Sponsored · Infotainment
You spent £50k+ on a premium car. So why does the screen look like an oversized TomTom from 2007?
Premium car owners across the UK are quietly doing something about it. It takes 30 seconds and costs a fraction of what dealers charge.
Your phone does more than your car screen. Your car cost forty times more.
Thousands of premium car owners in the UK have found a £249 fix. Here's what it is and how it works.
The reason your dealer quoted £1,800 to upgrade your car screen and what premium car owners are doing instead.
It takes 30 seconds, costs a fraction of the price, and doesn't touch your warranty.
I drive a 2020 Audi Q7. I paid £62,000 for it. And for two years, every morning on the A3 into London, I stared at a screen that looked like something from a hire car at Heathrow in 2011.
It wasn't broken. It played music. It showed a map. But next to my phone, next to any modern phone, it felt embarrassing. Clunky menus. A navigation system that couldn't find a postcode properly. No Netflix. No YouTube. No Spotify unless you went through the phone. Just a big, expensive-looking piece of glass doing very little.
If you drive a prestige car (an Audi, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Porsche or Volvo, anything north of £45,000) and you commute regularly, you'll know exactly what I mean. The car is exceptional. The screen is not.
It's not your imagination. The screen really is that basic.
Here's something most people don't realise. Your car's screen hardware is already powerful enough to run your favourite apps, stream video, and handle split-screen multitasking. The limitation isn't the screen. It's the software. Manufacturers deliberately lock it down to basic CarPlay functionality, not because the hardware can't do more, but because updating software across millions of vehicles is expensive and complicated once a car is sold.
The result is that a 2019 Jaguar XF or Range Rover Velar, cars that cost anywhere from £45,000 to £90,000, ships with infotainment that any teenager would find frustrating. According to J.D. Power's 2025 automotive study, infotainment remains the single most complained-about category across all premium car brands, generating more complaints than any other system in the vehicle. Including the engine.
The solution your dealer offers? A full head unit replacement. Typically £1,200 to £1,800, fitted by a technician, taking most of a day. And depending on your manufacturer, it can flag on your warranty record because it requires wiring into your car's systems. Not ideal when you're still within the manufacturer's warranty period.
"I was quoted £1,600 at the dealership just to add wireless CarPlay. For a car I'd bought new six months earlier."
There are AI boxes on Amazon for £40 to £70. Some people buy them. The reviews tell you everything: laggy interfaces, audio out of sync, overheating after 20 minutes, and returns to addresses in China with no real support. If you've looked at those and thought "seems too risky," you were right. What's described in this article is not that product.
What premium car owners are quietly doing instead.
About eight months ago, a mate of mine who drives a Jaguar F-Pace mentioned he'd sorted his screen. I assumed he'd been to the dealer. He hadn't.
He'd found something called the NEXVU-S. I'd never heard of it before either. A small device that plugs into the same USB port your phone uses for CarPlay. No wiring. No coding. No technician. In about thirty seconds, his factory screen loaded up as a full Android system. Netflix. YouTube. Spotify. Google Maps. Any app from the Play Store, right on his dashboard.
"I genuinely didn't believe it would work," he told me. "But it just did. Exactly as described."
I don't normally leave reviews, but this genuinely surprised me. I was expecting at least some setup headaches because most car tech products promise the world and never work properly. Took me a couple of minutes to connect my hotspot the first time, but after that it's been completely automatic. Maps, Spotify and YouTube all work perfectly. Wish I'd bought one sooner.
I'll admit I was sceptical. £250 isn't exactly an impulse purchase. I spent about a week reading reviews before ordering. Been using it daily for nearly 4 months now and haven't had a single issue. Looking back, I would've spent more upgrading through the dealer and got far less functionality.
Is this actually for you?
- You already have a fully featured Android infotainment system
- You never really use your screen
- You only drive short local journeys
- You're looking for a £50 Amazon gadget
- You spend hours each week in your car
- You own a premium vehicle
- You want your screen to feel as modern as your phone
So what exactly is the NEXVU-S?
The NEXVU-S is a plug-in device roughly the size of a USB stick. It connects to the CarPlay or Android Auto port already in your car, the same socket your phone uses. Your car detects it as a CarPlay connection and loads the NEXVU interface onto your existing factory screen.
From there, you have a full Android 13 system running on your dashboard. Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Sky Go, Spotify, Google Maps, Waze. The full Google Play Store. PS5 Remote Play. All controlled through your car's own touchscreen and steering wheel controls.
