Which aftermarket head unit for CX-5

[tibimakai]

I have a Kenwood nav and I have the steering wheel controls, but I don't have voice or text, at least not with a Samsung phone.

 

[danieljw]

Bumping this up...I'm with someone else who said I'm going to love this vehicle as soon as I get the darn infotainment crap fixed. I need nav for sure. Any other input on aftermarket units? Are the presets like the lights etc. really the ONLY thing that is lost going this direction? I like the steering wheel controls and am afraid this will be lost. Also what's the impact on the backup camera? I plan to have whatever I choose professionally installed so I at least get some kind of warranty on the work.

Best advice I can give at the moment is to WAIT until after CES 2015 in early January to see what is coming in the next year. There is a medium-high chance that we will see many more CarPlay/AndroidAuto-compatible headunits.

The wiper/lighting/locking presets are not lost. Their behavior just stays the way you set them before you remove the factory headunit. You can change them later at a dealer or by temporarily re-installing the factory unit.

Steering wheel controls are no problem. In fact, by going aftermarket you actually get many more options for steering controls. You can do custom programming to enable double-taps or long presses which would give you multiple functions per button. Much more flexibility.

Members of this forum have determined how to make the camera work with an aftermarket unit. If you do not feel comfortable doing it yourself, there are enough instructions here to hand to a qualified person, who should be able to handle it.