2012 Mazda2 Recommended wireless CarPlay head units?

[PaulOTron]

I've done quite a bit of browsing on this subject... and it seems the more I read, the more confused I become.

Just bought a gorgeous 2012 Mazda 2 for my 20-year-old daughter. She loves the car but she asked me to promise to install a Carplay unit.

The previous owner installed a single din radio and added an empty pocket below. In other words, there's an existing aftermarket face which would allow us to install a standard double-din size from many manufacturers.

OR... We could get one which comes with its own"face" shaped for the Mazda 2, which would allow for a much larger 9" screen. That seems great, but as far as I can tell, none of those are name brands and I'm reading that we should be careful about buying a no-name head unit.

I know for sure I want my daughter to connect wirelessly from her iPhone to Carplay without interaction. (In my 2014 Corolla, if her phone connects automatically within seconds after I start the car. That's what she's used to.) It must also view a backup camera and would prefer that it can also review footage from a dash cam but that's not critical.

I'll trust name brands, but I may also trust testimonials from y'all. Suggestions?

 

[theblooms]

Do NOT get one of those "pure Android" pieces of junk. Trust me on this. I loved the idea of them so much, I tried 3 different ones. Each was worse than the last.

Stick with a name brand you've heard of: Alpine, JVC, Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony.

Personally I have Kenwood Excelons with Android Auto/CarPlay in all of my cars, and they're fantastic. And, if you couple it with the iDataLink Maestro RR, you retain your steering wheel controls, AND you get full gauges, right on the face of the radio!

 

[PaulOTron]

I got a Pioneer DMH-1500EX and a backup camera which my daughter and I are happy with. It installed easily, but that's mostly because there had already been an aftermarket radio in place so the wiring was already done.

 

[Serjo]

Hey! Litterally my first post here. But I have installed one of the no-name brand headunits in my 2008 DE.
It has now worked without problems for a few months and I don't see why it being no-named would be a problem.
I got it on Aliexpress, I have always had good experience shopping there, but these headunits can be found on many other sites which you may trust more.
Just be careful and sort by rating. Watch out for the specs and try to get the best one you can afford. The listing for mine had many versions ranging from around 70€ up to around 200€, many of the cheap ones don't have android auto and are borderline unusable. Mine was under 100€ and while using android auto it's perefectly fine because all the hard work is done by my phone, with my phone disconnected it's pretty slow, if i was to change it I'd definitely spend a little more and get a more powerful unit.

Name brands aren't necessarily bettere and these no-name brands can be a good cheap alternative with similar specs.
The price for the brand is often a big part of the total!

Hope this helped, this is my personal experience and opinion, I'm certainly not sharing absolute truths. I will attach some photos later so you can see the fitment and general look of the headunit.