Why iPhone Drivers Are Installing Three Separate Mounts in the Same Car

The perfect spot for navigation isn’t the perfect spot for calls, and neither works well for music control. MagSafe’s magnetic attachment makes it trivial to move an iPhone between mounts, but that ease of movement has revealed something about how people actually use their phones while driving: they don’t use them the same way throughout the trip.

For highway navigation, a windshield mount offers the best visibility—eye-level, centered, easy to glance at without looking down. But for urban driving with frequent turns and stops, a dashboard mount feels less obstructive, lower in the field of view, less likely to block sight lines to pedestrians or cross traffic.

Vent mounts solve a different problem entirely. They keep the phone cooler, which matters during wireless charging in summer heat. But they also put the phone at an awkward angle for video calls, and they occupy a vent that might otherwise be directing air toward the driver.

This has led to a strange proliferation: users installing multiple MagSafe mounts in the same vehicle, switching between them based on context. Windshield for long highway drives. Dashboard for city navigation. Vent for charging during short trips when overheating is a risk.

It’s an inelegant solution, but it reflects a real behavioral truth. The phone isn’t just one thing in the car. It’s a navigation device, a music controller, a hands-free communication hub, and a camera for recording unexpected moments. Each use case has different ergonomic and functional requirements.

What’s notable is that none of this was particularly viable before MagSafe. Friction mounts and clamps required two hands and deliberate effort to reposition. Moving the phone between locations felt fussy, so people just picked one spot and lived with the compromises. MagSafe removed that friction, and in doing so, exposed the limitations of single-position mounting.

Previously listed at $23.99, current listings hover around $17.98. The relatively low cost makes installing multiple mounts economically feasible, even if it looks redundant to passengers.