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Although this article is kind of stupid (viz. the irrelevant net neutrality references), it does touch on two good pieces of advice. 1. Probably don’t buy BMW

by wyager 9y ago

Although this article is kind of stupid (viz. the irrelevant net neutrality references), it does touch on two good pieces of advice. 1. Probably don’t buy BMW unless you really have your heart set on a particular model 2. Almost every car company attempt at building infotainment systems are abominations unto God. If at all possible, buy a car without any computer more powerful than the ECU and just use your phone or a tablet or an aftermarket “””smart””” interface.

Klathmon 9y ago
That's what annoys me. There has never been a car infotainment system that I liked. They are all slow, expensive, ugly, never get updated, barely work in many cases, and are just a pain to use. I got an Audi with Android auto a year or 2 ago, and it's been such a treat I never want to go back. Like this is now a required feature to cars for me. And the biggest reason is because it doesn't look like trash and is actually quick and reactive.
- MBCook 9y ago
  It was a big decision in me buying my last car. I really wanted something with CarPlay because I absolutely DID NOT want to be stuck with the OEM garbage for the next 10 years. Now that I’ve given up on even listening to NPR on my radio, I never leave CarPlay. Works fantastically. And it’s MILES better than the terrible OEM system (which reviews said was dramatically better than the previous version. Shudder.)
rayiner 9y ago
I don’t get the first point. If you can afford a BMW, $80 a year is nothing. Why do I care if it costs $80 a year instead of say $700 up front?
- 013a 9y ago
  Pay $700 upfront and that value translates into the used market when you sell the car. Subscription fee, and that money goes straight to BMW Corporate.
  - sokoloff 9y ago
    Invest the $620 difference and you cover the $80 annual payments for quite some time. (Per cFIREsim, 50% of the time, it covers 12 years of payments.)
- wyager 9y ago
  BMWs just aren’t very good cars. Do research on reliability metrics across brands. If you want a car in the BMW range probably just get a Lexus or a Mercedes.
haikuginger 9y ago
> If at all possible, buy a car without any computer more powerful than the ECU and just use your phone or a tablet or an aftermarket “””smart””” interface. That's rather the point of CarPlay. It takes the "smarts" out of the car and essentially lets your phone use the car - its touchscreen, its speakers, even its GPS receiver - as a massive peripheral device. The truly offensive aspect of this is that the CarPlay standard is effectively fixed. There is no further maintenance or code required. BMW doesn't need to write a software update for the next version of iOS because CarPlay doesn't care about anything at that layer. All it cares about are audio and video streams to be presented and inputs to be received.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

by wyager 9y ago

Klathmon 9y ago

That's what annoys me. There has never been a car infotainment system that I liked. They are all slow, expensive, ugly, never get updated, barely work in many cases, and are just a pain to use. I got an Audi with Android auto a year or 2 ago, and it's been such a treat I never want to go back. Like this is now a required feature to cars for me. And the biggest reason is because it doesn't look like trash and is actually quick and reactive.

MBCook 9y ago
It was a big decision in me buying my last car. I really wanted something with CarPlay because I absolutely DID NOT want to be stuck with the OEM garbage for the next 10 years. Now that I’ve given up on even listening to NPR on my radio, I never leave CarPlay. Works fantastically. And it’s MILES better than the terrible OEM system (which reviews said was dramatically better than the previous version. Shudder.)

rayiner 9y ago

I don’t get the first point. If you can afford a BMW, $80 a year is nothing. Why do I care if it costs $80 a year instead of say $700 up front?

013a 9y ago
Pay $700 upfront and that value translates into the used market when you sell the car. Subscription fee, and that money goes straight to BMW Corporate.
- sokoloff 9y ago
  Invest the $620 difference and you cover the $80 annual payments for quite some time. (Per cFIREsim, 50% of the time, it covers 12 years of payments.)
wyager 9y ago
BMWs just aren’t very good cars. Do research on reliability metrics across brands. If you want a car in the BMW range probably just get a Lexus or a Mercedes.

haikuginger 9y ago

> If at all possible, buy a car without any computer more powerful than the ECU and just use your phone or a tablet or an aftermarket “””smart””” interface. That's rather the point of CarPlay. It takes the "smarts" out of the car and essentially lets your phone use the car - its touchscreen, its speakers, even its GPS receiver - as a massive peripheral device. The truly offensive aspect of this is that the CarPlay standard is effectively fixed. There is no further maintenance or code required. BMW doesn't need to write a software update for the next version of iOS because CarPlay doesn't care about anything at that layer. All it cares about are audio and video streams to be presented and inputs to be received.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]