UK 2010 Prius T Sprit USB iPod Interface Kit PZ473-00267-00

Ray,

I've got a 2010 (59 plate) Prius and have just had the iPod kit fitted by Thurlow Nunn Toyota of St. Ives, Cambridgeshire. For this they charged me £267 + VAT.

I agree that this is really quite rubbish, plus comes with no instructions whatsoever.

Did you get anywhere with Toyota regarding how pitiful this is? I wouldn't call this iPod intergration...

Cheers

 

Damn, I have ordered this kit with my T-Spirit for the end of April so thank you for the useful information. I am going to be calling the dealer in a few minutes to cancel the kit. I was under the impression that it offered full iPod / iPhone integration, but obviously not. You would be as well just sticking with the AUX port given you findings.

I may check out what DICE have to offer, I have their iPod kit in my current car and it plugs into the CD Changer socket on the back of the HU, but then allows full control of the iPod through the head unit and steering wheel controls.

 

I'm pretty unimpressed with this, especially given the YouTube videos of (presumably US) versions which look pretty cool.

I'm currently awaiting a call back from the dealer as to why it a) isn't as described and came with no instructions, and b) cost more than Toyota said it should... See this webpage.
Toyota Ownership - Accessories

My Prius is a company car and I can claim back the cost of the kit, but as it stands it's not really a usable solution - the Bluetooth/Aux option is actually better.

 

Have been googling like a mofo this morning and have found this nugget in a Lexus forum (the satnav in our Priuses is essentially a Lexus system).

Lexuscare Ipod Integration Kit - Lexus Owners Club - Page 3

The last post indiciates that there are two versions of the iPod intergration thing knocking about. Anyone know any more about this?

 

Just got my new Prius 2010 the other day and while I am totally in love with the car, I do agree with the rest of you that the ipod-kit described here is a joke. I had also seen the videos on YouTube and thought it looked smashing, but the version I got (the infamous "6-cd changer" solution) is nothing short of pathetic. I will complain. Surely, if there's a better version available in the US, that version should be possible to install in Europe as well? It's just software, right?

 

Yes, there is! It doesn't say in the manual, but if you press AND HOLD the "play next"-button on the steering wheel it will jump to the next folder.

That's just saying that it's possible, not that it's in anyway great...

 

This infuriates me. I'm hoping that a software update to the Nav system might fix this, as surely the interface is just an interface?

Does anyone know what I need to ask Toyota for? It's seriously annoying that North American Prius owners can browse their iPods easily and us poor Europeans are stuck with a system so mind bendingly crap Tata wouldn't even use it.

 

I haven't got mine yet...But when I was reading the instructions it sounds like each playlist will appear like a CD, but it only shows six CD's at a time..However moving beyond CD 6 will reset the counter so CD 1 will be Playlist 7 etc....

Is that true?

And it would be helpful to state what exactly is so bad about it? Opposed to just saying it is worse than the US solution...

 

Guys, I'm also in the uk and picked up my shiny new 2010 T-Spirit on Friday. Two options fitted - iPod kit and DAB and both are huge disappointments.

Per the original post, the integration is limited to mapping playlists to CDS, meaning it's actually impossible to search for a specific track or select an album unless it has it's own playlist. Uses of newer iPods or iPhones have also lost Genius because the device interface is locked out once connected. Very basic and really only any good if you want to stick it on shuffle (RAND) and let it go.

As for the DAB - the interface is superb, as is the sound quality for the odd few minutes you get a signal. They appear to use the cheapest little interior screen mount antenna which fails to get a reliable BBC signal even in open suburban Berkshire. Pathetic.

So I'll be onto the dealer on Monday re. How they're going to improve both for me.

 

Thanks let's hope the dealer didn't connect the dab tuner properly. The whole reason for us to order the dab is too improve the reception of some of the London stations which we barely get on fm.

I doubt the dealer will be able to do anything regarding the iPod integration, as in to resolved the expectations.

Tbh since it saves having to constantly burn CDs I'd be happy enought with just playlists. Sound quality from other integration kits through fm modulation is rubbish, and vaistech style solutions seem to do exactly the same.

The build in hdd ripping is a real disgrace (pardon the pun), as the 10 CDs I tried weren't recognised.

 

Sorry to hear that mate. You should have asked first to see if it is worth having. I got mine for free so I didn't care (my brother gave me as a present).

It is rubbish and I hardly use it. Very tempermental as well. Sometimes it won't pick up the music detals at all. And the 6 CD tab thing is rediculous. What CD? Anyway I think all Toyota accessories are a rip off and it is sad.

 

Are Toyota represented in any way on this forum?

