Hi all, I've had my 2006 Prius for almost ten years and still love driving it (except for the substandard GPS, replaced by Waze on my phone). Last week I had a low speed run-in with a deer. The hood, front bumper cover and RH HID headlight need to be replaced. The good news is I don't see any frame or bumper damage - the foam didn't even get damaged. Incredibly the insurance company is totaling the car - the appraiser as well as an independent body shop estimate $3-4K to repair. I'm sourcing salvage parts and luckily found a local junkyard with an undamaged hood in my color. They also had a comparatively good deal on the headlight ($245 Wow!). I'm doing a wider search for a front bumper cover, hopefully in my silver color. My question for those in the know - do all front bumper covers have the holders for the fog lights, whether or not the fog lights were installed? I have fog lights and am hoping all the bumper covers come with the fog lamp holders. It will make my search easier. On another topic, when the insurance company first told me the car was totaled I started looking around at "newer" used Prii. I had a few favorited, and during my research heard about the Entune system. Long story short, it sounds to me like Entune is an absolute disaster. As well, Toyota is apparently deserting the platform which means it will be a miserable orphan. Is Entune as bad as I hear? The reviews and comments were bad enough to scare me off and I'm thinking of going to an Accord with Carplay. And I love my Prius. Probably not enough to be aggravated every day by a terrible infotainment system. Comments welcomed. Thanks all!
yes, you won't read a good thread here if you search. if you're looking for infotainment, i think the new hycam has CarPlay iirc
The new Hybrid Camry (2018+) has the newer system but according to a few threads here they are not overjoyed either. The new 2019 Prius refresh coming soon still has the older Entune version.
It's an OEM system, what do you expect? Car companies have no business doing in-car electronics. They're simply no good at it. Not even one of them.
Just a hint. All cars since the 1970's have been controlled by electronics The Prius is an electronic computer network on wheels. How do you think it achieves the low emissions & fuel economy? Witchcraft? I for one think Toyota is very skilled in electronics as evidenced by the 20 year old Prius. Perhaps their cars are meant for transportation, not distracting entertainment.
Speaking of distractions, this thread was well focused on the cabin entertainment gear until your post. Carmakers were keeping up with irritainment system feature demands until about 2003 I reckon, but nearly all had already foundered by the time everyone started carrying smartphones and then it just snowballed.
It appears to me this is where it derailed. I wonder who said that? I was just correcting misstatements.
Thanks all for the input. I agree that the Prius has great electronics and controls for the most part. As I mentioned I found the Nav system inferior particularly when compared to new gen apps like Waze, I could accept it since it was a 2006 but even with my occasional Nav updates it was disappointing. The other defect to me is the traction control which in this model leads to some embarrassing situations with the slightest muddy patch or snow. I'm not sure it's fair to say Entune is just for distracting entertainment since it is the portal to the Nav, phone, monitoring systems and such. I may be under a false impression since I am basing my assumptions on documentation and reviews, not actual experience. Auto manufacturers often do not do a good job on in-car audio systems but Entune and the like have become much more than entertainment systems. Back in the day, I would just buy an aftermarket stereo system and plug it in the dash but of course that is not an option here. It seems apparent to me that Toyota is abandoning the Entune system, and if not this year for the Prius it will likely come in 2020. It's never a good sign when a manufacturer has an unpopular platform and then moves away from it. That will mean an orphan platform with no expectation for improvement. Sadly a new car is not in the cards for me and the Prius for me would be a Gen 4 with Entune. I spend a lot of time in the car and use the Nav (typically Waze), Pandora, Podcasts and audiobooks all the time. It helps when you're driving for 6-8 hours at a time. I'm very disappointed but I think Entune would be a daily aggravation in an otherwise fine machine.
I can't tell you if there are aftermarket solutions for every trim & version, but there does appear to be broad support for aftermarket head units going into 3rd & 4th generation cars. If you're changing cars, check your candidates against the Crutchfield database. It's not perfect but probably the best publicly accessible fit-check you'll get over the internet. Shortcut: if you find yourself considering a Prius c, every year & trim is completely compatible with double-DIN aftermarket rigs, and it is falling-off-a-log easy to do in these cars. We're really enjoying waze etc. in ours.
My son quickly gave up on the navigation in his 2015 Prius v. It does not get better in the newer models. My Prius does not have the navigation.
from day one with the 08, Ipod was the way to go. I never had a passenger complain about the sound. I loaded 34Gb of tunes, never looked back, just added a sub-woofer, albeit a small one, and never dreamed of anything else, except naked blondes!!
The first smartphones were only introduced to the market in 2007. So up until then, the Gen 2 was still ahead of its time.
Yep, I quite agree. I tend to buy 2-4 year old used cars and keep them for ~ ten years or so. So you buy a snapshot of what you assess as the best fit technology of that time and therefore you can't complain that the manufacturer "isn't keeping up". Practically speaking though, I don't want to buy a subsystem that will be a daily aggravation and try to find a car I can live with for a decade. By the way, going back to the real reason for my OP - I found a hood in my silver color and RH HID headlight in a local salvage yard. The front bumper cover in decent shape has been harder to find so I'm sourcing a new aftermarket and am painting with shake cans from automotivetouchup.com. Hoping to get a few more miles out of my baby and then pass it on to my son.
