Rate your aftermarket iPod Integration kit

I've been looking into the options to use my iPod touch with my '05 Prius (pkg. 2), and I've found lots of dribs and drabs of information about products for iPod integration all over this forum, and the web. There are also a lot of promises, bad reviews and vagueness. I think it would be great if people who have installed any of these products could post the following info, all in one thread:

product name & manufacturer
where you purchased it
price
ease of installation/price of installation
how well it works in real life

thanks!

 

Yeah, judging from the sheer number of posts about iPod integration, I would imagine that most people on this board are sick of hearing about it. All I want to know is, I found a lot of references to problems with the DICE unit from a few years ago. Have those problems been worked out? Are there people out there who have been using the unit for years without wrecking the MFD? And how does it compare to the GROM unit?

thanks!

 

some good info here so far...

what do you have to do to reset the CAN-BUS? Also, does the Grom unit have that problem?

Thanks!

 

I read a review of it that says the PA20 only works if you have Nav in your car... do you have Nav or the JBL stereo in your Prius? Also, does it charge your iPod? Which ipod do you have?

 

I ordered the Grom unit from Amazon. It's the cheapest and people don't seem to have a lot of problems with it. I'll post my experience installing it.

Thanks to the people who responded... wish there were more though.

-Ken

 

I just installed the GROM unit earlier today. Installation wasn't too difficult, just kind of scary. I've done plenty of work on computers (memory cards, hard drives, modems, even built my own joystick once) but I've never installed so much as a car stereo before. Removing the glove compartment was a piece of cake. Removing the vent panel using a plastic putty knife took a little work, and some scary popping sounds, but that went well too. Moving the big wire box behind the vent panel isn't too hard, just scary because of how big it is and how many individual wires come out of it. After all that, I started trying to plug in the cable to the CD Changer port of the stereo, which took FOREVER... the GROM video on YouTube makes it look like you can do the whole thing in 3 minutes, which might be possible if you have done it before and perhaps have tiny hands... but plugging in that cable was very difficult because there's no room to maneuver things behind the stereo. It took about 15 minutes of slow-moving frustration, but I finally got it, and the plug clipped into place. I plugged in the GROM unit and the iPod, turned on the car and success! The iPod showed that it was charging, and I was able to play it by pushing the "disc" button. It works great... sounds much better than I had expected, and I can navigate songs using the steering wheel controls. I drilled a hole 1/2" in the back of the compartment under the stereo and fed the iPod wire and a 1/2" grommet through it, then put everything back together. The GROM unit is now in my glove compartment, which allows me to feed extra wire to the iPod or pull it back if I need to (since that compartment is so small, having a lot of wire in there isn't great). I don't think it will fit in the space next to the glove compartment... it seems a bit too big, but the glove compartment is fine with me. And, as others have mentioned, getting the screw back into the wire box was pretty tricky because of where it is, but I finally did it and it looks good as new.

I set up 6 playlists in iTunes according to the instructions. Playlist 1 is a dummy list which is not used (but still needs to have songs in it, for the GROM to work properly), and list 2-6 are the ones I usually listen to in the car. Selecting disc 1 lets you use the iPod itself or the Prius stereo to select music. Playlists 2-6 lock out the iPod but give you more control with the Prius stereo. Neither of the settings show you any artists or song titles, but the disc 2-6 setting shows you track time and track number. Not having the text is actually fine with me since I usually listen to podcasts in order from oldest to newest, so I don't need to see the titles. I read some posts that said that there are problems with other iPod adapters sending too much text to the prius stereo and causing crashes. If I ever need more control, I can use Disc 1 settings and use the iPod to select the song. I've been using an iPod that way in my car for 5 years, so it's not a big deal to me. But, it's so much safer for me not to have to reach the iPod, slide it awake, then change the track or rewind... I can do that right from the touch screen now and it all works great.

I also bought a new cabin air filter in eBay to change at the same time, since it's right there, but when I took out the glove compartment and removed the filter holder, I discovered that the Toyota dealer had already put in a new one, so I have a spare for next time, I suppose!

Hope you find this useful!

-Ken

 

I had a weird hiccup with the Grom unit last night. I was driving and playing the iPod, when I accidentally pushed the "mode" button on the steering wheel. The stereo switched to AM radio, but pushing "mode" a few more times wouldn't cycle it back to the Grom. I tried pushing the "Disc" mode on the stereo, but it would only play my CD, and not switch into the "changer" mode. Cycling the power to the car at a stop light fixed the problem, and after that I tried to push the "mode" button on the steering wheel again, and I got the iPod control back this time. Anyone else had this problem?

 

From what I've read, it's pretty similar, but the GROM unit does not show any text from song/artist/title names, just track numbers, and the Dice unit does show those things. I've actually got a RMA number from GROM to return the unit for testing because it's been acting flaky... disappearing from the head unit or playing the wrong playlist sometimes. But, when it's working, it's great... great sound quality, and the controls allow fast forwarding/rewinding, changing tracks, etc. It charges the iPod, stops it when the car shuts off, starts it back up at the same spot when the car starts up.

I think the problem with comparing these units is that almost nobody has had more than one of them...

-Ken

 

Just got my Grom unit back and it seems to be working properly, with no glitches...

Unfortunately, I think people who have the units and they are working properly don't really think about them, so there's not a lot of advice forthcoming. It's probably best to search for each of the units and decide from what people have written about them, good or bad, but it's tough because you have to read through a ton of posts about irrelevant things to find them. I mainly went with the Grom unit because I had credit at amazon.com and could get it from them fairly cheaply.

thanks,
Ken