I have a carlinkit4.0, used more than half a year, so far working fine.
The dongle just stays connected to the car and should connect to your phone seamlessly.It is about the size of a credit card and about one third of an inch thick.
Hope my answer can help you.
2 uses for me...
1. Reduced wear and tear on the phone's USB port (damaged my last phone on my Camry from it sliding around while plugged in)
2. Less contortion and struggling required to get it connected in the smaller car. Now I just get in, crank the car, and it connects.
I don't drive far...
I heard that most cars after 2022 may be equipped with wireless carplay or Android auto. If you don't plan to change your car, but still want to use wireless carplay or Android auto, just buy a carlinkit 4.0...
To anyone interested a CarPlay retrofit, I spent a lot of time researching the different models, and I would highly recommend the carlinkit version. There is very little information about the differences between the models, so I wanted to share my experiences.
The carlinkit version offers...