iPad Mini: $420
Install + Labor: $200
Miscellaneous parts: $100
Your already at $800 with the minimum. With an iPad mini, you of the bat lose AM/FM functionality and Bluetooth functionality. You cant pull up messages or make phone calls. Lastly the interface is not designed for use in the car, where your much further away than regular use.
With the system and Carplay, you retain AM/FM functionality and with a simply plug into your phone you have all messages/contacts and phone functionality routed through your larger screen and sound system. All this along with a much easier to use interface.
Pioneer device: $900 or $1400
Install + Labor: (same) $200
Miscellaneous parts: (same) $100
Or are we pretending the lowest price we can find for the device itself will include installation and miscellaneous parts?
Yes, installing an iPad means no AM/FM but it does come with many radio apps so one needs to judge the value of AM/FM in the car. Personally, I don't think I've played AM in maybe 2+ years. FM does get a little action by a teenager but she gets frustrated with the commercials and switches to CDs pretty quickly. In the wife's car, she has an old iPod linked into the system such that the AM/FM pretty much gets NO play.
Using VOIP apps on my mini, I get phone calls and can make them- just like anyone using an iPhone. In fact, in my own case, my iPad works GREAT as my "iPhone".
I can't speak to the ease of use of a Pioneer Carplay interface vs. an iPad Mini interface but it's hard to imagine special case iOS to be a LOT easier to use than iOS. Some? Yes. Lots? Harder to see.
Here's the downsides as I see them:
- No AM/FM receiver
- Pioneer install has the option for a car rear-camera to display on that screen
- Size- the pioneer screen appears to be about 1 inch smaller than a mini screen so it may be easier to fit the deck into tighter spaces in the central console
- Per post #38, it may or may not prove to be compatible with steering wheel controls (but I wonder if some such controls may or may not work with a third party Pioneer screen install too)
Against that, consider what seems like moderate-to-much higher cost, limited app options, easy replacement of AM/FM with radio apps, full iOS instead of something less.
Once more: I'm not trying to put it down much- just trying to rationalize price vs. what one gets vs. another option.