RE: CarPlay: OE versus aftermarket
Discussion
Halfords and ICE ????
Maybe 20 years ago, when I was at that age, the store was full of speakers / head unit's and wiring reels to allow me to buy what i needed.
Now when my step son is trying to do the same changes . it's a selection of 5 speakers, half the head units didn't work and a smash n grab from the autoleads catalogue.
Son asked Halfords bod for advice and what size speakers to go for and got blank face and told to look it up on the internet.
He did and found a rather nice pdf file with speaker sizes per car ... from Halfords.
In case it might have been a store thing ... I tried a different branch and got the same experience.
Maybe 20 years ago, when I was at that age, the store was full of speakers / head unit's and wiring reels to allow me to buy what i needed.
Now when my step son is trying to do the same changes . it's a selection of 5 speakers, half the head units didn't work and a smash n grab from the autoleads catalogue.
Son asked Halfords bod for advice and what size speakers to go for and got blank face and told to look it up on the internet.
He did and found a rather nice pdf file with speaker sizes per car ... from Halfords.
In case it might have been a store thing ... I tried a different branch and got the same experience.
andrewparker said:
I chose the CarPlay option for my new Golf R and it has been fantastic. In my experience Apple Maps is far better than the OEM VW navigation and the interface allows me to use my Deezer subscription, and easily respond to text messages without taking my eyes off the road. Only downside is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth, but I believe that is a VW restriction at present. Cost difference was £750 for optional navigation vs £100 for CarPlay.
So connection to the headunit is via a cable?i have bought and sold a lot of cars in the last 10 years, Audi / Bmw / Porsche /Subaru /land rover /merc
The best factory speakers i have heard were in the Mini (2003 cooper s works)Harmon Kardon the head unit had been replaced with a kenwood basic cheap , The rest all sound the same , Am impressed with the sound quality of standard my 2006 Transit van head/speakers ,put a lot of cars to shame
The best factory speakers i have heard were in the Mini (2003 cooper s works)Harmon Kardon the head unit had been replaced with a kenwood basic cheap , The rest all sound the same , Am impressed with the sound quality of standard my 2006 Transit van head/speakers ,put a lot of cars to shame
philkermeen said:
I like that you've used the top storage cubby for the nav screen (did you buy a new hood for that?) - a more modern look, what's going in to the 'traditional' Double size entertainment area below the vents? The prev owner of my Forester put a Kenwood Nav / DAB unit in there so it's a bit old skool but works well! Nice work!
That's how it came - thanks to my man in Japan whoever he was for doing that when he did the original ICE install. I was initially thinking of restoring it to the slot in the dash and getting a replacement lid for the dashtop cubby but reckoned touchscreen and nav is better higher up and in your eyeline. And the lower storage is perfect for the USB leads and phone storage. Edited by philkermeen on Wednesday 13th January 16:00
Cheers,
Dan
SuperchargedVR6 said:
andrewparker said:
I chose the CarPlay option for my new Golf R and it has been fantastic. In my experience Apple Maps is far better than the OEM VW navigation and the interface allows me to use my Deezer subscription, and easily respond to text messages without taking my eyes off the road. Only downside is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth, but I believe that is a VW restriction at present. Cost difference was £750 for optional navigation vs £100 for CarPlay.
So connection to the headunit is via a cable?andrewparker said:
I chose the CarPlay option for my new Golf R and it has been fantastic. In my experience Apple Maps is far better than the OEM VW navigation and the interface allows me to use my Deezer subscription, and easily respond to text messages without taking my eyes off the road. Only downside is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth, but I believe that is a VW restriction at present. Cost difference was £750 for optional navigation vs £100 for CarPlay.
As above.I have the CarPlay option in my new GTi and its bloody brilliant. As long as Apple keep adding their updates - which is to the phone not car - it should continue to be current. Definitely worth ticking the option if you can.
I have played around with this. I binned the radio/cassette and separate CD player from my Yaris. I put in a Sony XAV-601BT, a double DIN unit with touchscreen, DVD player and Mirrorlink. My Nokia 701 was in a Brodit cradle and plugged in to the Sony's rear USB port. These old Nokias had Car Mode which put a simplified interface on screen with big, finger friendly icons made to be easily selected without the need to take ones eye off the road. Apple hasn't moved the process very far with Car Play because the needs of drivers haven't changed much either. Mirrorlink on the Nokia did what Car Play does: it replicates the small phone screen on the larger screen of the head unit. Hopefully Car Play works better than Mirrorlink though: one thing or the other seemed to crash regularly. Sometimes it was the phone, sometimes the Sony which appeared to be running Android. Incidentally it makes sense to have the phone plugged in rather than connecting wirelessly so that the phone stays charged, especially if you are using the phone's GPS for navigation.
