Apple CarPlay and Android Auto provide great integration between your vehicle and your phone allowing you to use various phone Apps directly on your car’s navigation display. You can use Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, see your messages and control your music and much more.
We can install Apple CarPlay and Android Auto using one of 3 methods depending on your vehicle. These are: –
- A licence, firmware update and a small module change on some Mercedes Benz vehicles from 2016 onward, and many from 2019 onward
- A hidden CarPlay / Android Auto control unit that uses the car’s existing screen – we can do this for many Mercedes Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mini vehicles.
- A replacement stereo with CarPlay and Android Auto – for most vehicles.
There are many “hidden CarPlay” control units available, but the common theme is that there is not much manufacturer support for software updates and they have many software issues, as a result we work with a UK company that develops its own software and modified-hardware platforms and recommend only the their solutions where we install an extra device.
We also have a Mercedes Specialist department with Genuine Mercedes Benz Xentry Diagnosis and Retail Data Storage systems which is why we can licence and update certain Mercedes vehicles so that the existing Head Unit supports Apple Carplay and Android Auto. The specific systems are NTG5*1 COMAND, NTG5.5 Audio-20 and COMAND, NTG6 systems and some newer NTG5*2 Audio-20 systems and cars with Apple CarPlay but no Android Auto – Just contact us with your VIN (Chassis Number) and we’ll be happy to too you whether this works for your vehicle. If it does, this is the most cost effective method to add Apple Car Play and Android Auto.
And finally, we can replace the stereo with a Pioneer or Alpine touch-screen Apple Car Play and Android Auto compatible Head Unit with DAB radio if you want a new fresh system in your vehicle.
Contact us with your car’s details and we’ll tell you what can be done.
Below is a picture of Factory Apple Carplay enabled on a Mercedes W213 E class
Below is our favourite Car Play / Android Auto head unit, the Alpine ILX-702D. We can supply/fit this to most cars and provide a 2 year parts and labour warranty.
