Aftermarket CarPlay for 2012 F30

[Tommie38]

Parents have a 2012 F30 3 series that came with the basic nav. I believe that it is an NBT setup.

I’m looking at aftermarket plug in boxes to give a simple CarPlay solution for circa £200.

Is there anything to be aware of? The main things I can think of are:
- Will they be able to play the radio whilst using Google Maps for navigation? Specifically I am thinking of getting audio alerts for navigation whilst using audio for radio
- Any coding required? It looks like the boxes are simply plug and play

My experience with things like this in the aftermarket is that they can be a bit hit or miss. Is there anything that could potentially trip up what should be a simple install?

Thanks in advance.

[mekondelta]

I looked into this a couple of years ago and decided to stick with my phone in the car. I have a max size phone and it's pretty big enough for sat nav directions. What I found is that there are too many compromises in the Carplay adapters (support/updates, fiddly installation, switching between Carplay and normal etc) compared to the benefits. All I really wanted was Waze to be controllable via idrive and the car screen but the phone was by far the better option in the end. Things may have moved on in the last 2 years though.

[mmm-five]

Depending on your production date, you may have the first of the NBT systems, or the last of the CIC systems.

You need to go into the system settings to see which - as the CIC/NBT/NBT Evo 4 screens/menus look very similar.

CIC


NBT/NBT Evo 4


The main difference in the screens is in the darker shading to the left of the big icon in the middle of the menu!

However, a lot of the add-ons work on multiple versions, so depending whether you want a complete replacement (e.g. upgrade to BBT Evo 5/6) or just an add-on box to enable carplay (like the IMI-1000) you can pay anything from £200 upwards.

https://integratedautomotive.co.uk/which-idrive-ve...

https://integratedautomotive.co.uk/product/2012-20...

[Court_S]

I had CarPlay retrofitted to my M140i.

It cost me £150 including the Wi Fi aerial and the chap to code it etc.

Does your car have the standard nav or pro nav with the bigger screen?

[ClubsportStr]

Tommie38 said:

Parents have a 2012 F30 3 series that came with the basic nav. I believe that it is an NBT setup.

I’m looking at aftermarket plug in boxes to give a simple CarPlay solution for circa £200.

Is there anything to be aware of? The main things I can think of are:
- Will they be able to play the radio whilst using Google Maps for navigation? Specifically I am thinking of getting audio alerts for navigation whilst using audio for radio
- Any coding required? It looks like the boxes are simply plug and play

My experience with things like this in the aftermarket is that they can be a bit hit or miss. Is there anything that could potentially trip up what should be a simple install?

Thanks in advance.

Look on here loads of different adverts seems the cheap way to get CarPlay . I presume it works

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NBT-EVO-BMW-CarPlay-Act...

[Tommie38]

mekondelta said:

I looked into this a couple of years ago and decided to stick with my phone in the car. I have a max size phone and it's pretty big enough for sat nav directions. What I found is that there are too many compromises in the Carplay adapters (support/updates, fiddly installation, switching between Carplay and normal etc) compared to the benefits. All I really wanted was Waze to be controllable via idrive and the car screen but the phone was by far the better option in the end. Things may have moved on in the last 2 years though.

I do partly agree with you actually, in my experience you do need to be prepared to do a bit of work if required to get things to run smoothly.

[Tommie38]

mmm-five said:

Depending on your production date, you may have the first of the NBT systems, or the last of the CIC systems.

You need to go into the system settings to see which - as the CIC/NBT/NBT Evo 4 screens/menus look very similar.

<<Pictures removed>>

The main difference in the screens is in the darker shading to the left of the big icon in the middle of the menu!

However, a lot of the add-ons work on multiple versions, so depending whether you want a complete replacement (e.g. upgrade to BBT Evo 5/6) or just an add-on box to enable carplay (like the IMI-1000) you can pay anything from £200 upwards.

Thanks for this. Definitely NBT.

As an aside, I'm not a fan of keeping the original screen size (and aware that Android options are available) but want to ensure that the original functionality of the unit is retained.

[Tommie38]

Court_S said:

I had CarPlay retrofitted to my M140i.

It cost me £150 including the Wi Fi aerial and the chap to code it etc.

Does your car have the standard nav or pro nav with the bigger screen?

That sounds like an option for a car that has at least some of the capability already. This is a 2012 car so sadly getting somebody to code it in isn't really an option (at least I don't think it is).

ClubsportStr said:

Look on here loads of different adverts seems the cheap way to get CarPlay . I presume it works

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NBT-EVO-BMW-CarPlay-Act...

Interesting. I suspect NBT 'Evo' is the clue more likely later hardware.

[Tommie38]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I do think that is a bit much to be left with an old school screen with no other functionality. I couldn't see a clear differentiation between these and the £200 boxes.