Head unit upgrade for 2021 model year?

[aalmos]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a professional advice. I have a 2018 European LC 500. As you probably know, one major problem with that is that the CarPlay retrofit for pre-2020 LC500s have never been released in Europe and probably never will.

I'm thinking about getting a 2021 LC500 head unit and installing it to my 2018 model in the hope of getting factory CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Will this work?

[lloydweb]

Hi Adam, I have absolutely no idea! Have you spoken to your dealer? I have a feeling that this would throw up a lot of incompatibiities and conflicts, software- AND hardware-related probably, but it's really beyond my competence. Clearly it would invalidate any warranty you've got also. Other members may be able to make more informed comment though.........

[aalmos]

Thanks! The dealership has no idea. They kind of scammed me when they sold me the car, stating that it had CarPlay. We're now trying to find a solution for retrofitting somehow.

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, aalmos said:

I'm looking for a professional advice. I have a 2018 European LC 500. As you probably know, one major problem with that is that the CarPlay retrofit for pre-2020 LC500s have never been released in Europe and probably never will.

Have a look at this topic I started recently. This is the unit I bought and it claims to be compatable with the LC 2014-2020.

 

 

[aalmos]

FYI my dealership installed this unit for me first and I suggest sending it back ASAP because it is terrible. Touchpad doesn't work (no cursor, you only have 2 directional control) and you have to restart the factory navigation every time you wanna switch back to the factory infotainment. I'm also looking at aftermarket units. The best ones I found were from Lsailt and GROM.

[Herbie]

Maybe you just had a faulty unit? Mine works just fine.

[Tel]

Adam

Have you looked on the USA Club Lexus Forum as I am sure they will have solutions

Tel

[Wile e coyote]

I’m looking into the grom unit

https://gromaudio.com/store/vline/all/lexus-lc-500-500h-2020-vline-carplay-android-auto-infotainment-system-navigation-upgrade.html

friend of mine who owns srd tuning is a supplier and is looking into it for me 

https://www.srdtuning.com

 

[Herbie]

On 5/19/2021 at 10:51 PM, Herbie said:

Maybe you just had a faulty unit? Mine works just fine.

I must admit that after initially thinking that the Carlinkit Decoder I got was working well, it soon went to pot and was, in fact, absolute rubbish. So bad that I ripped it out in disgust and spent £510 on a Grom Vline 2, which, up to now, has been brilliant.

Have a look at the recent posting I made, below.

Looking at Darren's post above it looks like I'm wrong, but I thought the sole distributor for the UK was Carputer Shop in Ashby-de-la-Zouch https://gromaudio.co.uk/ That's where I got mine from and found them to be great to deal with.