Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire upgrading the wifes car

wife wanted to get a new car and I've been dragging my feet for a few reasons, mainly the $55K price tag

Dealership down the road had a 2018 model with 60K miles for less than half that, but it didn't have all the bells and whistles. She ultimately decided she wanted it mainly because it was the most pragmatic decision but she asked me to do what I could to get the bells and whistles.

We've had it almost 2 weeks now and since then I've put in a remote starter that connects with her existing key fob, added wireless carplay that integrates with the existing system, added a wireless phone charger, a cargo cover and a roof rack.

All in I'm about 3 hours of labor and less than $500. She must be happy with me because she made me buffalo chicken dip last night and I didn't even have to ask. Looks like we both made out - she has the car she wants and I didn't have to empty the bank account to get it.

I like that aftermarket integrated Carplay so much I'm going to put it on my daily driver now. Putting a remote starter however is too pricey for me. Guess no pre-heated car for me in the winter.

I upgraded the kids cars and my truck to an Apple Carplay/Android unit. If you are interested in an affordable high quality model, I would recommend the ATOTO F7 WE for about $170.
Its really nice and wasn't overly difficult to keep the steering wheel controls

I'm impressed - don't even know what some of that stuff is, let alone possess the wits needed to install. Maybe you know this:

Wife has a 2020 Kia with minimal music play equipment (radio and mediocre sound). Am thinking about replacing the speakers with better quality/capability. Is there a relatively simple way to supplement the basic system to be able to play CDs or by recording CDs to some storage tool have that then play through the system? There seems to be a USB input space.

It doesn’t take much to impress you

Put a few songs on a usb, plug it in and see if it will play. If not she may be able to plug her phone into it and play music from Spotify or Pandora.

Wow, do I live under a rock or what? I have no clue what most of this stuff is and wouldn't know it if I saw it.

did I miss where it was mentioned what brand of car and model?

car play (Apple) and Android Auto is a way to "mirror" what is on your phone onto the screen in your dash. Its really popular for navigation, you can use Waze or Google Maps, you can also stream music from your phone or listen to podcasts , listen to messages, or use Siri or Google Assistant. It integrates your car system with the phone and lets you use steering wheel controls or voice commands to operate it.

most of what I did was just plug and play, taking the dash off and connecting to the existing wiring harness. There is a pretty big aftermarket out there integrating the 2014-2020 models cars with kits.

From the Kia website

Almost every model in the Kia lineup is equipped with Apple CarPlay® and Android Auto™ as a standard offering! While this capability is now common in vehicles from other manufacturers as well, Kia CarPlay and Android Auto™ capabilities can actually be found in vehicles dating back to 2014. Listed below are the Kia models with CarPlay and Android Auto™.

Kia Soul (2014-Present)
Kia K5 (2021-Present)
Kia Sedona (2015-Present)
Kia Seltos (2021-Present)
Kia Sorento (2017-Present)
Kia Sportage (2017-Present)
Kia Cadenza (2017-Present)
Kia Forte (2017-Present)
Kia Niro (2017-Present)
Kia Niro PHEV (2018-Present)
Kia Stinger (2018-Present)
Kia Telluride (2020-Present)

How to Connect Apple CarPlay® to Kia Models

You may also be wondering how to connect Apple CarPlay® to Kia models or how to set up Android Auto™. It’s actually quite simple. Keep in mind that directions may vary slightly depending on your particular model.

How to Connect Kia CarPlay:

Press the SETUP button
Press PHONE PROJECTION SETTINGS
Activate Apple CarPlay®
Insert the Apple Lightning Cable into the car’s USB port and your iPhone
Accept the prompt on your iPhone so that the device can connect to Apple CarPlay®

How to Connect Android Auto™:

Download the Android Auto App and ensure that your phone has undergone the most recent updates
Press the SETUP button
Press PHONE PROJECTION SETTINGS
Activate Android Auto
Connect your phone to the USB port

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CCCC, if your wife has a smart phone she shouldn't need a CD (unless she really wants to) you can play music from your phone or stream it.

I'm sure there is a youtube video on how to connect to your specific car on Youtube.

Once you get comfortable using CarPlay or Android Auto, I bet you won't want to go without it.

I wouldn't be much help on the speakers, but whenever I am shopping for that I start at the Crutchfield website. I know Kicker is a popular aftermarket speaker brand

2018 what?

