Gauging interest splitting cost of 14 Navigation dongle for DENSO NAV for '12 v

I am looking into updating the nav on our '12 Prius v w/ ATP (DENSO). Last time I did this in 2013 I purchased all the necessary items, USB dongle, AVN card, and Toyota Techstream Professional level subscription, and it cost me around $300 because of this. This time I was curious if there was interest in sharing the cost of the dongle, and possibly the Techstream subscription. Everyone involved would have to purchase an "AVN" card, which is basically the license to update. Current cost of the AVN is $169 retail. I believe I found a place that will sell it for between 10 to 20 percent off, but you pay for shipping. If there is enough interest, it may be more economical for the group. (Currently the installation cost is $60 at the one dealership that I asked.) When I purchased the dongle last time, it cost me $90.94. It is available here:

Bosch Automotive Service Solutions LLC Toyota | Tool Detail

So that's:

$169 for the required AVN card (if Retail prices prevail.)
$90.94 USB Dongle(I honestly don't know if the prices have changed, but hopefully not. This included tax surprisingly.)
$55 for the TIS Professional subscription.

I believe people would be able to share the cost of the dongle and TIS subscription parts, but enough people would have to get involved to lower the net cost to each to be less than the $60 to $65 dealerships are charging to install the update, (about 1/2 hour labor time as I understand.)

(I honestly believe this is a legal method of updating: The dealership has one dongle for the update, which it uses on all vehicles that are to be updated. The dealership uses it's TIS subscription to produce the installation code necessary to install the update. The dealerships will require each person to purchase an AVN card.)

If anyone knows anything to the contrary, please feel free to advise.

Thank you for reading my thread.

 

TIS is time limited. There is a code to be entered on TIS from the Nav, as well as the AVN code. From this an installation code will be produced. I do not believe this expires.

MT2L03 ?

 

To be honest, I made a backup of the dongle. I'm not sure about the legality of mass producing it though, and I did not test the backup...

MT2L03 ?

 

Pretty dead thread. So:

Ordered the "activation card" from a local dealer, luckily they honored the $20 off $100 or more coupon. They seemed surprised that it was just only some kind of activation code.

Asked a SA how much to install. Said "Nothing." I said "Are you sure?" He said "Yes." a little hesitantly. Didn't have time to go in today, but may have time to go in tomorrow. Wonder if they'd let me "see" the dongle.

I wouldn't mind explaining to the SA how the installation process works. Just don't want them to kill me over the rest of the cost.

As it is I'm at $169 - $20= $149. I'm not sure if that is taxed....

If I could access their TIS and borrow the dongle, (seems highly unlikely, maybe they'd let me see the dongle), this would be super....

 

For some reason I am having a difficult time sorting through the site for Navigation update threads, (maybe because I am tired), so I have attached instructions from my other post here. (Hopefully not going to get in trouble.) I stopped posting actual TSBs after that old thread because I found TIS policy said it was a no no.

It seems several 2013 models also use the same system/same update process.

I am only assuming, because I do not currently have a TIS subscription, that the latest update is '14. You can peruse all the available USB dongles here:

Welcome to Bosch Automotive Service Solutions LLC Toyota

In the upper left drop box select "Tool Name"

In the field type "USB" (without the quotes)

Click "Go"

A list pops up.

Again, I am assuming from the pattern that part #: TOYD-HDD07-14

is the latest for the Denso system....

I think I'll try to bring a computer to the dealer tomorrow.....

 

Got a quote for $30 when I went to pick up the activation card. The darn $149 was taxed so cost went up to $162.xx. $192.xx is not bad for me, considering it cost me around $300 last time. I didn't make the 3 yr bumper to bumper deadline though...

Wishing I could "see" the dongle....

 

Well, brought the car in today. No hiccups! It's now with '14 update.

I have to put a shout out to the great service of Grace in parts, and Ben in service, at Wondries in Alhambra. Grace noted that I was lucky that the manager allowed the $20 off the AVN card! (Well thanks for going the extra mile and not just saying "no.") Knowing how the process of installing an update goes since I have done one, I was surprised and extremely happy that Ben put my quote as $0, his original estimate, and when I went to pick the car up, the actual bill was $0. I didn't expect that knowing the time it would take the technician to actually perform the update. (Another local dealer quoted me $60). I don't know if they'd be doing this for all their customers, but they are great for helping in lowering the update total cost for me!!!

So my total was $162.41 for the update, which was just the cost of the AVN card and tax. I wonder if the "Toyota gods" were watching me and feeling bad for the cost of the last update!!!

(I was thinking of asking if I could just do the update on my own and just pay the $30, but got shy to ask, probably not allowed. Would have probably tried to duplicate the dongle. Then again, I wasn't going to ask for anything considering he changed back to $0.)

 

Still doable but not exactly cost effective unless enough people are able to share the USB dongle and the TIS account. That was not even possible for me last time as the dealer didn’t even charge me any labor. I was charged sales tax as I noted, at least here in Southern California. Maybe new tax rules or something if you aren’t charged sales tax here in CA....