One thing I use every morning on the commute: split screen. Google Maps on one side and media controls on the other. The screen is big enough that both are perfectly readable, and it's genuinely useful rather than gimmicky. On longer trips, having Netflix or YouTube ready for passengers, or for whenever we're stopped charging or waiting, makes those moments far less dull. Not something you'll find on any factory setup.
The moment it finally clicked.
The thing that surprised me wasn't Netflix. It wasn't YouTube. It wasn't even the Play Store.
It was realising how much screen I'd been wasting. Audi, Mercedes and Land Rover spend thousands designing these huge displays. Yet most owners use them for navigation and the occasional Bluetooth connection. Once I started using split screen, live traffic, Spotify, Google Maps and the apps I actually use every day, the car suddenly felt current again.
What it doesn't do: install anything. Change anything. Touch your car's systems. It requires no coding, no wiring, and makes no permanent modifications to your vehicle. Unplug it and the car returns to exactly how it was. Your warranty is completely unaffected.
| Dealer upgrade | NEXVU-S | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £1,200 to £1,800 | £249.99 |
| Installation | Half a day at the dealer | 30 seconds, yourself |
| Warranty risk | ✕ Possible flags | ✓ Fully removable |
| Reversible | ✕ Permanent | ✓ Just unplug |
| Netflix / YouTube | ✕ Not included | ✓ Both included |
| Split screen | ✕ Not available | ✓ Maps and media at once |
| Move between cars | ✕ Fixed to one car | ✓ Works in any compatible car |
The questions I had before I bought one.
Will it void my warranty? No. Because it connects through an existing, manufacturer-approved port and makes no changes to the vehicle's wiring, software, or systems, it doesn't affect your warranty. Completely removable at any point. No trace left behind.
How complicated is setup? It isn't. You plug it into the USB port. The screen loads. That's it. There's no pairing process, no coding, no instructions beyond "insert into port." I had mine running before I'd left the driveway.
How does it connect to the internet? Two options. Most people use their phone's hotspot, which takes about five seconds to enable and the NEXVU-S connects automatically every time you start the car. If you want something more seamless, there's a SIM card slot built into the device. I use a data SIM so the connection is always there the moment I get in, with no phone involved at all. Either way works.
Is £249 worth it? Given that the dealer alternative starts at £1,200 and still won't give you Netflix, yes. For context: a one-year Netflix subscription costs £180. You're getting a permanent in-car entertainment upgrade for less than a year and a half of Netflix.
What if I change cars? Unplug it. Put it in the next car. Works on any vehicle with wired CarPlay or Android Auto, which covers most premium cars from 2016 onwards. I've already moved mine between two cars without any issues.
Will it work with your exact car?
This is the question that matters most. Not "does it work in general" but "does it work in my specific car, on my specific model year, with my specific screen."
The honest answer: NEXVU-S works with the vast majority of prestige cars that have wired CarPlay or Android Auto built in as standard from the factory. That covers most Audi, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Porsche and Volvo models built from 2016 onwards. If your car came with a USB port for connecting your phone to the screen, there is a very good chance it works.
The one thing that trips people up is confusing wireless CarPlay dongles (which just make your existing CarPlay wireless) with what NEXVU-S actually does, which is run a full Android system on the screen. They're completely different products for completely different jobs.
The fastest way to get a definitive answer for your specific car: enter your registration plate on the NEXVU website. It runs against the DVLA database. No email required. Instant compatibility result. Takes about five seconds.
Enter your registration plate at nexvu.uk for an instant compatibility result. Works with most premium cars from 2016 onwards with factory wired CarPlay or Android Auto.
Check my car's compatibilityThe thing I like most is that it doesn't feel aftermarket. Everything works through the factory screen and controls. If you didn't know it was plugged in, you'd assume the car came like this from new.
Was expecting it to be a bit laggy because I'd tried one of the cheaper Amazon versions before and returned it within a day. This is completely different. Smooth, fast and reliable. Easily one of the best upgrades I've bought for the car.
I've been driving for 22 years. I've owned seven cars. For most of that time the car was just a way to get somewhere, and the commute was something to endure.
That changed when I sorted the screen.
It sounds like a small thing. It isn't. When you spend an hour a day in a car, the quality of that hour matters. Whether it feels like dead time or your time. Whether your car feels like it matches the money you spent on it, or whether there's that quiet nagging feeling that you're settling for less than you paid for.
The screen was always capable of more. It just needed unlocking.