You Won't Believe How Easy it is to Upgrade your 2018 Camry and Sienna for Apple CarPlay
In a move to strengthen its image and branding with its multimedia entertainment features and benefits, Toyota is offering a software update to retrofit 2018 Camry and 2018 Sienna vehicles with the popular program Apple CarPlay. They will also be updating systems with Amazon Alexa compatibility as well. On a side note, Android Auto will not be included in this update, for all the Google users reading this.
Eligible Camry and Sienna owners will be notified by email starting May 15th and running through the Summer. They will be instructed to contact their local Toyota service departments to schedule their software update appointments.
Based on initial testing, installation time will run anywhere from 15 minutes to one hour. Average installation time has averaged 30 minutes so far. The length of time you will actually be waiting at your dealership for full installation depends on each individual dealership’s traditional wait times.
Toyota is recommending that dealerships perform this installation at no charge to customers, in order to improve its image as a leader in multimedia technology. However, they do caution this is determined by each dealership, and that there may be a small installation service fee charged.
I bought my 2018 Toyota Camry XLE a year ago, and I was disappointed to learn Toyota was adding Apple CarPlay for the 2019 models the following year (See 2019 Toyota RAV4 Trim Levels Explained). I even briefly considered trading mine in for the 2019 to take advantage of CarPlay. I couldn’t be more thrilled with this news that I will be rewarded for my loyalty instead of punished. I hope many others can take advantage of this exciting upgrade!
What do you think of this news? Will you be scheduling your Apple CarPlay upgrade this Summer too?
In addition to writing for Torque News, I also run a popular Toyota review and how-to YouTube channel called “Toyotajeff in Raleigh.” I encourage everyone to check it out and subscribe.
Also see: The Man Behind the One Million Mile Tacoma.
You can reach Jeff Teague on Twitter at @toyotajeff1 and tweet him tips for new stories.