CarPlay: OE versus aftermarket
Might the aftermarket be the better place to invest your infotainment budget? Old car tech makeover says possibly so
Which does at least underline how important this stuff is for day to day driving. Y'know, when not actually cornering on the door handles, sideways in clouds of tyre smoke or setting new Nurburgring lap records.
Hopping between lots of different press cars offers insight on which manufacturers do this well and which don't. And how cruelly the rapid obsolescence of in-car tech dates otherwise brand new vehicles. Witness the pixellated, sluggish touchscreen in the PH Fleet RangeRover Sport SVR for example. The car is fresh in the market but its otherwise stylish and beautifully appointed cabin is let down by a system that, by manufacturer development cycles, would have been bang up to date when signed off for production. JLR is investing heavily in app-driven InControl and other systems but developing infotainment hardware for cars costs millions, takes time and, by its nature, will always be lagging behind the consumer tech sector.
Dan gets run through the options
Something highlighted even more dramatically when browsing the kind of cars many of us lust over in the PH classifieds. I recently took a ride in an E46 M3 and was shocked at the comedic postage stamp sized 'Business Nav' screen. But back in the day the original owner would have been convinced by his dealer the £1,480 option price had to be paid in the name of having the latest tech and protecting residuals. Yet if I was in the market now and had two identical M3s to choose between I'd go for the one without the obsolete factory nav. Still though, dealer margins on new cars are still swelled by convincing us we need to tick the options boxes for factory fit in-car tech; can the aftermarket serve the same demand for owners and buyers of older cars too?
Full disclosure time; yes, Halfords fitted an expensive head unit to my 10-year-old Subaru Forester, originally inspired by promotion of the growing popularity of retrofit DAB, CarPlay and other tech. As you're no doubt aware, Halfords makes noise about its ability to fit this kit to your car, as well as sell it to you. Only fair we offered them a proper challenge then. One in the shape of a freshly imported JDM Subaru with its head unit still lost in downtown Tokyo. What horrors lurked behind the dashboard? I wasn't man enough to explore myself.
Sebastian gets to work
Whoever owned my Subaru in Japan clearly put a lot of money into the system installed in the car too. A flip front, double-DIN nav unit with touchscreen, MiniDisc changer and lots of other tech hidden behind the Japanese language controls, it must have cost a few yen. But, 10 years on and on the other side of the world, is now fit for little more than the bin.
I'm not the world's biggest in-car tech fiend but there were certain basics I wanted, the best route to the docks in Tokyo not among them. A 6Music addict I needed DAB but I'm a bit old-school too and like physical music on these antiquated things known as 'compact discs'. The household uses Apple phones so CarPlay would offer direct connection to Google Maps and other apps, a fall-back of built-in nav also appealing.
A couple of Pioneer options on Halfords' website seemed to tick the boxes but some quirks of the aftermarket quickly became apparent. For £329 you can have double DIN, CarPlay compatibility and a slick looking touchscreen. But no CD slot. Or, bizarrely, DAB. Spend£499 and you get the former but still no DAB, this only available on an older unit. Which didn't have CarPlay. Seems utterly bizarre you can buy a new head unit that doesn't feature DAB these days but there you go.
And this is a five out of 10 for difficulty!
But it can be even more expensive on a new car. By way of example VW charges £750 for Discover Navigation on a Golf R or £1,765 for the all-singing, all dancing Discover Navigation Pro. The attraction of OE is, of course, integration with the car's interior and systems. In the case of an older car there's also the fear a jazzy new head unit can somewhat jar with an older interior and look unpleasantly incongruous.
Culture clash
So as Halfords man Sebastian set about the Forester's interior I was a little concerned about how it would all match up. The aftermarket install by the Japanese owner was a neat job but prompted some teeth sucking and "never seen anything like this before!" from him. But the adaptor cable plugged straight in, a couple of USB inputs and an aux cable were neatly plumbed into the storage binnacle and within a couple of hours it was job done. From my perspective it looked like a pretty involved job but Sebastian didn't seem overly concerned. "Five out of 10," he reckoned when asked where it sat on a scale of complexity. "Maybe six out of 10," he decided, after battling the A-pillar trim to install the DAB aerial.
