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Will CarPlay impact your next car purchase? [Poll]

After Mark uncovered it last April and Apple announced it last June, this week we’ve seen a steady stream of details about Apple’s iOS and car integration following Apple’s marketing push. There’s plenty more coverage on the way as we continue to explore what CarPlay means for Apple and its users, but now we want to hear from you. What effect will CarPlay have on your next car purchase?

Cars certainly aren’t purchases you make impulsively (or often), and CarPlay seems to address that by relying on the iPhone (something we may purchase impulsively and often) for much of the functionality. Among other things, will CarPlay be on the list of things you look for in your next car purchase?

Personally, I’m very interested in what CarPlay offers for safety and stylistic reasons, but in terms of practicality, the feature is a bit restrictive in its current form.

While I frequently reference Apple Maps for gathering quick pieces of information, I still find data involving points-of-interest and navigation to be much more reliable with Google Maps (as much as that pains me).

My transit entertainment (when I’m alone) typically consists of listening to podcasts through Instacast (while Apple’s Podcasts app has recently been improving, I still find alternatives more robust). At launch, CarPlay only supports Apple’s software for presenting and listening to podcasts, so that’s a nonstarter for me.

But despite CarPlay not meeting my criteria for functionality just yet, I’d still insist on purchasing a car with it rather than without it. While it may not be the most practical way to manage navigation and entertainment just yet, the communication features are appealing to me. I’d also expect to see the platform expand its support as time moves forward at a rate faster than I’d imagine buying yet another car. (Oh, and I’d expect my complaints may not scale to everyone.)

Affordable? Check. Efficient gas milage? Check. Sunroof? Check. And, for me at least, CarPlay? Check.

As someone rather invested in the Apple ecosystem, it makes sense; I can, though, imagine the lack of functionality at launch putting the feature in the back seat for others. Tell us what you think in the poll above and the comments below and expect more in this space soon.

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Comments

  1. Virg Prekazis - 10 years ago

    No. Unless you’re an idiot.

    • Steven W Mahoney Sr. - 10 years ago

      Yes. Unless you’re an idiot.

    • Lee (@leemahi) - 10 years ago

      Whether the new VW Golf GTI Mark 7 has iOS in the car or not, I’m still buying it. iOS is boring!

    • b9bot - 10 years ago

      Yes, unless your an idiot. It will be a much more user friendly interface then what’s available now. And Apple will actually have updates so it stays up to date. Android is fragmented and full of malware and is trying to hard to be everything to everyone like Windows. And we all know what has happened to Windows. Even Ford can’t deal with Windows anymore and is getting rid of Sync now as well.

  2. Patrick Albert - 10 years ago

    Hope it’s in the new C63

  3. I would never buy a car with any of this stuff, all I need on the dash is , heater/AC and an AM/FM radio, anything more than that is a waste, this is the reason most cars are priced out of range of most hard working people….

    • Zac Hall - 10 years ago

      I suspect Hyundai’s offering will be relatively affordable and will be CarPlay equipped.

    • dcj001 - 10 years ago

      FM radio? Wow! You are really going all of the way.

    • Alborz Heydaryan - 10 years ago

      You’ve already got your time machine working to travel to the future. Would it be that horrible to give future technology a try?

  4. Jerry Fisher (@jerry7171) - 10 years ago

    I’m not so worried about purchasing a car solely for Carplay as a feature, but finding out that it relies on Blackberry’s QNX underpinnings should mean I can just schlep down to my local Best Buy or whatever to pick a car stereo of my choice to install in my perfectly good Honda as long as it uses QNX. That is a lot less expensive than a whole new vehicle.

  5. rymc02 - 10 years ago

    Aftermarket?

  6. John P. Ford - 10 years ago

    So I was at honda and they had this in the Civic. So if you want the built in GPS you can’t get CarPlay, however if you get CarPlay it doesn’t work unless you buy the 50 dollar app. After discussing this, it makes sense to get the CarPlay app if you figure for the difference of like 500 dollars less, you can buy many apps if you have more then one iTunes account. However, I do have a concern of loosing your maps if your not in cell coverage.

