Fantastic! Mine arrived as well and got it installed. I mainly wanted the ability to run Android Auto or Car Play and probably could have gone with the Lite version but with the discount I said crew it and got the full version.

Install was quite simple. It does take some time to get the cables right behind the radio so it goes in evenly. I ended up running the cable through a tiny opening into the space below the glove box. The kick board comes out easily. From there I popped out the tab on the bottom left side and fed the cables into the glove box. From there I used velcro to secure the unit to the top of the glove box.

The USB C cable I'm using is thin enough to fit into the space under the center vents. I have it running over the steering wheel column to the left vent where my phone is on a magnet mount. Not sure about this yet and might reroute it .

Functionality wise I like it. It took me a bit to figure out a few things, like going back to AUX and adjusting audio as the sound was super flat with no bass. Android Auto started out fine but the other day it's been giving me some trouble. ie. when in Waze getting directions I'll have music playing via Spotify. Every time Waze said something the music would completely stop playing. Before it would just fade out and back in. I was using an early release of AA via a tab in the app, so hoping this will be fixed soon with the full update.

 

I must say I'm extremely pleased with the product thus far. If you only want Apple Carplay then you only need to purchase the VLINE LITE like I did (No Dongle Required). Additionally I recommend purchasing a GLI for the mic plug.

This week I plan on installing this adapter to make it a clean OEM setup.

 

how’d you get back into AuX to adjust the bass?

 

nevermind - I added the shortcut. Music is good to go now!

 

Interesting. Is it wireless? how did you make it work without the dongle? Also, what's the mic plug for? Thanks!

 

Have you run into any bugs/issuies with VLINE LITE?

Why not get beat sonic carplay/android auto? It loads android auto/carplay the second you plug in the phone, no need to click a few buttons and wait time for it to load.

 

1) I'm an impatient man child that didn't want to wait till after christmas for it to arrive 2) VLINE LITE was alot cheaper (saved around $250 by siwtching to VLINE LITE.

I don't need to click any buttons - I start the car and just plug my phone then CarPlay starts automatically. I have ZERO issues so far; Audio - Great, CarPlay - Auto Start; cant ask for much more.

 

Well....my fun was short lived. I was installing some new speakers and as always disconnected the negative battery terminal. After all work was done I connected everything and the unit seems to have bricked itself. I tried doing a reset via holding "next track" button on steering wheel and pressing MENU 8 times but that did nothing and actually caused my screen to go from black to a bright flickering one, which sucks. I opened a case with Grom but still waiting for firmware. Anyone have some for a 2014 Lexus? :|

 

Anyone figured out a way to close apps on this thing? I'm not OCD about closing my apps or anything, but I know that never closing them has to take a toll at some point. As of now I have not figured out a way to access the stock Android Task Manager.

 

Yes, add an icon to your home screen. The is a shortcut call “App Info”. You can go into that and stop apps.

 

Why do you need to close apps manually? This thing comes with 3GB RAM which is more than enough. I've never experienced sluggishness or apps closing themselves. Just let Android handle memory management...you shouldn't need to worry about it.

 

I only do it if I have a problem.

 

Anyone manage to get Netflix installed? I manually installed the latest apk but it said it was incompatible with my device once I launched the app. I figured that wasn’t actually true so I went back and installed an older apk from December 2018 from apkmirror.com and it installed and runs fine, other than a prompt to update when I first launch it (click cancel).

I was watching The Witcher on my lunch break at work and it looks great on the screen, and of course sounds great through the Mark Levinson system.

If anyone knows a way to get the latest version I’m all ears, but honestly I don’t care what version of the app I have as long as it plays what I want to watch. I just know a time will come when it won’t launch because of some forced update so I’d like to have the newest version possible without going through 100 old builds.

 

Did you update your Android is? I'll try using Netflix on the vl2

 

Yeah I updated it as soon as I installed it about 2-3 weeks ago. I haven't checked for another update since.