Iphone integration with modern car stereos

[gnortenjones]

I was looking to get a new car soon. On my old car I used my iphone for music using an audio in cable on my stereo and mounted my phone using a proclip.

A lot of the cars I'm looking at (Accord, Camry, Civic, etc) have touch screen "entertainment systems" with controls on the steering wheels.

I was wondering what folks experiences with these types of systems have been using an iphone for music? One thing to note is that I have a tendency to flip through music/playlists frequently.

Would the steering wheel controls control my iphone? Does the touchscreen controls show playlists, podcasts, etc?

I know it's hard to answer this without knowning the EXACT car/stereo, but I'm guessing most of the modern stereos of this type would behave similarly.

Thanks.

 

[lordofthereef]

We have a Toyota Prius and a Honda CR-V as our daily drivers with their respective systems. Unless it's the top model these systems are generally just blue tooth controllers for media devices. That is to say, they can launch some basic apps and have basic commands such as forward, back, pause, etc. we have a pioneer head ubit in our "for fun" vehicle (02 mini) which does bluetooth and usb input. Functionally they are the same as the touch screen devices.

Unless you get something with car play functionality (very few makes come with this just yet), I imagine you're experience will be very similar.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

It's really all over the place in my experience. Some cars just have BT for phone calls. Some add audio as well. With the latter, you generally can change tracks and may be able to do things like change play order within the current playlist. Some cars also have dedicated iPod or iPod compatible USB interfaces. These allow you to see playlists, artists, etc. My car shows the album art as well.

Most cars these days seem to have at least one entertainment package that includes some or all of this stuff. If you want the features, you need to make sure of that.

I wouldn't let any of this sway a car buying decision unless it's just a package on the model you want to buy anyway. Technology changes and features that work great today may not keep up especially when it comes to factory installed entertainment systems.