The Sony got ditched after I moved to iPhone when Nokia abandoned its Symbian platform. Mirrorlink was never supported by Apple (not invented here). The Sony's habit of randomly tuning to Radio 3 meant it's days were numbered. I replaced it with a Kenwood single DIN DAB/FM/CD/USB unit and regained a storage pocket. The iPhone is in a Brodit cradle which includes a clamp for the Lightning cable. As the phone slides into the cradle it gays plugged in so it's always charged.
The stumbling block in my mind for moving to Car Play is Apple's insistence on using Apple Maps for navigation. It works fine but needs a data connection to keep pulling down the map data. I have TomTom on my iPhone and the maps are stored on the phone but Apple won't let me send the info to a Car Play head unit.
The Sony got ditched after I moved to iPhone when Nokia abandoned its Symbian platform. Mirrorlink was never supported by Apple (not invented here). The Sony's habit of randomly tuning to Radio 3 meant it's days were numbered. I replaced it with a Kenwood single DIN DAB/FM/CD/USB unit and regained a storage pocket. The iPhone is in a Brodit cradle which includes a clamp for the Lightning cable. As the phone slides into the cradle it gays plugged in so it's always charged.
The stumbling block in my mind for moving to Car Play is Apple's insistence on using Apple Maps for navigation. It works fine but needs a data connection to keep pulling down the map data. I have TomTom on my iPhone and the maps are stored on the phone but Apple won't let me send the info to a Car Play head unit.
coogy said:
andrewparker said:
I chose the CarPlay option for my new Golf R and it has been fantastic. In my experience Apple Maps is far better than the OEM VW navigation and the interface allows me to use my Deezer subscription, and easily respond to text messages without taking my eyes off the road. Only downside is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth, but I believe that is a VW restriction at present. Cost difference was £750 for optional navigation vs £100 for CarPlay.
As above.I have the CarPlay option in my new GTi and its bloody brilliant. As long as Apple keep adding their updates - which is to the phone not car - it should continue to be current. Definitely worth ticking the option if you can.
Aftermarket stuff can integrate very nicely indeed in some cars, and the functionality is good. Certainly things have moved a long way since some of the ugly looking bodge jobs you used to see, with badly fitting facias and the like, or volume control buttons on the steering wheel that no longer worked...
I have a decent Alpine unit in my MX5, slightly behind the times now with its feature set, mainly being setup for ipod/USB control and having the first generation mirror link. Beyond bluetooth though I'm not that bothered about using my phone in the car, I have an oldish ipod nano I can stick my music on and play stuff of that. My phone can remain in my pocket.
This is how it looks...
Much more modern looking than the factory unit in the Mk3...
The screen is possibly a little low if it was a head unit with navigation but otherwise its excellent.
I will upgrade again ina 2-3 years perhaps, the next step up I'd want would be DAB/DAB+, and more app integration, but still keeping the CD slot. The Android based unit from Parrot looks good, something like that with a bit more polish and still with a disc slot would do me nicely.
I have a decent Alpine unit in my MX5, slightly behind the times now with its feature set, mainly being setup for ipod/USB control and having the first generation mirror link. Beyond bluetooth though I'm not that bothered about using my phone in the car, I have an oldish ipod nano I can stick my music on and play stuff of that. My phone can remain in my pocket.
This is how it looks...
Much more modern looking than the factory unit in the Mk3...
The screen is possibly a little low if it was a head unit with navigation but otherwise its excellent.
I will upgrade again ina 2-3 years perhaps, the next step up I'd want would be DAB/DAB+, and more app integration, but still keeping the CD slot. The Android based unit from Parrot looks good, something like that with a bit more polish and still with a disc slot would do me nicely.
Shambler said:
coogy said:
andrewparker said:
I chose the CarPlay option for my new Golf R and it has been fantastic. In my experience Apple Maps is far better than the OEM VW navigation and the interface allows me to use my Deezer subscription, and easily respond to text messages without taking my eyes off the road. Only downside is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth, but I believe that is a VW restriction at present. Cost difference was £750 for optional navigation vs £100 for CarPlay.
As above.I have the CarPlay option in my new GTi and its bloody brilliant. As long as Apple keep adding their updates - which is to the phone not car - it should continue to be current. Definitely worth ticking the option if you can.
Cable quality can make a difference.
With regards to DAB, the UK is one of the few places that use it, so aftermarket manufacturers aren't too keen on developing it for a small market.
