CarPlay Questions

Unfortunately my Fiesta S 2015 model seems like a very complicated install to get a CarPlay unit functioning. I specced the car with the Sony sound system when I bought it which sounds amazing, but is also pretty uncommon, so finding a proper dash kit for it is quite difficult. I would loooove to get a CarPlay stereo installed but I don’t think it’s very viable :disappointed:

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AVC: looks like you can get a complete kit for your car, doesn’t look easy though.
https://aerpro.com/vehicles/ford/ford_fiesta_2008_ws_wt_wz

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This is one of those things I hate about modern vehicles, everything is built in making aftermarket head units that much harder to install, especially when they integrate all the AC controls into the screen.

That Fiesta one actually looks pretty straight forward, only one set of buttons which are available from a pretty accessible provider too. Hell, they even have all the wiring harnesses so it is almost 100% plug and play… that said I bet there are a few bucks worth of parts there to make it all happen making it a little harder to justify the cost of the upgrade.

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The fascia kit is only $168 from Ryda. Might be worth investigating.

Thanks @Entropy!

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And all the wiring bits?

What’s the pioneer screen like in bright sunlight? That would be a key advantage of the pioneer resistive screen over the kenwood’s capacitive screen I would think
Also, see what you mean to get wireless CarPlay on pioneer. The money they are asking is unreasonable

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Well yes, those will add up :unamused:

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At this stage I can only really talk to the older model as I haven’t had enough experience with the new on yet. Ask me again in a few weeks after I travel interstate and back with the unit.

On the old AVIC. other than direct sunlight reflecting back at you it was very good even on the brightest of days. The VW Multivan it lives in is particularly bad with angle and placement of the head unit too.

The only complaint I had was when wearing sun glasses to cut glare at dusk/dawn when the headlights were on the unit would dim itself and be hard to see (because of the sun glasses). I kept thinking about putting in a hard toggle switch to disconnect the headlight sense wire for this limited use case… but I would assume the same issue applies to all units in this situation.

Ooh, my sunnies are polarised. The resistive screen in the Santa Fe looks terrible. I hadn’t thought of that!

Just to clarify, full sun with polarised sunnies and it was fine. It was only an issue when I had the headlights on as it dimmed down too far to work with sunnies on. If the headlights weren’t on it was fine.

So I went and tested CarPlay on another unit in JBHiFi this morning and it all worked perfectly with my iPhone 8+ … and then I went out and it worked fine in my car ??

It has been rebooted in the alt couple of days (which I’m sure I already tried) but it’s working properly.

The most appropriate reply I can think of is :man_shrugging:

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I got the Kenwood installed in my 2010 Mazda 3 last weekend, love it!

Look forward to google maps being an option in Sept.

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I did a 2,000km+ trip to Sydney and back in the last week and wasn’t really impressed with how it all worked, although I think that’s about me and my desire to use Waze.

If I used the Pioneer “AppRadio” app I could get Waze onto the screen, but that was an OR choice (that maybe predates CarPlay?) which made streaming music really hit and miss with the way it attempted to handle multiple apps (poorly).

CarPlay itself seemed to work OK except it makes the iPhone follow the headunit screen… so if I had Waze on the Phone then attempted to listen to music it would switch apps. Again the issue seemed to be tied to my desire for Waze.

At one point we tried using my Wifes phone for CarPlay, but again the screen follows the iPhone, so everytime she switched apps on her phone to reply to messages or whatever it would change the headunit screen rather than just staying on “Now Playing” or whatever. I’m sure this is by design and tied to the whole concept of not needing to touch your phone while it connected.

In the end for us we ended up either switching to Bluetooth or just using the old dumb iPod interface which provided little control other than skip but did show what was playing, although with Google Music playing over bluetooth it always seemed to be showing the album art from the last track with the data from the currently playing track which was a little odd. I’d have to go back and check again but that may be better over USB.

Bottom line here, I think when CarPlay brings in Waze Support it will be excellent.

Vince, what model kenwood did you get installed, and can you upload a picture? How are the angles from the driving and passenger positions?
How is the glare? How much to install?

Hawk, I don’t think you are supposed to be touching the phone in situations where you are using CarPlay. What is happening would be by design.

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Yeah, I think you’re right. I just have a knack of finding ways to break/test the limits of things.

I guess that means it is really meant to be the driver’s phone that is connected via CarPlay. I wonder if it is possible to have the driver’s phone connected and showing maps via CarPlay, with a passenger’s phone playing music connected via Bluetooth?

From what I understand, no. At least on the pioneer unit you can’t switch to Bluetooth while CarPlay is connected.

Correct, no. Once you connect a phone it seems to cut the Bluetooth off.

I’m away at the moment Entrope but I’ll get that info you asked for shortly.

I’ve actually been thinking about getting the Pioneer-AVHZ2150BT.