You should of bought a Detroit made car

Chicken Dip? That's all you got outa the deal?

I woulda held out for a LOT more.

like maybe some salsa too?

Thanks for the helpful comments, and especially KFWA and smarquez (I will try the stick approach). Maybe I was not sufficiently precise in my request. She does connect her phone and play available material from some sources mentioned.

The primary need is gaining the ability to be very selective - to listen to specific recordings from our library of CDs, vinyl, other sources, most of which I can load onto some store/play item in digital format. But, we do not know the proper storage device or what might be required in the car system.

Although alwaysoutdoors is just running his mouth instead of trying to be helpful, I seem to be able to recognize resourceful people and their good work, and appreciate it.

KFWA - good luck with it - I hope your wife enjoys it.

The 2 best things I ever did to my older daily driver was add remote start, and a large screen stereo that has Apple Carplay.

Crutchfield has reasonable systems that has all the plastic parts to make it an easy install.

https://www.crutchfield.com/car/carselector.aspx?vb=Y&g=462350&sl=Y&lp=%2fg_462350%2fApple-CarPlay-Compatible-Receivers.html%3ftp%3d72357&

I also bought some cheap - like $39 reverse cameras which connected to the head units I bought them. Its not that hard to hook up - tap into the reverse light positive with two wires - one for power and another for signal. Power goes to the rear camera, signal is the wire you run thru the trunk along with an rca video connector, under the kick panels and thru the dash to the head unit - connect it to the usually pink or violet wire labeled backup camera and plug the rca in the back of the head unit.

I know what you are saying - maybe the easiest solution is still to stick with the phone, but create a playlist for every group of songs you want, You can create as many playlists as you want and then select them

or given the low price of usb sticks that can hold hundreds of songs , just have a collection of USB sticks that contain the songs you want and swap them out like you would a CD.

The usb port that is on your car will either allow you to connect a phone or play music (or video) from it with a usb memory stick (or other usb device)

if you want to know how to get the songs you want , its very easy to find songs on youtube and convert them to mp3 format or just as easy to rip them from a CD. I can walk you thru that if you want. With one nights effort you could have a library of songs on a few usbs for maybe $20

Are you kidding?

Detroit, my ass.

In 2022, the Twin Cities saw close to 3,330 reported thefts of Kias and Hyundais, which represents an 836% increase in Minneapolis and a 611% increase in St. Paul over the previous year.Mar 7, 2023
https://www.cbsnews.com › news
Minnesota AG launches investigation into Kia, Hyundai after soaring increase in car thefts..... >>>>>>should have bought a Subaru you would have only spent around 32,000 and everything you're already putting on there..just sayin...

The rules are simple USB no larger than 32gig. Format the stick FAT32, depending on the radio it might read AAC and FLAC files, all will read MP3, WAV and WMA files. Dig into the specs of your radio and rip music in the appropriate format. MP3 is easy.

The Kia and Hyundai factories have launched a clandestine program whereby they sell new cars, steal them from the new owners, then change the VINs and sell them over again repeatedly. The Minnesota authorities are on top of all this crime BS.

Just going through this now with a new car. Never had one with an Infotainment system (last car was a 2004) so have quickly learned how to convert vinyl albums to disk* and rip CDs to files to make use of it.

IMO the USB flash drives are really the way to go in being selective and giving you so many ways to add or delete, mix and match and organize the songs any way you want. I'm going with smaller flash drives, like 16 GB, just so there won't be such a huge list of songs or albums to scroll through on the screen. Even 8 GB drives (tiny by today's standards) can hold a dozen or more albums/CD's worth.

As simple files they can be labeled in a bunch of different ways to organize them - Artist and Album name if you want to do it alphabetically, or just adding a number prefix to order them on the screen. If you want to change the order just change the numbers or names.



*Fwiw, I downloaded some free audio management software called Audacity and have transferred a couple of vinyl albums to disk so far. Already had a USB port equipped turntable so that was easy but if not they're fairly inexpensive. The software has more features than I need but it's mature and well supported. Took some good cuss words to get everything set up initially since I don't know WASAPI format from wasabi mustard, but they have a very good online manual and a forum that's easy to search. Had my first album digitized and organized in a couple of hours and subsequent ones are a piece of cake.