Dale487 said:
The Ferrari headunit looks like a VW group one.
Ferrari now share a board member with Apple, so they were one of the first out with CarPlay.With regards to DAB, the UK is one of the few places that use it, so aftermarket manufacturers aren't too keen on developing it for a small market.
Am I the only one who see's the only need for a car infotainment system is for it to connect and amplify from a constantly updated media device that is our smart phones?
We change phones roughly every 2 years it can play 99% of radio channels online, spotify and the like. Also the nav apps in smartphones are about as good as any TomTom. Why pay £700 for a big box which does nothing better than our phones? More to the point why pay £1500 for an OEM option that does no more?
With that in mind my RS6 RNS-D is well out of date, but I like the integrated nature of it. Also the Bose speakers and amplifier unit are absolutely fine. So £100 on a bluetooth module that is out of sight and connecting to the phone means I now have 100Gb of music to select from, any spotify playlist and through the Iplayer app all the Radio stations I'd ever need. It also makes and receives phone calls.
Is there anything else you need from a device in the car?
We change phones roughly every 2 years it can play 99% of radio channels online, spotify and the like. Also the nav apps in smartphones are about as good as any TomTom. Why pay £700 for a big box which does nothing better than our phones? More to the point why pay £1500 for an OEM option that does no more?
With that in mind my RS6 RNS-D is well out of date, but I like the integrated nature of it. Also the Bose speakers and amplifier unit are absolutely fine. So £100 on a bluetooth module that is out of sight and connecting to the phone means I now have 100Gb of music to select from, any spotify playlist and through the Iplayer app all the Radio stations I'd ever need. It also makes and receives phone calls.
Is there anything else you need from a device in the car?
Most of the standard stereos that come with new cars is equate to the same quality as the free head phones that come with your phone, there is a reason they give them away.
Stuff like bose and hk in the cats I've tried sounds like Beats headphones, lacking in sound quality and overcome with mid bass.
The B&O high end upgrades are a clear class above and your only real option of you want sound quality in a car with a custom built in screen like the current s class.
Any decent custom install is going to have at least one amp, a head unit is to compromised by size (even a double din) to be able to fit in a suitable amp and cooling system for the amp that can drive quality speakers at a reasonable volume.
Halfords are a bit s
te for car audio, seek out a specialist who can show you how to get the most out of your budget. You wouldn't trust Halfords to service a porker over a specialist so why trust them with an audio install?
Stuff like bose and hk in the cats I've tried sounds like Beats headphones, lacking in sound quality and overcome with mid bass.
The B&O high end upgrades are a clear class above and your only real option of you want sound quality in a car with a custom built in screen like the current s class.
Any decent custom install is going to have at least one amp, a head unit is to compromised by size (even a double din) to be able to fit in a suitable amp and cooling system for the amp that can drive quality speakers at a reasonable volume.
Halfords are a bit s
te for car audio, seek out a specialist who can show you how to get the most out of your budget. You wouldn't trust Halfords to service a porker over a specialist so why trust them with an audio install? PhantomPH said:
As much of an Apple fan as I am, I just cannot get away with the Car Play iicons. The blown-up-ios-tile just looks cheap and dated at best. I think they could have re-invented the interface for Car Play....you know...put some effort in.
Not much I can do when the stereo IS the dash in my car. NO aftermarket optins available.
Oddly, I think the iPad Pro has the same issue- the icons just don't work when scaled upNot much I can do when the stereo IS the dash in my car. NO aftermarket optins available.
Another problem with aftermarket stuff is it dates faster than OEM stuff just because the OEM is designed to fit/blend in with the cars interior.
The car makers also sell these parts for years as well. If I had a single speaker go pear shaped I can still go into BMW and get one or find one at a scrap yard or Ebay.
If I spent a grand a PioKenPine unit it would be obsolete and non existent in a year.
The car makers also sell these parts for years as well. If I had a single speaker go pear shaped I can still go into BMW and get one or find one at a scrap yard or Ebay.
If I spent a grand a PioKenPine unit it would be obsolete and non existent in a year.
Reavenger said:
I have a Lotus. What are these 'Sat Nav' and 'Car play' things you speak of? 
Speak for yourself. Mine has full phone/sat nav/phone/music integration and does a grand job of it. As for Apple Car Play, it doesn't seem that revolutionary to me. I have charged my phone, had bluetooth handsfree and music streaming either wirelessly through Bluetooth or via cabled connection for many years. So I can now have a replication of my phone screen and access to google maps on top; is that it? On the latter point that then leads to issues when internet connection is s
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