I can successfully pair my iPhone 15 Pro to the car's factory Bluetooth via the nav display. This appears to be limited to phone calls (not music), and the audio is only in the driver's side speaker. Makes sense since this car is from the flip phone era. It all works but it's lousy sound compared to my other cars, which use the entire sound system.

I also have an aftermarket GTA Car Kits iPod/AUX adapter connected to the head unit's disc changer port, which gives me either wired or Bluetooth to my phone - this is a SEPARATE Bluetooth connection that plays music quite well, but it's not great for calls since it lacks a mic.

I'm trying to get calls + music through the sound system. Eventually, I'll probably invest in a full CarPlay kit that does this plus modern nav, but for now I'm just trying to work with what I have on hand. Any tips?

 

My GTA Car Kit came with a microphone. I'm surprised yours didn't. You might want to contact them and ask about it.

I ran the wire under the dash and up the post on the left and the microphone sticks out at the top.

It works very well in my instance.

 

My car came with the WIRED ipod/aux kit, so I hacked it by plugging a BT dongle into GTA unit's AUX jack. So, no place to plug in a mic. GTA sells their own BT dongle which presumably would free up that AUX jack for a mic, but if I spend anything, I'd prefer it go to a proper nav+CarPlay upgrade.

I guess my question should be: is my assumption correct that the car's native BT is just for phone calls, and is the sound routed through just one speaker as I perceive? Native BT appears to be part of the nav only and seems to bypass the car's audio system entirely. Do I have that right?

The car is new to me, so just figuring this out for the first time.