Did I find my next new car?

In January, I wrote that I've delayed my decision to buy a new car. Last weekend I had some car trouble where my car wouldn't start and had to deal with it. My son asked me if I was going to get a new car and I said no; I'd just get it repaired. However, I decided to look at Apple's CarPlay site and pursued the list of cars that support it. None of the typical American cars like Ford or Chevy interested me and I am not getting a Ferrari! I saw that the 2017 Subaru Impreza will support it. At the auto show, I saw the Impreza and it was a decent looking car. It didn't have CarPlay and wasn't a plugin hybrid. Now that it will have CarPlay, I've decided to take another look. Plugin hybrids are kind of the neglected step child of car manufacturers; it's either hybrid or electric which kind of concerns me in terms of reliability and support. I'm going to forego the plugin hybrid for now and that should open up my search.

I found a few sites offering first looks as well as Subaru's own "sneak peak". It appears that the loaded package will have some interesting tech besides CarPlay. EyeSight® is a system that helps prevent collisions, notifies the driver if he (or she) drifts, as well as can work with the cruise control. Also, it has blind spot detection, cross traffic backup alerts, and high beam assist. In addition, it finally has a power adjustable driver's seat. So it would appear that the car (on the surface) has many of the features that I'd want in my next car.

On top of all the features, if the pricing remains similar to the 2016, the car would actually be affordable. EPA estimates for the 2016 are about 50% higher than my current vehicle which would be immediately noticeable as I am now driving a lot more for my commute. Subaru says that the car will be available in the later half of this year. Now I just wait so that I can give the car a test drive and see if it is the vehicle for me.

I'm crossing my fingers!

Comments

July 2nd, 2016
Richard

Sounds good.

My new Toyota Tacoma has their “Entune” system which sucks but it does allow me to do various iPhone things through it, albeit awkwardly. At some point when I become frustrated enough I might turn off pieces of it and just use the iPhone on its own.

We’re looking at a new car for my wife and pretty much settled on the Outback. I wonder if the higher end models of it will support CarPlay?

I saw, but did not test drive the Impreza. Looks like a nice small car.

July 2nd, 2016
Scott Gruby

Right now Apple only lists the Impreza as having CarPlay. According to the Subaru press release, the 2017 Touring model of the Outback doesn’t have CarPlay.

The models having CarPlay is just baffling. You have the a few companies (Ford, Chevy, and VW) that are putting it in (or making it an option) across the line. Everyone else is doing it piecemeal. Toyota, however, has pretty much shunned CarPlay and Android Auto and is going with something called SmartDevice Link.

While I realize that car manufacturers have to plan years in advance, I’d hope that they realized years ago that their infotainment systems are pretty subpar and whatever special sauce they put in them isn’t attractive to consumers.

Is CarPlay really that important? I think it is as I don’t really want a poor experience and when it comes to navigation, I want to use a system that is familiar to me and I don’t have to pay to upgrade the maps every few years.