Is there a hack available so that Apple Car Play can be added to a 2015 CLS?

Responses are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Go to your local MB dealer and they can install it for $250-$350 depending on their prices.

 

Seriously?!?! That's awesome! Thank you!

 

I would “warn” you however. Apple car play isn’t that good on our CLS, being it’s not touch screen it’s hard to navigate through and you can’t adjust audio tones when in apple car play mode. So the audio isn’t the best.

I felt like I should of passed on mine tbh.

 

My dealer quoted me $172 for the part, and $165 is the labour for the hour it will take to install, I'm from Vancouver. Plan on getting it just for Apple Maps, as they are much better than what comes with the car, and Siri is useful while driving.

 

Do you guys know if this would also work on a 2014 CLS550.? I would love to have apple car play.

 

It should work on a 2015, however, read the comments in post #4 above for clarification.

 

Sorry man. Meant tonwrite 2014.

 

2015 and up

 

I shared this in another thread, but thought I'd share here as well.

 

Is the Apple Map application on Apple Car Play the same as on an iPhone and thus mostly up to date?

 

In these vehicles there are at least 2 different systems
There's Audio20 and COMAND
If you look at everyone's attachments it always say COMAND can be updated but nowhere do you see Audio20
My dealership is crap but is the largest one in Houston so I assumed they would know. They rejected my Audio20 based 2016 CLS 400 (9/15_build date)
Is it possible I'm still looking for a true answer but no one has come out and said "I have an Audio20 based system and got upgraded to Carplay so my answer is NO IT CANT BE!

 

Ok, good point. I guess I don't know the difference between COMAND and Audio 20 and assumed both were available in all cars, difference being whether the navigation option was installed or not...

EDIT: Looked up and my CLS has option 531 "COMAND APS NTG5/NTG5.5" installed. Wonder if this is the pre-req for the Smartphone integration package (option 14U) to work.

 

I think thats the correct one! You should be good. I bought pre-owned and I guess whoever built move went super base so I have audio 20 with Garmin trash nav

 

To be clear, I'm not the OP -- I already had the retroactive Smartphone integration installed by my dealership on my 2016 CLS. So maybe you can't have option 14U installed if you only have Audio20 and NOT option 531...?

 

I wouldn't waste your money. Had is installed in my early build 2016 (no need for the part btw) it was just a software update. Used it once...other than the NAV, the Mercedes command system works better for everything else. Use your apple maps and leave phone in cupholder

 

I'm fully in apple eco-system. I do have some other types of computers as needed but overall I am a huge apple fan. I don't think CarPlay is ready for primetime yet. I had an AVIC-8400 which has wireless CarPlay running the latest hardware and iOS 13 preview it is not bad at all. Siri can be helpful, transcribing text messages is helpful. But not having radar weather maps, and more was very annoying, and Command has that. I think the Audio quality is a bit better with CarPlay vs bluetooth, but CarPlay can crash. I had the entire Apple Car play integration crash which required a reboot of the headunit and my phone while Waze was routing me through NYC back roads which was a PITA.

I get why it's something people want. But it's not a must have feature to me at this point. Maybe iOS 14 or so, but right now not yet. Here are some of my thoughts about it: Wireless CarPlay Review and iOS 13 CarPlay Review

TLDR: My biggest want from CarPlay aside from stability is a quick notification screen, a quick email screen that goes over new messages in a quick manner, and being able to see weather radar not just hear about it.