It would be interesting to understand their perspective on why funtionality of what should be the same device appears so different depending on what continent you happen to live on.

I tried complaining to my dealership but they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I think we need to interact with someone reasonably high up the food chain at Toyota to get to the bottom of this, especially because similar problems were reported (and resolved) in the Lexus thread I found <see previous posts in this thread>.

All I want is to be able to integrate my iPod properly, nothing more.

 

For what it's worth...

My Dealers service manager had my car on Saturday because they where adamant that it worked with full ipod control. At the end of an hour long session, he came to me and said "I was wrong, it's actually a pile of poo, the most expensive ipod charger I have ever seen".

I went back to the sales guys and said that this is not acceptable and it's actually a worse solution than just bluetooth streaming from my HTC phone. They have no knowledge of how it's supposed to work so I said I wanted it removing.

The service manager backed me up and the sales team are deciding now whether to leave it in my car and write off the cost or to have the service guys remove it after all parties agreeing it is crap, and agreeing that I am not paying for it.

Most technologically advanced car in the world, with an ipod kit that's worse than the integration I have on the wife's VW with an 8 year old Kenwood head unit.

The frustrating thing is that whilst the dealer is excellent, they don't appear to know their product, and neither do the head honcho Toyota reps.

I'm not sure it's something that could be fixed with a firmware update, but a swap of control unit to an upgraded one could do ....... it's 2010, a £300 iPod charger is laughable.

 

I have had problems too with a 2010 Prius as discribed above with the 2010 Prius interface sold to Europe. My dealer was able to help me and I hope this info can help someone else that was experiencing the same issues as me.

The ipod/iphone only works with the kit in Europe though the CD changer. The integration kit only supports playlists and albums. Artists and genre are not supported. To switch between playlist and albums, long press the [RPT] button until (D_RTP) appears on the screen. This will then allow you to navigate through the 'albums' on your device. You also have the option of sorting your music into playlists and using the playlist method instead.

As far as USB flash drives (USB sticks) are concerned, Toyota manual recommends that the USB stick is 2.0 FS (12 MBPS), Mass Storage class (BOT method). USB needs to be formatted FAT32 and some people report that 16GB is the limit in size (I have not had a USB stick big enough to see if this is true). Press [DISC] on the head unit to select USB mode. Each time you press [DISC], the mode will change like this - Internal CD > external CDCH (i.e. USB) > internal CD.

Some of this is copied from the user manual, if you have one, don’t be like me and read it first

 

You might want to check the UK Prius forum for more info on this issue. There is a bloke who is presently fighting with Toyota UK about this issue and has refused his car because of the bug ridden ipod connections. Think he's in the music or computer industry as he has put forward a very concise case about why it doesn't work and has come out with software improvements to actually make it work.

I've not read into it too much as I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to ipods!

 

No doubt GrumpyCabbie is referring to me

You are quite right about a number of things in there. I've had no end of trouble with my UK based system. Some are head unit related, some are the JBL upgrade related, some are combined where the audio level just aren't right and can't be compensated for. And some are iPod connection kit related.

I've now got my vehicle back, but on a strick one week trial and no obligation to accept it and it still isn't right.

5th Generation Nano disconnects each time you leave the vehicle and only way of reconnecting is removing the cable and inserting it again.
I needed a new iPod control unit box before it would even recognise my USB stick, and my 3G iPhone.
It recognised my original iPhone but would simply disconnect after about a 1 hour journey. Just loose it. I haven't been able yet to verify whether the new control unit fixes that.
Now with the new control unit there is a crackle in the music, dealer and toyota ofcourse say that it is the way I ripped my music. I let them listen through my speaker of the iPhone to proof it wasn't and will bring in my Macbook next time I go in to proof it again.

And then there is the USB stick, the firmware on the headunit, besides it being wrong and no matter what you do have the volume in the rear 4x lower than in the front, also doesn't ignore resource forks. Unfortunately the Manual doesn't state that Apple MAC is incompatible as a source to create MP3 format USB sticks.

Sure I could write a script to clean up a removable media from resource forks, but come on it is 2011 one shouldn't have to do stuff like that.

I've written a 44 page report that has gone via Toyota GB to Toyota EU in Belgium apparently but all that comes back is just change out a box. And ofcourse it still doesn't get fixed.

So under UK law I'm in the process of rejecting the vehicle. Even this weeks trial is already proven they are inable to fix it and we just don't enjoy the vehicle.

As you know, the iPod kit, the JBL Speaker/Amp upgrade, the DAB radio system as all expensive options but we like our audio in the vehicle. But this is bad, one of the worst audio systems I've ever heard in a vehicle.