The Best Car Stereo for Waze

[Run Waze App from Your Car Stereo]

If you’ve used a smart phone for navigation anytime in the last couple years then you’ve heard of the Waze App. Well now, you can use it directly from your aftermarket Car stereo.

A lot of commuters, lyft and Uber drivers like this app for its features and extended options that are not generally found on the stock Android and IOS navigation. However, Using your phone for navigation while driving is annoying any way you choose to look at it, not to mention its also dangerous. Which is why top vehicle electrics manufacturers like Pioneer, Kenwood and Sony have been releasing line after line of Car Stereos that integrate with your smart phones with the press of a button.

Android Auto

Android Auto Allows your android smart phone options to be used on your car stereo. While these options might be limited as of now, they are continuously introducing new apps to the app list. The list contains all of the Apps you can use on a car stereo that is equipped with Android auto. Among all of the Apps on the Android Auto app list “WAZE” is considered to be the most popular, some actually say that android auto delivers the best Waze app experience.

Waze works virtually the same on a car stereo equipped with Android Auto as it does on a smart phone minus the ads and some less important functions you shouldn’t be using while driving. The difference is, you wont get pulled over or end up in a “Fender Bender” for looking at your phone. There is a long list of Aftermarket car stereo’s that have android Auto built in, but there are some differences outside of the WAZE integration. Audio quality, XM Radio, HD Radio, etc are all features that you should pay attention to when buying a car stereo as well.

Here is a list of the features included with Waze for Android Auto:

• Traffic Alerts
• Police presence
• Speed Limit
• Additional Routs
• Hazards in road
• Traffic Cameras
• Gas Station Mode (find best prices)
• Custom voices for alerts
• Voice Command

We made a small list of Stereos with android auto and WAZE that hit all 3 of these marks. We are looking for an affordable price point as well.

Car Stereo’s With Android Auto and The Waze App 

Pioneer Avic-8200NEX

The Pioneer Avic-8200NEX coming in at the top of the list as the most expensive, but for good reason. We wrote an in depth review on this stereo to explain a lot of the options available on the 8200, you can check that out here. This stereo has everything you could possibly need in your cars infotainment system. This might be a big investment for some, Id recommend you verify you need all of the options it comes with before you decide to make that purchase.

The Pioneer AVH-1330NEX

The 1330 NEX is yet another Car stereo with Waze enabled via android auto and Apple car play. It doesn’t have its own Navigation built in out of thebox like the 8200Nex but relying on the WAZE app more than suffices. The audio options on this stereo are what we would consider premium and very expandable, you can attach virtually any amplifier to it and manage your sound easily directly from this stereo.

Apple Car Play

Apple car play uses a different approach to its app functionality than Android auto. The user interface is a bit more clean and organized but it is said that the WAZE app works best on Android auto. In my experience the Waze app through apple car play is a bit limited, but it does not limit the popular or needed features. To be clear, you need IOS 12 on your iphone in order to use WAZE, you should additionally make sure the waze app software is up to date.

Waze is sort of new to Apple car play’s slightly smaller list of apps that work with it. App development tends to take longer and the process in which apple uses to approve apps into its market takes a bit longer than the process with Android. No matter, take as long as you’d like apple. Just make sure you don’t give my customers viruses after downloading. With that said, here is a list of some of the features available through Waze with Apple Car play:

• Accident Reporting
• Police Reporting
• Traffic Speed Camera Reporting
• Live Traffic alerts
• Voice Command
• Traffic Cameras
• Arrival Time
• Overview of your trip
• Built in Siri for voice control

All of these features are available with a pretty big variety of aftermarket car stereos, but not every car stereo is worth a purchase even though you might be purchasing for the sole purpose of having Apple car play and Waze. I took under consideration a lot of the features our customers tell us they want and came up with a couple of options for you to take a look at.

When I think of a good car stereo im thinking about 3 things. Durability, Quality and expand-ability. I want to know if the audio quality is good, I want to know if the unit can last a long time and lastly I would like to know if the stereo has the option to expand its options.

A good example of expansion would be adding satellite radio, Steering wheel Controls and amplifiers. In my experience this is what customers look for in a car stereo, so we grabbed a couple of models and made a decision. Here is what we came up with:

Car Stereo’s With Apple Car Play and The Waze App

Alpine ILX-107

The Alpine ilx-107 is a very unique car stereo, well its actually more of a media player. A media player is a stereo that only plays digital media, which means it doesn’t have the ability to play CD’s. The fact that it doesn’t play CD’s makes this stereo very light weight and more power efficient, it doesn’t need any power for a CD motor.

We wrote an in depth review on this stereo after installing it, we couldn’t wait to review the audio options and the expand-ability options. As a media player and a dual din touch screen we wondered how the user interface would work. Turns out it works amazingly, this stereo comes loaded with Apple Car Play right out of the box and it does not have an option for android auto.

Pioneer AVH-4100NEX

The Pioneer 4100NEX Is another radio with a Unique feature, it does have a CD player but the screen on this unit is both movable and removable. The screen can be set to an angle that helps to get rid of sun glare. The removable feature pioneer built into this unit is mainly for anti theft purposes, you cant steal what you cant see right?

Another feature that utilizes the screen is the CD option, the screen folds all the way down to allow A CD to be inserted. Sort of old school but it makes for a lot more screen real-estate to be utilized. In terms of specs this stereo sits among the top, you can add on countless features and the on board audio options amazing.

We wrote an in depth review on this stereo as well. I don’t think a car stereo list with the term “Best” in it would be right without the 4100NEX.