I have been seeing social media influencers advertise the Carpruide W103 Pro on Youtube and I decided to bite. The Pro version has dual bluetooth, meaning that you can connect your phone to the device and the device to your cars bluetooth. This was my preferred way of connecting to maintain quality audio vs having to use the AUX cable or FM Channel to transmit audio. However after reading reviews, I learned that the bluetooth function was hit or miss. After seeing someone post that they got it working with their RX350 I begin to have hope and after receiving the device today, I can confirm that it does work.

For optimal usage, you should connect your phone to the cars bluetooth and connect this device to your car as an audio player. This way you can make and receive calls through the cars bluetooth and it still registers via carplay. The media will also play through the cars bluetooth. When turning the car off and on again - sometimes these things get confused. But you can quickly correct things by going to the bluetooth setting in your car and re-establishing.

The next challenge came the mounting. I did not want to block my field of vision or glue anything to my dash. I was using an old proclip mount with a attached since my proclip phone holder long bit the dust. The magsafe puck came with a sticker so you could make any device magsafe. I attached this to the device and was able to set things up as I did in the picture below. Immediately after taking this picture, the device came crashing down (the back on the carpruide device is not exactly flat). It was not because the device was too heavy for the magsafe, but because the sticker came off the back of the device. The sticker actually remained attached to the puck. So if anyone has any ideas on a better way to do this, I am all ears. They do sell mounts that attach directly to the vent and cd player, but my fear with attaching to the vent with their adapter is that it will stick out too far (as it is, you have to remove and place back before and after the steering wheel extends or closes) and if i attached to the cd player, it will flop around and make a lot of noise. The magsafe option results in a rattle free experience, at the perfect reach.

 

Hey mate,

Nice, looks like a really easy install. Using vent clips is probably the best way to mount it. Def want to mount it to the passenger side middle vent, removing it every time the steering wheel moves would be brutal. Unless you wanted to sit it Infront of the existing display, depends on how much you use that display.
Are you enjoying it and how's the viewing angle while driving?

Any particular reason you didn't go with something that works with the built-in screen?

 

Hi FullMetalM -

I could definitely slide the clip over to the passenger side, but then it would be off center, which would bother me - lol. I thought about mounting with two pro clips for stability, however you would still need to move the unit when the steering wheel retracts.

After another day of ownership, I placed a piece of packing tape over the MagSafe sticker and it is definitely more stable - however still not as secure as I would like. Considering using glue or something more permanent . Connection wise, it’s a mess. Sometimes the phone will connect to the device and not the cars Bluetooth. This is easily remedied. During one start up, my phone connected completely to the cars Bluetooth and CarPlay still worked. This was awesome because I was able to use the steering wheel controls to change tracks (this was not possible in the way I suggested above). However a couple of restarts later I could not replicate this and ended up defaulting to my original method. I am tempted to unpair everything and start from scratch - however being that Bluetooth connections are wonky on a normal day I don’t think it will make long term difference. I can say the CarPlay connection (wireless) is stable and the Bluetooth connection to the car is stable once you set the proper inputs/outputs. You may just have to do the latter on every start up. There is a small lag while fast forwarding / rewinding from the touch screen but it’s definitely acceptable.

I did not want to go with the built in unit (grom, beat sonic, etc) because I did not feel comfortable ripping apart my dash and I wasn’t sure what kind of audio quality AUX would give me. This is less intrusive and also gives me a touch screen.

Also worth nothing that for power, I am using the cig lighter behind the center console/ arm rest - tucking the cable in between the seat.

Viewing angle is great, no complaints there.

 

Hi, with bluetooth connection, the steering wheel controls still works? thanks

 

with bluetooth connection, the steering wheels controls works? thanks

 

Thats a nice screen for plug and play mod

 

I've been looking at something like this myself as I'm not really loving all the futzing around everyone seems to have to do with either of the two built-in options.

I currently have my Samsung S20 5G sitting on my center vent with a clip it works well though I wish the screen were bigger.

I'm going to give this a hard look and see how it would fit my needs.

 

It’s inconsistent. If the phone connects to the car as normal and the carpuride is still detected than yes. If the car doesn’t recognize the phone as the media player (and recognizes the carpuride as the media player) than no. Each time the car starts it seems to want to do something different.

 

How much did thee Carpuride cost?

 

You should be able to set Bluetooth priority in the head unit. You should also be able to designate of a device is media, phone, or both.

 

My selections don’t seem to stick when restarting the car. Mainly the phone audio starts playing through the device and not the Bluetooth. Sometimes however it works flawlessly. I blame the car more than the device, but regardless it can be fixed in less then 60 seconds.

 

I found a coupon code and got it for $201. Remember to order the pro and not the regular unless you are ok playing through AUX only. I have not tested this method, but it’s possible this is a way to circumvent the connection issues I described in my other posts.

 

That's a good price. Right now it is showing $369 with a $50 coupon code it is still over $300.

 

Showing as $309 for me. Coupon code EVIP35 should get you down to the $200 range. You do not need to order the model with the camera.

 

I've tried a couple of times and I cannot get it for anything close to $200. Where are you buying it? Can you post a link that the EVIP35 code will work on.