What! No CarPlay!?!

[lb_creative]

Hi I can confirm Lexus dealers have the apple car play upgrade and from my experience it took just over an hour and half to complete this morning. 

16k miles after handover day and now with the final piece of the jigsaw completed, this just makes this fantastic car even better!  

[STE041]

Finally had the apple Car Play upgrade on my ES. Pics are before, after and Google maps with live traffic. Works a lot smoother than the Lexus standard nav, however have yet to have a play.

[HappyLexi]

Just had the upgrade completed, took a LONG time, 2.5 hours, but good news free and the coffee was spot on.  Apparently as long as you get it done with the annual service, which I was due today, the dealer is only charging for stand alone bookings.  Dealer even volunteered the install, before I had the chance to ask.

Seems to work perfectly, just a shame it's cable dependent.

[JON C]

Got my ES done last week, it's been a very long wait but I'm chuffed to bits with it now that it's done

[STE041]

On 11/3/2020 at 11:22 PM, AtomAnt said:

Yes  🙂 

PS: No explanation on failed. Could be my unit had an underlying fault. If you go back few pages, I mentioned the green screen issue which was rectified by a software update, that is my theory. Who knows! 

like @ColinBarber said - but if it goes wrong for him (Technician) , he has the backing of Toyota behind him to rectify the issue. 

Having followed this thread for a while now, I asked when mine went in for the upgrade if they had had many in that had tried their own upgrades which had failed. The answer I got from the Service Manager was that they had one in on the same day mine was in, failed, needed a new unit which due to the self upgrade was not covered by warranty. Cost for the new unit installed and upgraded - £3,500 ex VAT

[AtomAnt]

4 hours ago, STE041 said:

Having followed this thread for a while now, I asked when mine went in for the upgrade if they had had many in that had tried their own upgrades which had failed. The answer I got from the Service Manager was that they had one in on the same day mine was in, failed, needed a new unit which due to the self upgrade was not covered by warranty. Cost for the new unit installed and upgraded - £3,500 ex VAT

I was made aware of circa £3,500 plus VAT potential bill beforehand (and I was mentally prepared for a go no go if it came to that) but since my unit was partially working expect "Lexus connect services"; they may have treated it on different ground. Plus, I was under no circumstances going to ask them to charge me! I'll class it as an excellent customer service and leave it there 🙂 

[Rydo]

Some may have seen my post already on the LC500 CarPlay thread, but it seems that Lexus has now backtracked their earlier Lexus UK Blog posts.

They have reverted back to their generic 'we have no information at this time' statement despite earlier in the year saying that they could confirm that the update would be out for LS and LC by the end of the year.

How Lexus can justify not giving their £100k cars a feature that an Aygo has is unreal. It might go a long way to explain the woeful LC sales and the fact there is ONE LS500 for sale on AutoTrader.

[MR1989]

Hi guys, quick update. Dropped the car off to Lexus woodford last Thursday. They tried multiple times and it failed every time. They've now requested a replacement multimedia system under warranty should arrive by Friday so hopefully next week I should have the vehicle back with AA/AC.

[MR1989]

On 12/17/2020 at 10:32 AM, MR1989 said:

Hi guys, quick update. Dropped the car off to Lexus woodford last Thursday. They tried multiple times and it failed every time. They've now requested a replacement multimedia system under warranty should arrive by Friday so hopefully next week I should have the vehicle back with AA/AC.

All done received the car back today. They waived the £80 fee for having the car for 8 days. Happy to finally have it all up and running.

[kerrso05]

Does anyone know how much it costs to have a 2019 Lexus ES retrofit of apple Carplay and Android Auto by a Dealer. I have searched the internet and asked Lexus but they seem to be unwilling to give approximate cost (maybe because there isn't a standard fee...I don't know). Is it around £100 or much more than that?

Thanks

[Gediredi]

15 minutes ago, kerrso05 said:

Does anyone know how much it costs to have a 2019 Lexus ES retrofit of Apple Carplay and Android Auto by a Dealer. I have searched the internet and asked Lexus but they seem to be unwilling to give approximate cost (maybe because there isn't a standard fee...I don't know). Is it around £100 or much more than that?

Thanks

Hi

I had it done last week at Lexus Stockport, cost was £80.

2019 Lexus ES 300h.

[kerrso05]

12 minutes ago, Gediredi said:

Hi

I had it done last week at Lexus Stockport, cost was £80.

2019 Lexus ES 300h.

Was that with vat? How long did it take to fit? I thought it might it have cost more than that......I must contact Lexus Belfast and book mine in

Thanks for your quick response

[ColinBarber]

6 minutes ago, kerrso05 said:

Was that with vat? How long did it take to fit? I thought it might it have cost more than that......I must contact Lexus Belfast and book mine in

Thanks for your quick response

I was quoted £80 for a UX (including VAT). Took them a good couple of hours, left it with them for a morning.

