I Spent $124,000 on a BMW and Didn’t Get CarPlay

New BMWs without CarPlay: impossible in 2018, right? Well… read on.

Just for fun, I went to BMW’s US site and optioned up the most expensive BMW I could find. My goal: spend as much as possible and not get Apple CarPlay.

This is The CarPlay Challenge™.

I could go outside BMW to find a more expensive car, sure. There are several exotics that don’t have CarPlay, but that’s shooting fish in a barrel.

The result: a $123,969 BMW X6 M in Long Beach Blue Metallic. That, as far as my 10 minutes of research uncovered, is the pinnacle of BMWs without CarPlay.

CarPlay option - unchecked
CarPlay option – unchecked

My thoughts and notes on this nausiating situation:

  • I may or may not have found the Ultimate CarPlay-less Driving Machine. I built an i8 (see below) and this X6 M. There may be an even more expensive BMW without CarPlay.
  • The BMW i8 EV supercar (starting at $144,395) does not have CarPlay available, at all. I’m looking at BMW models that it’s available on.
  • I’m not looking outside BMW in this exercise. That’ll be next week’s project.
  • The price “excludes destination & handling fee of $995, tax, title, license, and registration.”
  • X6 M specifics: 4.4-liter, 32-valve M TwinPower Turbo V-8 engine M tuned xDrive intelligent all-wheel drive system
  • To put this in financial perspective, $124k is the cost of the average house in the US in 1993.
  • This is $100k more than my base model VW Golf Alltrack… my Alltrack that has CarPlay standard.

This comes on the heels of BMW’s signals it will begin the ridiculous practice of charging a subscription fee for CarPlay, ostensibly for the few BMWs out there that actually have it.

Summary
The CarPlay Challenge
Article Name
The CarPlay Challenge
Description
Just for fun, I went to BMW's US site and optioned up the most expensive BMW I could find. My goal: spend as much as possible and not get Apple CarPlay. This is The CarPlay Challenge™.
Author
Publisher Name
CarPlay World
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