How to add Wireless CarPlay and Android Auto to your old car

Whether you’re an Android or an iPhone user, if you’ve been in a modern car lately, chances are you’ve had a chance to experience the joy that is smartphone projection. On the Apple side, it’s called CarPlay. For the Google faithful, it’s called Android Auto. Either one gives you access to most of the power of your smartphone, and all the music and podcasts upon it, in a (mostly) distraction-free way while driving.

Most new cars support both wirelessly, meaning you don’t even have to dig your phone out of your purse or pocket to access it through your car’s touchscreen. But what if your older car still requires you to plug your phone in? Or, worse yet, what if your car doesn’t even have a touchscreen?

Don’t worry: We have some solutions for you. Some are as easy as plugging an adapter into your car’s USB port, while others require opening up your dashboard and doing a little wiring. Buckle up, here’s how to upgrade.

If your car supports wired CarPlay and Android Auto

If you have a relatively modern car, but one that’s not quite new enough to support the latest wireless versions of these smartphone projection systems, you’re in luck: Adding wireless connectivity is a cinch.

To upgrade your car to connect to your phone sans wires, all you need is a small USB adapter, which we in the tech industry would call a “dongle.” Remembering that term is not necessary, and it’s not really relevant to Android Auto or CarPlay, but still, it’s a fun word to break out at parties.

There are dozens and dozens of these on the market, and they all do exactly the same thing: You plug them into your car’s USB port, and then you connect your phone wirelessly to the adapter. The adapter then tricks your car into thinking it is your phone, enabling CarPlay or Android Auto.

A popular one is the Ottocast Mini, but there are plenty of others, typically available for $60 or less. Just make sure you get one that has the right type of USB port. For most cars, that’ll be the square, USB-A connector. But some more modern cars will use the smaller, vaguely oval USB-C connector. Just plug it in, connect your phone to the adapter wirelessly, and you’re good to go. Easy. (The Ottocast we’re linking to here includes an adapter in the box, so you’re covered either way.)

If your car supports Bluetooth audio or has a line-in jack

Next up in terms of complexity is adding a CarPlay and Android Auto to a car that’s new enough to have Bluetooth — or at least an audio input — but that doesn’t have support for Android Auto and CarPlay. The easiest way to do this is add a new touchscreen to your car.

Again, there are dozens of options out there, but after considering quite a few, I decided to go with the T3 Pro from a company called CarPodGo. It’s available for under $250, and its ultra-widescreen shape means it sits nicely on top of dashboards without being too jarring.

Installation here isn’t quite as easy as the wireless dongle above, but it’s not much more difficult. The biggest challenge is figuring out where you’re going to position the display. It comes with a suction cup mount that can hang it from the windscreen, and also a pad that lets you stick it directly to the dashboard.

I decided to install this on my 1998 Subaru Impreza, which came from an era predating smartphones, never mind Apple CarPlay. You can get as clever as you like for placement: All you’ll need to do is run a USB-C cable to the left side of the display. The kit includes a 12-volt to USB adapter and all the cables you’ll need.

If your car has Bluetooth audio already, that’s all you need to do. If not, you’ll also need to install a Bluetooth adapter, which is also included in the Pro kit This little adapter just plugs into a USB-A port and has a 3.5mm output cable that you run to the line-in on your stereo.

To use the system, your phone needs to be Bluetooth paired both to the new display and to either the new adapter or to your car’s stereo directly.

Since I’d already added Bluetooth to my old Subaru, all I needed to do was pair it to the display. The initial setup literally took me less than 5 minutes, though I’ll surely go back and spend some more time tidying up the wires. The display powers up quickly and even includes a rear-view camera that you can install, if you feel like running another wire to the back of your car.

Replacing your car’s stereo

If you can’t go with the external display route, or you just don’t want another thing hanging on your dashboard, your final option is the most complicated of the lot: replacing your car’s stereo head unit entirely.

Whether or not you can do this depends on the type of stereo you have in your car. Many cars from the mid-1980s through to the early 2000s use a standard-size head unit referred to as either a single-DIN or double-DIN. DIN stands for the Deutsches Institut für Normung, a term that again isn’t necessary to remember, but might win a trivia contest for you some day. DIN is the group that created the standard, which states the head unit must be either 180 mm wide by 50 mm high, or 100 mm high for a double-DIN.

If you have a single- or double-DIN head unit, replacing it is a relatively straightforward affair, and there are numerous options available for you.

My 1991 Toyota has a double-DIN slot, and I chose the Blaupunkt Orlando 750 unit that costs only about $150 online. There are cheaper options and certainly plenty of more expensive ones, too, so pick one that fits your budget and your car.

The tricky part, though, is the installation. This is sadly not a plug-and-play kind of thing. You’ll need to take apart at least a portion of your car’s dashboard and then splice a significant number of wires for everything to operate correctly, before putting it all back together again.

It’s not a project for beginners, and before you take the plunge, you should do your research and make sure you want to commit to the effort (as well as taking all the necessary precautions for electrical safety). But if you’re reasonably handy with a wire stripper and take your time, it’s not impossible to do. Or, if you’re lucky, you might be able to buy an adapter online that handles the wiring portion without you needing to crimp a single connection.

I went the DIY route and, despite that, the install in my Toyota took me less than two hours. In the end, I had an in-dash unit that definitely looked a bit anachronistic in my 35-year-old car (as seen at the top of this story), but otherwise worked just like something far more modern.

Don’t feel so brave? Call your local car stereo shop and see what they’d charge. Installation may be as little as a few hundred dollars, depending on your car. Plus, if you’ve been thinking about adding a subwoofer or more powerful speakers, now’s the perfect time.

Welcome to the retro future

Whether you’re going the dongle route or breaking out your soldering iron, chances are there’s a way to add the beauty of CarPlay or Android Auto to your aging car. Keeping it from burning oil and passing inspection, well, that’s on you.

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