[kerrso05]

Thanks, it sounds that £80 is the standard price for the fit no matter what car it is......thats good I'll definitely go and get it fitted

[kerrso05]

Well I got apple Carplay fitted to my Lexus ES but what an escapade. I phoned Lexus Belfast (whom I bought the car off and is a branch of the "Lookers" car Dealership) and asked could apple carplay be retrofitted to my 2019 Lexus ES. I was told by K that it could be and the price would be £60 and they would have to have the car for about half a day. Knowing that everybody on here had been quoted £80 I said to her "is there VAT to be added to this?" No, she said that includes VAT. She then went on to say that if there was other updates required this would go to £160. I said " how do I know if there are any updates needed" and she replied "if you go onto you 'My Lexus' account and link it via the car then it will show if any updates are required and you can download them yourself". I thanked her for this information and duly went to "My Lexus" logged on and found out there where two updates required....I downloaded them and updated the car. So I phoned back the next day and told her I downloaded two updates and I would like to book the car in for the retrofit of the apple Carplay. I said to her again, "What is the price?" and she replied "Its £60" and I said doesn't that include VAT and she said yes. It was booked in for Monday. I took it up to Lexus, Belfast and met Karen and she said "you do know that we will have it in for half a day?" I said yes and she said and the cost will be £80????? What I said you told me it was £60. "Oh NO" she said "you must have picked me up wrong" 

I said, "I never, because I asked you a number of times and you said £60". I wanted it done so I said "OK go ahead" She then warned me if the updates haven't been uploaded to the car then it would rise to £160. I said "well I did what you told me to do and downloaded all the updates that was missing and that was on 'My Lexus'"

About an hour later I got an update from them that the engineer was working on my car and about another hour later I got a phone call from them to tell me that there was 4 missing updates and that they couldn't fit apple Carplay without these 4 updates and that the price had now risen to £160. I wasn't pleased because these updates were not on "My Lexus" but on Lexus own database which I didn't have access too. I reluctantly agreed for the work to continue and to the price of £160 (what else could I do, I wanted the carplay and they were holding all the cards). Honestly I was quite annoyed as I had been told £60 and now it was £160. Another 3 hrs went past and eventually they phoned to say the car was ready but if I waited another two hours she would have the car washed. As the car wasn't particularly dirty and they had already had the car for 5 hrs and I couldn't understand why it would take 2 hours to wash a car I declined this offer.

I picked the car up and duly set about connecting apple Carplay (thinking it was a wireless connection....WRONG" I tried and I looked up google to see what I was doing wrong but for the life of me I couldn't connect. So I drove it back to Lexus Belfast and told them that I must be doing something wrong but I can't connect to which she said "oh it's very easy, I'll show you how it works" so she duly got into the car switched the engine on and pressed the menu and pressed a few buttons and asked me was Bluetooth on my Iphone (which it was)...this went on for a couple of minutes and she said "I don't know, it's very easy to use, there must be something wrong with your phone" So she got out of the car and said she was going to speak to someone in the showroom. Another couple of minutes went past and she back and said "your trying to do this wirelessly, it needs to be wired" (Thanks a million I thought, you told me it was easy to do and now you come back and tell me it needs to be wired). She then told me, but it works with google Maps wirelessly and got into the car again and messed about with the menu and pressed all kinds of buttons. By this time I was getting really annoyed and I asked her to go and get someone that knew how to fix this. She said "Oh no, this is very easy to fix, this works on my car and it's great when it works" more minutes went past and finally she gave up and went back in and got a young gentleman who explained that apple Carplay needs to be wired and immediately put a USB/Lightning cable into my phone and car and immediately apple Carplay appeared....like magic. All that faffing around that I had to put up with was so so annoying, from being told £60 to £160 and telling me it was so easy connect without a wire I was just at the end of my thether but at least this guy just got into the car and it was sorted.

I then got a phone call the next day from Lexus Belfast to say that seemingly I was having problems with working the Carplay. I told them "No but that I was really annoyed at the way I had been mislaid and told that it was £60 and that all I needed to was download the updates from the My Lexus site and then the faffing around about how to wirelessly connect the phone" I told them I was very very annoyed that I had been with Lexus for about 10 yrs and to be treated like this was so annoying, so much so that I would think twice about buying another car from Lexus Belfast and look elsewhere. He told me that he was sorry to hear that and would phone me back the next day and pay me back the difference in money (probably £20).......The next day came and went and not a word or phone call out of them. Totally annoyed.

Sorry for the RANT but this type of treatment really does annoy me.

PS they also told me that Lexus is working on another update to bring wireless connection to apple Carplay to which I said I hope it's not another £160 update

Edited July 2, 2021 by steve2006
Remove personalisation at op request

[Herbie]

Hell of a lot of messing about

Wireless connection is ok for short runs but for anything substantial you'll want it wired anyway - no point reaching your destination to find that your phone only has a few percent of its Battery left.

