I agree the phone should do everything. The equivalent of an old aux cord (maybe via BT) would be enough.
My Kia does have CarPlay, which is very nice for maps and audio, but that’s all I really use. It still has all kinds of issues. My wife plugs in her phone (cable) and it takes over, then suddenly mine wins it back, she flicks some stuff on her screen to get it back again. Pretty messy in all cars I’ve used.
Plug it in and fix your phone to the supplied mount, open nav.
Your phone is a throttling, OLED dimming, overheating fireball from all the processing it has to do with the summer sun beaming onto it, broiling and killing it in the process.
I don't recommend this.
The car has a terrific iPod interface built into it though. One of the best working ones.
Ford Sync, on the other hand, once it decides that it is trying to connect to bluetooth, will often completely lock up the system for minutes while it tries unsuccessfully to make things work, and then you have to navigate through their UI to get back to a good state, which means that if it decides to glitch while you're driving, you're just out of luck. If you have a little bit of luck your phone will just play the driving directions out of its internal speaker.
I'm pretty sure every single one of these just outsource to Aptiv (fka Delphi Automotive) for electronics.
If both of you are wiring into CarPlay, I do not see why Kia would allow two wired connections to CarPlay.
I generally find CarPlay to be annoying -- it is too limiting a version of what is offered on the phone itself. Notably the last time I tried to use it, it did not have Google Play Music support (now that product is dead, and I suppose by now they probably do support Youtube Music), and it refused to let me use maps in a "north-up" orientation, which is just a non-starter for me.
And there are a lot more apps that work with CarPlay nowadays. I think it just took a few years for all of them to roll out.
I can't speak to CarPlay but Android Auto has changed a ton in that time frame. I think both options are just reaching an actual maturity recently as there is both decent support in a number of vehicles and a notable user base that actually uses the technology. You were certainly an early adopter, code for beta tester.
It is all I use, the native stuff in the car does something.. I am not sure what :)
AC being controlled through touch screen is just nuts. I will never buy a car that does not physical dial for that