[Warning: Long Thread]

My 2012 Suburban LTZ has an excellent Bose stereo, with touchscreen navigation, XM radio, integration with the steering wheel, and it is connected to the two other display screens. Yes, everyone can watch a DVD in the front seat, the back seats, and the third seats on their own screens. This car’s got a lot of screens!

However, it does not have ApplePlay. It has Bluetooth on the steering wheel, but it is only for making/receiving calls, not music or maps. I didn’t want to replace the stereo, but I would like to be able to play Apple Music through it, or at least to be able to say “Hey, Siri, show me how to get to the nearest Burger King”, and auto navigation starts.

I considered buying another Pioneer CarPlay stereo but that’s like $600. I also thought about just canceling Apple Music, which costs $11 a month, and just getting an XM Radio plan that has every station you can think of, which is $10/month.

But even though XM Radio is crystal clear, you cannot pause it, and you can’t choose what it plays. With Apple Music I can just say “Hey, Siri, play Led Zeppelin”, and it’s on.

I have a phone charger that can transmit your iPhone audio to the FM radio, and it works pretty good. But you have to plug it in, and it’s bulky, and it does not do quick charge. Also, you have to unplug the charger every time you get out, or it’ll run your battery down. Eventually.

Inside the center console, there is a USB port for playing music on a USB Zip drive. So I bought this little Bluetooth FM transmitter dongle on Amazon for about $9. I stuck the dongle in that USB port, and it didn’t come on. Oh, that’s right; that USB port probably only works when the radio is on. Turn the key switch on, and the radio comes on, and the USB port/dongle comes on.

I set the frequency on the dongle to an empty channel on the radio, and turned on Bluetooth on my iPhone.

Instantly works beautifully. Comes on when the car comes on and goes off when the car goes off. Automatically reconnects to Bluetooth on my iPhone, when the key is on.



Hope this helps.

 

I have 2012 chevy suburban LT with onstar, steering controls, rear seat entertainment and bose system. IT ALSO HAS SEPARATE CD AND DVD slots on the head unit. I have looked at many head units on amazon and crutchfield. They all say they support all of my options. But when it gets to the existing radio that has the cd and dvd slots separate on the head unit they say their units wont work. I am kind of stumped as I want to keep dvd playing ability as I think it also plays cd's (and gain car play and nav) . Any help? have found reasonable knock off carplays with dvd on amazon and even put one in my silverado that works great. It just doesnt have the disc player

 

This is one that looks ok to me but it says it wont work. However there is a guy in the comments says it works great???