[kerrso05]

Totally agree Herbie but it was the messing and the faffing  around and the pretending to know about something she knew absolutely nothing about that really got to me. Especially when I asked her to go and get someone who knew how to work it. I would have respected her more if she had have said something like “sorry I don't know anything about apple Carplay but I'll get someone who does”....the misplaced arrogance just got to me plus the mistake on the price and then blaming me for getting it wrong 

[AtomAnt]

3 hours ago, kerrso05 said:

PS they also told me that Lexus is working on another update to bring wireless connection to Apple Carplay to which I said I hope it's not another £160 update

Sorry to hear you were treated this way - this is definitely not the Lexus way! Update in 99% of cases require the software to be brought up to a particular version then the car-play update is applied. So the dealers are familiar with the time and effort it can take to get to desired outcome. £60 to £160 jump just does not make sense! 

Re: wireless Carplay - coincidently, I asked my local Lexus centre few days ago and I was told that other than bug fix releases no major enhancements will be offered! To my knowledge wireless CarPlay was/is never offered with retro upgrade, even in US; thats where it all started! 

[kerrso05]

Yes, it appears that that there were 4 upgrades needed to be done and one of them was to do with mapping (I really don't know what to believe). I told them that I did what they told me to do and connect to "My lexu"s account and downloaded all the downloads that was on that account but it appears there are more downloads that I as a consumer didn't have access to that needed to be downloaded (If I had been told that at the start I propbably wouldn't have even gone for the Carplay as I would have known that it was going to be £160.

You "live and learn". I have been with Lexus for about 10 yrs and in that time I have bought 3 Lexus's (and before that numerous Audi's and Volkswagen Golfs) and I have never been treated like this. But after this I will think twice about giving them my money and look somewhere else....especially after them telling me they would pay me back the difference (a measily £20) but I have heard nothing from them and I suspect I will never hear from them again. Sorry again for previous long winded rant but it really did annoy me how I was dealt with. And for those that are seeking apple Carplay...Think Twice as it can be a costly £160, it's not wireless and really it's just not worth it.

[StGeorge]

Hi, I can see many posts on this subject, just wanted to try to clarify the situation with my NX.

Just traded in our lovely 2020 RX (which had all the bells and whistles, including CarPlay and Android Auto) for a June 2018 registered NX - long story, which I won’t bore you with, but, I do miss the RX and the vast improvement that CarPlay and AA gave over the built in SatNav etc.

Anyhow, looking at the current versions of everything on the NX, was hoping someone would confirm or otherwise, whether we have the right basis for getting the CapPlay/AA update, please. I saw reference to CY17, I think it was, somewhere in the depths of a menu, but can I find it now, can I heck?

Thanks

 

ETA : sorry, realised I’ve posted this in an ES forum..don’t seem to be able to delete..

 

[pobrown]

Yes that system should be able to have the CarPlay upgrade carried out.  You have the MM17 / CY17 system. 
Best done by a dealer. They may charge for this. 

[AtomAnt]

Hello @StGeorge your vehicle's unit is exactly the same is mine. i.e. CY17. It supports AA/AC. Refer to page 4 and page 6 of this post, where i posted images of my unit's software version (earlier releases). In a nut shell you would need series of updates before the final AA/AC update is applied. From bitter experience, i'd recommend paying the dealer to update unit so you are covered in case something gets kaput! Software update process was never consistent! 

In summary your version numbers are earlier releases of the software.

Attaching an image from my vehicle ,which I just took  -shows my unit with AA/AC software update release. 

[StGeorge]

Thanks @AtomAnt @pobrown for your answers, that's good to know. I've just emailed my contact at the Lexus Centre to find out what they will charge. I'm also tech savvy, but seeing that some have had issues, I'd rather not risk bricking the thing!

[pobrown]

I upgraded my own unit when the software was first released and it worked fine. Then I read a number of stories of bricked units and I realised how lucky I’d been. 

[kerrso05]

If I was you I wouldn’t bother. As you can read from my previous posts I paid Lexus Belfast £160 for the upgrade ( despite being told that it would be much less than that and when I complained they said they would give me £20 compensation and I am still waiting for that over 6 months ago). Plus sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I wasted £160. You would get into the car connect it to the usb and sometimes it would connect and sometimes it doesn’t and your driving down the road with the music coming from the phone but not the speakers. So I end up pulling the lead in and out of the usb socket….it’s totally dangerous. Most times I just don’t bother using it because if it doesn’t connect first time before I drive off I just don’t use it….total waste of £160. I am absolutely furious. Don't get me wrong I love my Lexus ES (it’s probably the best car I have ever owned) but this upgrade is just a joke. From what I have read the new Lexus NX comes with wireless apple CarPlay and Android Auto….this is the way to go. 
Personally I wouldn’t bother getting the upgrade and I definitely wouldn’t DIY on it…..you’ll probably brick it.