One of the great things about Android Auto is that you're carrying your infotainment system with you wherever you go. If you own more than one car, you don't have to set up two different profiles. Just connect your phone, and the experience follows you. Likewise, if multiple people share a car, it feels like the specific head unit doesn't really matter. It's the phone that sets the stage and handles everything, right? Your head unit is doing more work than you think More than a second screen The head unit is still doing a lot of work when you use Android Auto. It has to display the video stream from your phone, process your touch input, manage the car's audio system, and it has to deal with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. While much of the processing that's going on happens on the phone, since the head unit is acting as the go-between, there's still plenty of opportunity for it to make things worse. Obviously, an inexpensive car with inexpensive head units won't have the same performance, optimization or input quality as a more expensive model. So if the head unit has laggy software or slow hardware, it doesn't matter whether you're rocking the latest flagship or a vending machine burner phone. Why the same phone can perform differently in different cars It's all about what's under the hood If you've ever had to switch cars using the same phone, you've probably noticed that, at some point, it doesn't quite feel the same. For one thing, having different screen shapes and sizes makes a difference to how AA looks and feels. Cheaper units, like the one in my Kia Sportage, use a sluggish touch screen that needs extra effort so that a selection even registers, and the image resolution is pretty