Anyone with Mark Levinson sound system retrofitted Carplay?

[corpjones]

Hi Everyone

I've seen various options available for retrofitted Android Auto / apple Carplay into the IS300H and had a couple of questions, I've got a late 2013 IS300H premier with reversing camera and Mark Levinson sound system.

1) Is there a system which most owners here have gone for which they'd recommend? Some even seem to have bigger screens then the OEM one which would be handy.

2) Does changing the system affect the sound quality at all and do the steering wheel buttons and reversing camera etc still work? I definitely am not confident in doing this so I would probably call the Lexus or Toyota dealer and ask them for a price, appreciate people are saying its quite easy but i'm too nervous to tackle this myself.

Advice would be appreciated as I love my car and this would definitely freshen it up a bit for me 🙂

[SCB]

Yes I have...almost.

I only use Android auto, but I believe the unit I fitted also works with apple carplay but I have no apple kit to test this (which is why I say "almost" above). 

The car is a 2016 IS Premier with the ML system. The sound quality is as good as it ever was. You can easily switch between the Lexus systems and the new AA/Carplay systems.

The only thing I have found not to work is when using Spotify the next track/previous track buttons on the head unit don't work, but the ones on the steering wheel and the ones on the screen (via the joystick) work fine, so I'm happy with this.

I didn't go for the larger screen version as the large screen version I found was for a touch screen, and I can't reach the screen in my IS when I'm driving - you may sit closer to the screen than me as I'm over 6ft tall! Plus the large screen version was more than double the price

It was quite easy to fit following the instructions provided with the kit, plus the vendor is really helpful if you get stuck

I ordered my system from Icebox auto and (from memory) it was around £300, and I'm very happy with it. I use Waze and Spotify mainly

Hope that helps and good luck

[Bobmith]

I installed Carlinklife carplay on my car. This product does exactly what it says it will do. It adds apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality to your older car. However, since you're adding newer tech to your older car, there are some cons. Let's start with the basics. The module itself was simple and easy to install. The wiring harness that comes with it is very easy to install and use. It did take a little moving around to get everything to fit in place but once I was done, everything slid back together and it looked completely OEM. Starting up the car and getting to the unit's separate screen was easy. Just switch to the AUX input on your oem display. Bluetooth pairing with my  Android and Iphone to test both wireless Android Auto and wireless apple CarPlay. Both worked perfectly.. Audio quality was decent and the screen was relatively responsive. In conclusion, this beats trying to buy a whole new head unit and installing it yourself with all the adapters and wiring, but of course there are some downsides. For the price, it's worth it in my opinion because it gave me navigation on my car's display.

 

[corpjones]

Thank you both for your replies, I'll have a look and go for one of these systems, the one I originally looked at the back/forward skip buttons on the steering wheel for the music do not work but think thats not an issue for the above 2 so thats good, if anyone has any youtube links handy on installation then please post them, I'll also do a search when my system arrives as I think i've seen it before on this forum somewhere 🙂