A while back I wrote a post about the things I wish my car (the Keithmobile, a 2014 GLK 250 Bluetec) had, and on the top of that list was Apple CarPlay. The head unit and infotainment is by no means bad, but it is showing its age. The only way to play music from your phone is either Bluetooth (which is an old version with lower sound quality and significant lag) or directly connecting it via the USB slot in the center armrest compartment. However, even when directly connected, all you can do is play music – effectively the car just sees your phone as an iPod; there is no data connection for navigation or anything else (besides the Bluetooth for the phone).
Now, I was fine with this for quite a while – I had an old iPod which I kept in the car for music, and I had my phone mounted on a magnetic holder (which also did wireless charging), mounted via the CD/DVD drive slot. I could use my phone for navigation and such, though I had to look down a bit more than I liked to see the map. Still, combined with voice prompts, it was manageable, if not ideal.
Despite this, I continued to yearn for something better, and recently that yearning became stronger as Apple basically discontinued the iPod. First they removed support for syncing from iTunes (unless you got a special version), and then it basically became impossible when they ditched iTunes for the horribly-named “Apple Music” app (not to be confused with the “Apple Music” service). I actually had to get a newer iPod Touch just to keep syncing, as only the Touch was still supported well enough to sync my music… but I knew the clock was ticking before even this was unceremoniously removed. (The subject of Apple’s decisions regarding support of old iPod devices is a topic for another time.)
Now, I certainly wasn’t going to get a whole new car just for better infotainment, and replacing the entire head unit was similarly out of the question (for both cost and aesthetics), but maybe there was a way I could add something to what I already had?
This question kept rattling around in my head, and I kept an eye out for options as time went by… and eventually I heard of a company called GTA Car Kits, out of Ontario, Canada. Much to my surprise and delight, they made an Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto) upgrade kit which was specifically for my model of car – and it kept all the stock infotainment in-place, so you wouldn’t lose any functionality! (As a bonus, it even adds wireless CarPlay!)
After thinking about it for a while, I eventually gave in and bought the kit – which was not cheap, but still much less than getting an entirely new head unit. It arrived in short order, and then… I let it sit on my desk for almost a year, because I was afraid to install it myself, and I didn’t know anywhere to take it to have the work done.
The company helpfully provides a tutorial video, which showed that installing it, while not exactly hard, wasn’t exactly plug & play, either. It would also involve removing a large piece of real wood trim from the dashboard, and I was terrified of cracking it (replacements are hard to come by nowadays).
One rainy weekend though, I finally decided to give it a try.
The installation was actually very straightforward, and honestly the hardest part was getting everything back together – the unit adds some extra cables which are very difficult to fit back into the limited dashboard space behind the head unit. Effectively, it plugs itself into the factory wiring harness and then has the same connector to plug into the head unit. However, eventually I got it all back together, and voila – I have CarPlay! (And I didn’t crack the wood trim!)
The screen in my car isn’t exactly huge, but it’s big enough, and it’s a delight to finally have navigation up where I can easily see it without having to take my eyes so far away from the road.
It’s also nice to be able to use other services (e.g. streaming music) instead of relying on what’s on my device. Although I’m usually happy to just keep it on “shuffle” with my “Driving” playlist, sometimes I (or my wife) want to listen to something different, and with CarPlay this is easy.
Although I would’ve been happy with just regular CarPlay (requiring a USB connection), I’m thrilled to have the wireless version, as it allows me to keep my existing phone mount setup. I can quickly place my phone on the mount (which is magnetic) and it starts wirelessly charging my phone while also automatically connecting to CarPlay. (It actually connects to CarPlay as soon as the car wakes up – e.g., when I unlock or open the doors, as the power for the infotainment comes on when you do that, and the new unit uses the same power lines.)
One unavoidable limitation, however, is that my car does not have a touch screen, and this kit does not change that. However, you can navigate CarPlay easily enough with the little rotary dial that was used for the factory infotainment. You can twist the wheel left and right to move the “focus” on the screen, and press the wheel in to “click” or “touch” something. You can also jog the wheel up, down, left, or right (like a D-pad on a game controller), plus there’s the 2 buttons for “back” and “clear.”
So, while it’s not not quite as easy as touch, and it takes some getting used to, it’s really not that bad – and in a pinch I can always activate Siri via one of the steering wheel buttons (another nice touch) and use voice control to get things done. (Which is arguably the safer thing to do while driving.)
One thing that hasn’t worked out well, however, is the phone microphone support – for whatever reason, there is incredibly loud and piercing feedback when on phone calls, which only the person calling me can hear. I’ve fiddled with microphone settings to no avail – I suspect there is a faulty implementation of echo cancellation, or maybe the new CarPlay unit’s echo cancellation is fighting against the car’s own built-in echo cancellation or something like that. The point remains, though – the normal car phone support is basically useless; I’ve had to set my phone to use its own speakerphone when making/receiving calls. Thankfully, with where my phone is mounted, this isn’t so bad, and I hardly ever make or receive calls while driving anyway, so while sub-optimal in terms of functionality, it’s certainly not a deal-breaker. At some point I might reach out to the manufacturer to see if they have any ideas, but for now I’m OK with how it is – it works, and the other features far outweigh this small inconvenience.
Overall I’m very happy with this setup (despite the phone problems). It basically solves the most major gripe I had with this car, and having wireless charging and wireless CarPlay in an 11-year old car is pretty good in my view. Plus, I did the installation entirely myself, which makes me feel pretty good (even if it wasn’t that hard).
Reposts
Likes