Alpine iLX-700/iLX-007 Apple CarPlay Stereo – installed in Land Rover Freelander 2

Having a base-model Land Rover Freelander 2, I quickly got frustrated with the sound quality of the basic factory-fitted stereo. For an upgrade, I decided to start with a replacement of the head unit and see what difference that would make using the existing the speakers. I’m a big Apple fan and an iPhone 6 owner so I thought it would be good to extend the capabilities of my phone by connecting it to my car. Therefore the obvious choice was the CarPlay system. The CarPlay standard is becoming increasingly available in many new cars, plus several well-known car stereo manufacturers offer after-market CarPlay systems. I could have chosen a Pioneer system and picked this up the same day from any Halfords store, but instead because of online reviews, I chose the Alpine IXL-700 unit which I believe replaces the very similar IXL-007 unit.
But first, what is CarPlay? This Apple standard allows you to sync your iPhone and then be able to use some of the apps from your phone via the impressive touch screen display of your CarPlay stereo. So you could be listening to a Podcast, or playing tracks from your Spotify account through your car’s CarPlay unit, and then if a phone call comes in while you’re driving, you can use Siri to answer the call. You can even send text messages while you drive by pressing the Siri button on the front of the unit – one of only two physical buttons on the Alpine IXL-700 stereo - and then dictate a text message to Siri completely hands-free. Scrolling through the apps, you can then use Apple’s mapping app to help guide you to your destination. Although this is using up data from my monthly data plan and allowance with Vodafone, this is another great feature as my Freelander doesn’t have any other form of GPS.
You can still use this Alpine unit if you disconnect your iPhone from the Lightning cable, however CarPlay is disabled and you then only have a choice of the built-in RDS radio and the AUX facility. So you could plug in an additional DVD player. What’s also great about the Alpine unit is you can also connect a rear reversing camera which turns the full display into a monitor to show you what’s happening from the back when you select reverse.
I’ve fitted quite a few car stereos over the years, but for this installation, instead of cutting into the loom, I decided to try and keep the multicore connections intact and instead buy additional adaptors so the Alpine stereo could fit into the existing Land Rover connectors. I was nearly caught out by the Land Rover’s Fakra connection on the aerial cable but again I bought a Fakra to ISO adaptor off eBay. I just wish more vehicles shared the same connectors.
To be able to access the full Settings Menu or play DVD’s through the AUX, the handbrake cable at the back of the IXL-700 unit needs to be grounded. But Alpine are crafty; if you don’t connect this cable to your handbrake, it won’t work if you permanently override this cable to neutral. It will only work with a delayed neutral signal after the unit has turned on.
Following fitted, the sound quality and power is far better plus the dashboard has come alive and updated the interior. I have a ton of additional useful features and my Land Rover now feels far less basic.