  7. Steven W Mahoney Sr. - 10 years ago

    Yes. Unless you’re an idiot.

  8. Aaron Renner - 10 years ago

    I just got a 2014 Mazda3, so it won’t influence my purchase for quite a while. They built the infotainment system to upgradeable, so I’m really hoping they update it at some point with CarPlay.

  9. rwiley17 - 10 years ago

    That’s not entirely true. I’ve been contemplating an upgrade here within the last 4-5 months and having my phone be compatible with the 2015 model of a particular chevy model for the same price as the year before without it makes sense. If I can pay the same price for the same Model/Trim of a vehicle, one having a significant advantage for heavy users, why not?

  10. Phil Rau - 10 years ago

    Absolutely. Though my next car purchase will be years from now, I will definitely get this in my car if I can. My phone is a part of my commute already, having it integrated into the screen will be huge for me, especially if Apple has a hand in designing any other parts of the onscreen interface for the car.

  11. Joel Reeves - 10 years ago

    No way. I can’t see myself buying even a Manufacturer installed GPS at a $1000 minimum, when you can get a Garmin for under $200. I keep my cars for 10 years, CarPlay will be out of date after 2 with no upgrade path. Even if they rely on the phone for the processing power and just have a dumb touch screen installed in the car, the screen technology will still be obsolete

  12. No. My car is paid off and this will not cause me to sign up for another car payment.

  13. Michael Perry - 10 years ago

    No because front he videos the implementation seems slow and poor.

  14. CJ Sheets - 10 years ago

    In my opinion this is a bad implementation. From the video demo the interface looked slow and clunky. Not very Apple-esque if you ask me.

    What they should have done would have been more simple. Have a display in your car that would automatically pair with your phone when you get in. Have a CarPlay app that would then be Airplay mirrored to that display. The only challenge would be to allow the display to control the iPhone via its touchscreen. Then license the tech to aftermarket companies so everyone could have one without buying a new car.

  15. Pablo Zaremba - 10 years ago

    Being the iPhone my main portable device, for sure a car that integrates better with it will have a chance against those that not. After all, most cars already have a touch screen, so why should I choose the one that doesn’t integrate with my main device?

  16. Lance Newcomb - 10 years ago

    No. The interface looks flat, bland and boring. It doesn’t match the high style standards of Ferrari or Mercedes at all.

  17. Daniel Eduardo Soto Barco - 10 years ago

    I know I probably won’t be upgrading my Audi for another Audi since they’ve gone the peasant Android route.

  18. Victor Valentini - 10 years ago

    I believe it’s nice product, however, the UI may get better once people start using it. Apple has restricted use for big guys only $$$

    In my opinion, a good shot would be launch a CarPlay App so people could use their iPhones or iPad/iPad Mini with this UI, in order to better drive hands-free, because it’s easy to read messages (or listen to), navigate, play music, etc. and also it’s much cheaper to buy an iPad/iPhone stand than depend on the manufacturer to install their system/screen inside the vehicle.

    • Victor Valentini - 10 years ago

      Maybe this iOS built-in system would be much better if you could control the AC, lights, temp, etc, not only iPhone functions. iOS 8 could come in with CarPlay UI installed for this few Apps.

  19. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Yes it will. Once safety rating, gas mileage, and overall cost are considered…if it doesn’t have CarPlay support, I won’t even consider it.

  20. Thanasi Kalavritinos - 10 years ago

    Surely there will be third party head units so who cares :P

  21. Bought a 2013 Hyundai Elantra back in July. I normally keep cars as long as I can. My last was a 2002 Civic, so aprox life-cylce is 11 years. It sucks that now they are coming out with this technology now! I just missed it!

    Would it be something that I would pay extra for? No. But since my preferred auto maker is using this tech – I’m excited. For the family van we have a dodge… but this makes me want to look at Hyundai’s offerings. How nice it would be to have my iPhone work seamlessly for those family road trips…

  22. alexanderbeauvais - 10 years ago

    I’d be more interested with an aftermarket iOS integrated radio honestly. But i wouldn’t be against iOS in the car. In 6 years (the earliest I could buy a different car) I imagine the options will be better. In the meantime I look forward to seeing if they release and aftermarket touchscreen radio for iOS.

