[toming]

I partially agree that CarPlay mostly useless, at least the way it is working right now. The fact that text-messages cannot be read, emails are not even available and other apps available are all internet radio stations is a real bummer.

BUT, i find those 300 bucks a good investment though, at least if you are already an apple ecosystem user, and this for mainly 2 reasons:

1) Music streaming and Apple Music: Having all my music in the cloud with iTunes Match and being an Apple Music subscriber, the integration in the car's iDrive display is seamless. I can browse my music, mixes, stations and i am even able to like/dislike songs on the screen. I guess this point counts also for Spotify which is available for CarPlay.

2) Maps and especially frequent/smart destinations: When i get into the car, apple maps already knows where i want to go and offers me direct navigation to that destination. Living and working in a country with high traffic, this comes quite handy as it offers me the quickest way to get to work/home or other destinations in my calendar without having to interact with the car/connected app up-front. It is not as good as the BMW Navigations system, that i still use for longer distances, but as a daily traffic-jam avoidance system, it is quite ok.

And to sum this up, adding an extra 300 to a car that costs >60k and considering that CarPlay will get better over the coming years makes this option a no-brainer for me.