After replacing the head unit in my Tacoma, I couldn't live my life w/o the modern amenities with Apple CarPlay, TBH. I drive my wife's Nissan and just so let down on the interface of early Rogues .. but at least the entire setup now comes up in a 2020 we drive. Anyway ... GM is shooting themselves in the foot on this one.
I replaced a 2-DIN unit in our 2005 Scion xB probably ten years ago with a Pioneer. No need to send a link to a ten-year old product, but go to Crutchfield (if in U. S.), search on "pioneer CarPlay", and you'll get head units with CarPlay from $300 on up. Ours is one of the nicer ones (at the time), and even without CarPlay it's still a nice unit.
We've replaced the unit in the Sprinter RV with a JVC (which, from what I can gather, is just a Chinese brand that bought the name) for something like $300. We pretty much only use CarPlay in that vehicle, which is fine because the rest of the unit is pretty low-end, including the UI. But the CarPlay piece gets the job done.
I've purchased from Crutchfield, as did my father before me, for over 40 years. Not one...single...bad word to say about my experiences. They have almost always exceeded expectations, and to reiterate what you already said, their instructions and support are outstanding. Hence my "go to Crutchfield's site...".
