AppleInsider Staff
Apple fans who prefer a side of German luxury with their smartphones can now choose a new Mercedes-Benz with CarPlay support, as the marque verified plans to bring Apple's infotainment offering to a few of its high- and mid-range vehicles for the 2016 model year.
CarPlay will be available in select CLA, CLS, GLA, GLE, E-Class, and B-Class models produced after December 1. The revelation was made in an internal memo to Mercedes dealers, first noted by the C450 AMG blog.
Buyers of the B-Class, CLA, or GLA models can purchase CarPlay as a standalone $350 option, or as part of a newly enhanced multimedia package. Those in line for most E-Class, CLS, or GLE models may pay up to $4,080 for in-dash packages that include CarPlay along with Mercedes's own COMAND Navigation.
Buyers of the CLS550, CLS63 S, GLE 400, GLE450, GLE63, and GLE63 S will receive it as standard.
Mercedes will not support wireless CarPlay at launch, with consumers required to plug their iPhone into a specially-designated socket in the dashboard. The carmaker also cautions dealers that CarPlay cannot be used simultaneously with COMAND Navigation — customers will be forced to choose between Spotify and COMAND, for instance.
CarPlay comes to Mercedes just days after European competitor Volvo launched support in the US.
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15 Comments
Great. Now I can buy my Mercedes
I wonder why it is only available on select models?
Amazing how poorly a company like Mercedes has intgrated the screens on many of its vehicles, like an afterthought. It literally looks like somebody velcroed a tablet to the dashboard.
has anyone here used CarPlay? I've been waiting to get a car that has it but wondered how well it actually works? I rented cars with Microsoft Sync, they always start playing music every time I plug the phone in (or even turn up the volume when listening to a different audio source or even when it's just on to hear the turn by turn navigation) and normally starts with the exact same song, which is the first song alphabetically in my music library. It drives me nuts.
I expect CarPlay to work better than this.
And what happened to CarPlay support in the C300?