Hi my 68-plate ND infotainment system came with Carplay compatibilty - which works fine as long as the phone is plugged in.
Newer models appear to get wireless connectivity. I tried that in a Mazda 6 courtesy car last time I visited the dealer. The Mazda infotainment is the same, just newer.
I asked the dealer for an upgrade to wireless but they said it isn’t available.
Has anyone managed to upgrade regardless ? Is is a software-only upgrade or does it require new hardware ?
Requires a whole new control unit screen thing which are over a grand!
Or you can get a wireless dongle thing that bridges the gap between phone and usb port for under £100
Thanks ! I had a look on a US forum and it seems that way there too.
No way I’ll spend that much money.
I had put off buying a dongle so far, but that’s the way I’ll try. Amazon seems too expensive for a Carlinkit dongle, will go alibaba and get it from China directly.
Be careful with Chinese wireless CarPlay dongle thingy’s, - there’s a few reports on bmw sites I used to frequent of them bricking the infotainment ecu’s, which needless to say is expensive.
I thought I’d seen something from Mazda that wireless was included on the latest (widescreen) versions of their media stuff, but it turns out it’s not fitted to our 2021 CX5, which is a bummer. I didn’t realise the 6 had it, as it’s basically the same system. Mazda uk penny pinching I guess.
I’m going for this one
after having browsed some US forums. There are cheaper ones but as you say they may be riskier.
Once I’ll get it I’ll post here my results.
It has arrived. In less than two weeks - worth spending 50% of what amazon charges.
In short: Carlinkit 3.0 works pretty well with my 2018 ND2!
I had to remove the bluetooth pairing with the car first.
It is seen by the iPhone carplay settings as a new mazdaxxx car.
Will see how badly battery is affected, but I can still charge the phone on the other USB port if needed.
There is one bug I noticed. When in dashboard mode, using the rotary car control to move from widget to widget, moving right from the map half-screen does not select the 3 last-used apps displayed on the right, but switches to the carplay home screen.
I haven’t found a site to report bugs …
As I was asked - the bug I mentioned had gone away after a few software updates. The kit works really well