All fitted, now time to test it!
Halfords is a dominant player in the market too; clearly for a more involved or tailored installation skilled independent specialists may offer more options. And I brace myself for the scorn of the many keen DIYers among the PH community. But for a mainstream, quick-fix operation the fitting was efficient, tidy and thorough and I'll admit to expectations being exceeded.
A better way of enjoying the latest tech than hitting the options list on a new car? I'll report back...
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[Sources: M3Cutters]
I think aftermarket stuff has so many problems. In my younger days I had about 2k of stuff wedged in a Clio. The speakers all used to pop regularly requiring replacement. You could never get it sounding how you wanted it, people used to want your stuff more than you did and and, worse of all, aftermarket stuff looks so chavvy!
This
http://thumbsnap.com/sc/rJcw8dy3.jpg
Still looks miles better than this
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/abe1.JPG
With a tom tom stuck in the window.
Just bought an old e46 with said maligned sat-nav on the logic that I don't have to fanny around moving heating controls or buying a new cage to put in a double-din something, so once I've put proper rubber on the corners, getting an after-market unit will be in swift order. Most likely a car-play unit.
Had joy a couple years ago putting a DD Pioneer into my Ford Focus as it's "not quite" DD sized (you need an aftermarket fascia) and it took the boys from Halfords six hours to get it in place, god bless them -- lots of sawing at plastic behind dash! .. it was January and I had a 4 week old puppy with me.. was quite the test of audiophile commitment!
Not much I can do when the stereo IS the dash in my car. NO aftermarket optins available.
I bought a Kenwood unit to replace it with and it's far superior in every regard.
In all seriousness, are these as good as they make out - or are these first(ish) to market versions going to be outshone in a year or so?
In summary, tech in new cars costs lots. Tech in old cars is obsolete.
You can buy a new head unit for an old car. Or you can get it for free if you offer to advertise the seller's business on a website that you work for.
You completely ignored the fact that virtually every car sold since 1995 has a ‘unique’ shaped facia to reduce the chance of theft when it was popular, and so cannot be easily upgraded.
For what it's worth we chose the store for the fitting and as far as I can tell we got an accurate impression of the typical customer experience. And the praise for that was sincere - credit where due, they did a great job.
Already sounds like PHers have some interesting and valuable experience to share on this subject so we'll look forward to hearing your stories!
Cheers,
Dan
Looks like a good installation but agree with poster above, the Apple style interface with overly large icons is a put off.
Thank goodness for Mercedes getting rid of the iPad 'stick on style aftermarket' tablet though. I wouldn't consider a Mercedes because of it.
What I can't believe is that Porsche on a number of models DAB isn't standard (on a minimum £40K car!) and that DAB & Sat Nav are charged for seperately.
I've always had OE audio equipment - I've always felt that non standard is a bit Max Power.
The Ferrari headunit looks like a VW group one.
For what it's worth we chose the store for the fitting and as far as I can tell we got an accurate impression of the typical customer experience. And the praise for that was sincere - credit where due, they did a great job.
Already sounds like PHers have some interesting and valuable experience to share on this subject so we'll look forward to hearing your stories!
Cheers,
Dan
But then maybe the built in Nav is better, and just use CarPlay for all the phone/music stuff, if it's even possible, not sure if when in CarPlay mode everything else is turned off within the headunit.
Realistically there needs to be a super cheap just CarPlay headunit as all it really is is a screen/input for the iOS device to output to. Offer one for £200 with a half decent amplifier, 7" multitouch screen and maybe USB storage/SD card for when the phone isn't connected, and I'd be set.
But then, it is hard to ignore the possibility of installing an iPad Mini in the dash, and tethering it to your iPhone, giving you all the handsfree features of CarPlay (calls/texts will be routed through the iPad as they're on the same network) as well as full apps etc. And the ability if you so wish to make it removable, and gaining an iPad Mini.
The £329 option looks spot on for me!
I could spout comedic commentary on how on earth we managed before sat nav since it seems to me that people can't even walk to the end of their street without nav on their phone, but I will save my fingers this time.
Now lets see if they can't get the speakers to sound as good as a VWs too
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