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Spotify Stops Making Dash-Mounted 'Car Thing' Just Five Months After Launch

i don't really get the appeal of that thing lol. If your car does not have CarPlay or Bluetooth it is probably cheaper to replace the head unit with the one that has BT. Of course, it takes more time, but basically destroys the whole purpose of the "Car Thing"
 
compwiz1202 said:
Wonder if it failed because the people without the screens are lower income?
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Nope, There's just much better alternatives out there.

I remember replacing my previous 06' Passat non-display system with a Chinese display system. It visually replicated the VW display system. Only about $200, which VW would wanted $700 for their version. Had Navi/GPS, back up camera, bluetooth, and etc. I paid someone to install it, but it was so worth it.

Newer manufacturer in dash replicas even have car play/android auto nowadays.


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chucker23n1 said:
8 years is not a long time to own a car.
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That’s not what I said so it’s a weird take.
I said car play came out 8 years ago. That being said 8 years of CarPlay is a long time if the average age of a car as stated in this post by others is 12 years.

I’ve never owned a car for 8 years and I don’t know many people that have either to be honest. Not for a daily driver at least.
 
danny842003 said:
That’s not what I said so it’s a weird take.
I said car play came out 8 years ago. That being said 8 years of CarPlay is a long time if the average age of a car as stated in this post by others is 12 years.

I’ve never owned a car for 8 years and I don’t know many people that have either to be honest. Not for a daily driver at least.
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The thing to keep in mind is that

a) Not every new car in the last eight years has had CarPlay and it's quite reasonable to assume that while prevalence in newer cars is increasing, it's still not complete and numbers were likely to be small initially.

b) Lots of people don't buy new cars. Cars produced in the early days of CarPlay are less likely to have CarPlay and those are exactly the cars bumping around on the used car market.

Take these two together and I don't quite understand why people here seem to assume that basically everyone has CarPlay. I don't think that's likely at all.

Does that mean that all of these people would be in the market for Car Thing? Most certainly not.
 
d686546s said:
The thing to keep in mind is that

a) Not every new car in the last eight years has had CarPlay and it's quite reasonable to assume that while prevalence in newer cars is increasing, it's still not complete and numbers were likely to be small initially.

b) Lots of people don't buy new cars. Cars produced in the early days of CarPlay are less likely to have CarPlay and those are exactly the cars bumping around on the used car market.

Take these two together and I don't quite understand why people here seem to assume that basically everyone has CarPlay. I don't think that's likely at all.

Does that mean that all of these people would be in the market for Car Thing? Most certainly not.
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Again you’re arguing points I didn’t make.
 
Wahlstrm said:
It's just a Bluetooth remote for your phone,
so if you can't connect your phone to the car then this wouldn't solve much. 🙂
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Ah, I realize now that what I said was a little vague. I connect my phone via an aux cord. This would eliminate me having that annoying cord getting caught on stuff when I go to change the song. 😛 Maybe I should pick it up on sale now while they’re still in stock…
 
russell_314 said:
Well did you buy one? You said it’s a bummer and you would’ve been the target market but if you didn’t buy one then there’s a reason why it’s being discontinued.
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Well, you’re not wrong. Haha.

Although at the sale price… maybe I will pick one of these bad boys up.
 
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It could’ve been a hit if it works as a car HUD, do-it-all in-car entertainment. Just like apple watch focusing on health instead of just being a fancy watch.
 
LIVEFRMNYC said:
Nope, There's just much better alternatives out there.

I remember replacing my previous 06' Passat non-display system with a Chinese display system. It visually replicated the VW display system. Only about $200, which VW would wanted $700 for their version. Had Navi/GPS, back up camera, bluetooth, and etc. I paid someone to install it, but it was so worth it.

Newer manufacturer in dash replicas even have car play/android auto nowadays.


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That looks so absurdly sh*tty.
 
I love my Car Thing. I have a 2010 Mazda CX-9 I have no intentions of replacing soon - it only has 70k miles (I’ve worked from home entire time I’ve had it). It looks and drives like the day I bought it.

I looked into replacing head unit, but it’s quite expensive if I want to maintain factory backup camera, SiriusXM antenna, cabin microphone and steering wheel controls.

I like the Car Thing because I don’t have to unlock my phone constantly to change songs or playlists like I would if I just ran Spotify on my phone. I was thinking of getting a second one for my fun car - a 1997 Miata with only 17k miles on it! It’s in pristine shape.
 
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danny842003 said:
I’ve never owned a car for 8 years and I don’t know many people that have either to be honest. Not for a daily driver at least.
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Opposite of my crowd; all my friends are very well off and drive old cars. Why spend money on an asset that depreciates? Both of my financial planners drive boring older cars. One just replaced his late 90s Ford Escort because he bikes everywhere and abhors knowingly buying something guaranteed to drop in value. It was replaced with a gently used Prius.

I have only ever bought 2-3 year old cars to let someone else take the brunt of depreciation hit while still getting a nice car, pay cash for it, drive it until it dies. Hondas, Mazdas and one Nissan.
 
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If you need to pair it with your phone, why not just mount the phone on your dash? It's already a big touch screen.
 
djc6 said:
Opposite of my crowd; all my friends are very well off and drive old cars. Why spend money on an asset that depreciates? Both of my financial planners drive boring older cars. One just replaced his late 90s Ford Escort because he bikes everywhere and abhors knowingly buying something guaranteed to drop in value. It was replaced with a gently used Prius.

I have only ever bought 2-3 year old cars to let someone else take the brunt of depreciation hit while still getting a nice car, pay cash for it, drive it until it dies. Hondas, Mazdas and one Nissan.
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Must not be car people, or as well off as you think? But even 3 year old cars purchased today would likely have some kind of infotainment system.
 
McTaste said:
If you need to pair it with your phone, why not just mount the phone on your dash? It's already a big touch screen.
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Especially since the screen is just 4 inches. If it were reasonably large, one might argue it’s a better alternative to the phone.
 
I’ll never understand how a product like this makes it all the way to production. Common sense suggests it would be a failure, never mind market research.
 
chucker23n1 said:
Especially since the screen is just 4 inches. If it were reasonably large, one might argue it’s a better alternative to the phone.
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Why would you need a large screen for simply controlling Spotify? Even a standard iPhone is 6.1-inches these days, how much bigger do you need to pick a playlist?
 
There's a lot of hate from people who don't own this device. I love it. I use my phone for GPS. The Car Thing complements my older car without a nice built-in music player. I use it as a desktop music controller sometimes.
 
I drive a 2007 Subaru and use my phone for both waze and spotify so I think I must be one of the only people this would work for, as i'm always flipping between the 2 apps. Having a standalone spotify controller would be great for me.
I was patiently waiting for this to come on sale in the UK but I guess thats never gonna happen so now that they are down to half price I took the plunge and ordered one from the US using a shipping forwarder.
 
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