I have similar but slightly different issues with my 2018 3-series BMW. For most things, I think the BMW apps are actually better than what you get from CarPlay. For example, the BMW GPS makes better use of screen real estate. (On the other hand, Apple seems to do a better job of accounting for traffic in route planning.)
The one puzzling omission from the BMW software is support for podcasts. For that, CarPlay is the only usable solution.
One major irritant is connecting and disconnecting. This is especially bad when there are multiple iPhones in the car. (I know, what are the odds, amirite?) I had my iPhone plugged in via USB, and playing music. My wife was using her iPhone, which the car decided to connect to CarPlay. And certain actions on her phone somehow confused the iDrive system to stop playing music and bring up her iPhone on the display.
I wish that car manufacturers would either get it right, or turn the whole thing over to Apple. These intermediate solutions just suck.
I have a 2018 3 as well. CarPlay is ok, but the maps only uses 2/3 of the screen. However it was a cool feature of “send to bmw nav.”
I had the odd multi phone behavior so I bought a “usb condom” that blocks data and only allows power. I keep this plugged in for charging and pair only with wifi/Bluetooth.
This stops for me the fighting of multiple phones taking over
The one puzzling omission from the BMW software is support for podcasts. For that, CarPlay is the only usable solution.
One major irritant is connecting and disconnecting. This is especially bad when there are multiple iPhones in the car. (I know, what are the odds, amirite?) I had my iPhone plugged in via USB, and playing music. My wife was using her iPhone, which the car decided to connect to CarPlay. And certain actions on her phone somehow confused the iDrive system to stop playing music and bring up her iPhone on the display.
I wish that car manufacturers would either get it right, or turn the whole thing over to Apple. These intermediate solutions just suck.