  23. I just want to insert my iPhone into my console. I don’t need/want an additional screen nor the headaches of the blaming each other for incompatibilities.

  24. Sandy - 10 years ago

    I bought my Prius (affordable, efficient gas mileage, sunroof) last August, so I won’t be buying a new car anytime very soon. However, if/when I do, CarPlay would certainly be a huge plus for me.

  25.  (@suttonmontreal) - 10 years ago

    Just stick your Iphone to the dashboard and you’ll have iOS in the car even in your bike.

  26. zeromeus - 10 years ago

    Yes! iOS in the car will get my money. Google in the car, on the other hand, will not get a penny from me. If the car comes with Google, the manufacturer will not get a single penny from me.

  27. smigit - 10 years ago

    Yes, but it won’t be a factor of WHEN I buy a new car. I’m probably a few years off getting a new one.

    Entertainment integration for me is an important factor when deciding what car I use. If CarPlay gives me better integration than an alternative then it will be a factor in my decision. The mechanics and cost of the car itself will still trump this sinc I want something that handles well and doesn’t guzzle petrol, but certainly CarPlay would be a big plus too.

  28. Christian Y. Vazquez - 10 years ago

    Whether if Volkswagen implements this new technology or not, it will impact my next car purchase. But i’d prefer a VW with it. Just love Volkswagen.

  29. I’d rather have a CarPlay bike than a car without it.

  30. Jesse Barnum - 10 years ago

    From what I can tell, it’s only available when plugged into a Thunderbolt port. That is lame. I will wait for a version that can use Bluetooth.

  31. rettun1 - 10 years ago

    The article title at poll title are kind of different. I won’t choose a car solely based on carplay, but I could see it as a feature near the top of my list

  32. Anoop Menon - 10 years ago

    Sure.. Why is that even a question? I assume there will be online updates which you never see in cars…

  33. miamihair - 10 years ago

    It’s really pretty incredible that this is even a topic of discussion. On the one hand, proponents of tech and integration are (I’m sure) all for this. On the other, I’m sure there are safety concerns..

  34. Joshua Miller (@darsparx) - 10 years ago

    Well it might…it’ll definitely be a few years down the road before I get another car, but I’m planning on getting one that looks better than my 2003 civic….and likely has better gas mileage. I don’t want to go to the gas station every 270-290 miles(of course some maintenance could fix that but the car is 11 years old it might be time soon to finally replace it)…

  35. Not really. It’ll be nice to have, but definitely not the top of my list.

    From experience, I get very weary when I hear about too tight an integration between a car’s infotainment system and the car itself.

    I own an 8th-gen Honda Civic 1.8 and I can’t even route an AUX-in into the damn thing (forget about USB support or anything fancier). Even worse, the (mediocre) stereo is an integral part of the car. It CANNOT be removed and the aftermarket hacks to overcome its shortcomings far from inspire confidence. Otherwise, a very lovely, reliable and sporty car :/

    So, the prospect of being manufacturer-locked into some platform in my next car purchase… no, it doesn’t thrill me at all.

  36. Nik Iafrancesco (@Nikiaf) - 10 years ago

    I would choose the car without ANY of these stupid systems over this, or any other terrible such system.

  37. Carplay is very useful… Well done apple!

  38. Ben Anderson - 10 years ago

    It wont impact my next car purchase in the slightest. Why would it? CarPlay requires an iPhone (that, shockingly, not everyone has! /s ) and it’ll run parallel to the standard in-car system anyway.

    Does the car have bluetooth? Yes.
    Can I connect my phone to the bluetooth system and stream audio and telephone calls? Yes.
    Car I trigger the voice commands with a little button on the steering wheel? Yes.

    Oh look, I basically replicated CarPlay Functionality and I will never have to look at the stereo again.
    Done! Where do I sign?

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.