I broke down and purchased the Beat-Sonic version of and aftermarket Apple CarPlay system. Of all the choices I had seen, this is the more expensive one. But, watching several of the installation videos, and communicating with Eric from Beat-Sonic a few times prior to purchase, I felt I made the right choice. I had read many of the reviews for it, as well, and felt their customer service was top notch. I'm not too tech savvy, but wanted to save the $200-$300 for installation, so I attempted it myself. I wasn't removing what had to be removed, that I feared. It was putting it all back together. Usually, I end up with extra parts that somehow got overlooked, during reassembly. Much to my surprise, I was able to remove everything without any of it breaking or getting scratched. I had my iPad next to me, so I could watch the installation videos, as I went along. In doing that, it was very simple. Once I got all the wires connected, I tested the system before putting it all back together. It all worked out fine. As for mounting the 2 modules, my GS has something installed where the video recommended they go. I improvised and ran the wires up into the glove box, and that's where they sit. They are pretty small, and don't take up much room. I've had it installed for just over a week now. I really love it and I'm glad I went with Beat-Sonic. Eric was very responsive and helpful when it came to my emails with the questions I had asked. The apps I use work very well, with the exception of Waze. It's buggy at times, but may be because I'm running a Beta version of the latest iOS on my iPhone. The ONLY thing I'm not satisfied with (and not with Beat-Sonic) is the audio quality when listening to music, or anything from my iPhone. This is a wired system, and you must have the input set to Aux.to get any audio from CarPlay. Before this, I would always access my iPhone using Bluetooth. It's much better than using a USB cable. I have an iPod I will use for my car play functions (maps, iMessages, etc), and keep my iPhone connected for Bluetooth music.

 

Were you able to get the image to entirely fill the 12.3" screen without being stretched at all? I had someone install one of these units and they said I could either have it stretched and fill the screen, or have normal proportions and have black bars on the side. I was really mad. I now have Android Auto (or Apple carplay as the case may be) but it only fills the center 4:3 section of my nice 12.3" screen. It's really dumb because I know that AA can output the correct resolution; it just has to be programmed into the firmware of the unit to be able to do so, which it is not.

My audio sounds great though.

 

Beatsonic is a rock solid system and excellent support I've had it before, They promised wireless carplay a couple years ago, but never came out with it. The competition like GROM or Carlinkit had this feature years ago. They recently increased the price to $749, imo overpriced, other options with more features.

 

Beatsonic has this issue with android auto, no way to correct it unless they update their software, been like this since their system came out years ago.

 

I'll upload a quick video later today, once I get home from work. It'll show it better than I can explain anything.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bobipw4s5q...%20PM.mov?dl=0

 

Looks nice! Do you happen to have an Android phone laying around that you could test out android auto with?

 

Not since I traded my Droid X for my first iPhone, 10 years ago:-( If I can get a friend that has one, to stop by, I’ll shoot another video.