“As a Toyota driver, I’ve been subjected to the company’s horrible Entune-powered head unit for the last 6 years. On my 2012 model, it’s bundled with a matte resistive touch screen that requires you to press in on the display to control the unit,” Jeff Benjamin writes for 9to5Mac. “As you can probably imagine, the stock unit is extremely clunky and difficult to use. It’s so bad that I wouldn’t purchase a new Toyota without a new capacitive CarPlay unit built in. Thankfully, Toyota recently wised up and decided to adopt CarPlay after holding out for several years.”
“If you’re like me and stuck with a terrible stock head unit, then a CarPlay-enabled aftermarket radio may be the key to a much better audio, messaging, and navigation experience while on the go,” Benjamin writes. “There are caveats associated with having an aftermarket head unit installed, but as my recent experience with the Pioneer MVH-1400NEX shows, the upsides outweigh the potential downsides.”
“I would have preferred a wireless CarPlay unit, but having a wired-only model means that at least your iPhone will remain charged while in use,” Benjamin writes. “As long as you have a good installer, then the MVH-1400NEX is an affordable way to bring CarPlay to vehicles that don’t have such technology built-in.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Adding a good CarPlay deck can make your older car seem new again.
SEE ALSO:
AAA: Apple CarPlay is less distracting to drivers vs. built-in systems designed by automakers – June 27, 2018
HARMAN pioneers first-ever wireless integration of Apple CarPlay – February 23, 2017
Apple opens up CarPlay to third-party mapping apps like Waze, Google Maps – June 5, 2018
I added an after market CarPlay radio to my 2004 Jeep, and it’s made a world of difference.
I have a Pioneer CarPlay unit I got when I bought my 2015 Forester (swapping out the Subaru head it came with) but would love for it to also be wireless CarPlay. The unit has Bluetooth already yet no firmware has updated it to be wireless. Car audio systems in general are so pathetically behind the real world. In the old iPod days you couldn’t hardly find a head that supported them for years or even had a simple AUX input. Carmakers suck in this way. Stupid enough not to realize people make buying decisions sometimes on something unrelated to actual travel and vehicle design.
Cmon Nissan.