Why Your Next Car Purchase Should Start with the in 2026

Here is a piece of car-buying advice you will not hear from a dealer: before your Next Car Purchase, download the manufacturer’s app. Install it. Explore it. Try to set up an account. Read the reviews in the app store. This 10-minute exercise will tell you more about a car company’s software philosophy than any glossy brochure or showroom demo ever could.

What the Next Car Purchase Story Means for 2026

Modern cars are software products first and metal boxes second. A flaky app is the earliest honest signal a manufacturer can give you about how well its in-car software and over-the-air update pipeline will age. Reading the one-star reviews before you sign finance paperwork is the single most undervalued part of car shopping in 2026.

Next Car Purchase: Contents

• Your Car Is Now a Software Product
• Tesla: The Benchmark, for Better and Worse
• BMW: Ambitious but Inconsistent
• Hyundai and Kia: Improving Rapidly
• BYD and Rivian: Two Ends of the Spectrum
• What a Bad App Actually Tells You
• The Test Drive Starts on Your Phone

Your Car Is Now a Software Product

This is not some future prediction. It is the current reality. Modern cars, particularly EVs, receive over-the-air software updates that change how features work, add new capabilities, and occasionally remove things you relied on. The companion app is your primary interface for remote features, charging management, service scheduling, and in many cases, locking and unlocking the vehicle itself.

If the app is poorly designed, crashes frequently, or lacks basic functionality, that is not a minor inconvenience. It is a signal about how the manufacturer approaches software as a whole. And since software now controls an increasing share of your car’s features, that signal matters.

Tesla: The Benchmark, for Better and Worse

The Tesla app remains the yardstick for what a modern car app should be. Over-the-air updates are a core feature, Phone Key works on day one, remote climate control is dependable and charging status is always one tap away. It is also a closed ecosystem with no CarPlay or Android Auto, and every service interaction is routed through the same app whether you like it or not. You are buying into a software philosophy, not just a driving experience.

BMW: Ambitious but Inconsistent

BMW’s My BMW app is feature-rich. It supports digital key functionality (using your iPhone or compatible Android phone to lock, unlock, and start the car), remote climate control, charging management, trip planning with charging stop integration, and remote 3D vehicle status views. If you are considering setting up digital car keys, we have covered how that process works across manufacturers.

The flip side is that BMW’s app has a long history of features shipping without enough testing in real-world conditions, and outages during major connected-car rollouts are an uncomfortable pattern. When it works, it is best-in-class; when it does not, customer service tells you to reboot your phone.

Hyundai and Kia: Improving Rapidly

Bluelink (Hyundai) and Kia Connect have improved dramatically since 2023. Both now offer remote climate, geofence alerts, over-the-air updates on compatible models, proper integration with the Ioniq 5 N track apps and sensible charge scheduling. What stands out is the pace of improvement. Hyundai and Kia are iterating quickly, and each update tends to address genuine user complaints rather than just adding cosmetic changes. For the price point of their EVs, the app experience is competitive and increasingly difficult to fault on the fundamentals.

BYD and Rivian: Two Ends of the Spectrum

Rivian’s app is genuinely good. It is clean, fast, and thoughtfully designed. Features like Gear Guard (security camera) access, trip planning with adventure-oriented route suggestions, and pet comfort mode controls are well-implemented. The app reflects the same design sensibility as the vehicles themselves: considered, slightly opinionated, and clearly built by people who use the product.

BYD’s app experience is more variable and depends heavily on the market. In some regions, the app is functional but utilitarian, with translation issues and interface choices that suggest it was designed for the Chinese domestic market first and adapted later. For a company selling cars at aggressive price points globally, the app experience is an area where the gap between BYD and established competitors is most visible.

What a bad app actually tells you

A poorly rated companion app is not just an inconvenience you can work around. It is diagnostic. Consider what it reveals:

• Software team quality: If the company cannot build a good mobile app, a relatively straightforward software challenge, what does that say about the software running the car’s infotainment system, driver assistance features, and OTA update infrastructure?
• Update commitment: An app that has not been meaningfully updated in months suggests the company deprioritises software after the initial sale. That pattern tends to extend to the vehicle’s own software.
• User feedback responsiveness: Check the app store reviews and see whether the developer responds to complaints and ships fixes. This mirrors how the company will handle your service experience.
• Integration philosophy: A good app works seamlessly with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, digital keys, and smart home platforms. A mediocre app exists in isolation. The former suggests a company that thinks about ecosystems; the latter suggests one that thinks about boxes to tick.

The Test Drive Starts on Your Phone

We spend weeks researching specs, watching reviews, and comparing range figures before buying a car. We spend almost no time evaluating the software we will interact with every single day of ownership. That imbalance makes no sense in 2026.

Download the app. Read the one-star reviews. Try to create an account and navigate the interface. If the experience frustrates you before you have even sat in the car, take that seriously. The manufacturer that cannot get a mobile app right is unlikely to deliver a seamless ownership experience when your car needs a software update at 60,000 miles.

The app is the window into the company’s software culture. Look through it before you sign anything.

MMTW Editorial