active in the BMWs in their fleets.

A lot of cars are coming with CarPlay standard now, it just takes time for things to turn over in the auto industry. It’s taken a very long time for Toyota to see the light and finally ditch their EnTune system (the only part of my '15 Toyota that I dislike).

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I’ve been thinking of getting a new car, which comes with CarPlay standard for the models I’m looking at. Never had CarPlay before. My recent cars have had Magellan GPS built in, which of course doesn’t rely on cellular service.

So, if I’m driving in the western U.S. far from service from my cell provider (which I do a lot), will CarPlay be reliable or should I stick with getting GPS built into the car?

Katie

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I drove cross-country (all on interstates) with no issues - we mostly used Google Maps and I downloaded a few offline maps but rarely needed them. Usually when we needed to turn or exit we had reception.

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I had it on a compact Renault through Avis in the Netherlands, but never had it with much higher end Avis cars in South Africa and Australia.

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16

I just bought a new Ford truck with CarPlay. Wow.
It is very, very nice to have and I know I’m just scratching the surface.

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I recently plunked down a grand to put a top-of-the-line aftermarket wireless CarPlay unit and a backup camera into my 11 year old car. I think I doubled the car’s worth in the process. :slight_smile: I am incredibly happy with it.
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/NEX/AVIC-W8500NEX

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18

The new cars come with loads of displays :wink:
I just ordered a new Audi with a virtual cockpit, a Head-Up display and a mid display for CarPlay.
I have not seen yet the new car play based on iOS 13 but heard great things about it. Though I have read that the new CarPlay has a significantly improved navigation system, i still ordered the Audi navigation just in case the dateline is weak which might happen on the country side.

I had quite number of rentals with CarPlay over the years and lived it - great interface, great functionality … all great :wink:

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I had a loaner car (VW Arteon) recent which had wired CarPlay and I must admit that it as great having Apple Maps and Overcast available on that big Screen.

It’s now one of the hard criteria for my next car that it must have wireless CarPlay with the VW Passat Estate GTE top of the list.

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Why wireless? I’d much rather arrive at my destination with my phone charged than have it burning battery on a wireless connection while driving.