I bought the prius five but didn't get the Advanced Technology package. Am I basically SOL or is there anyway that I can "upgrade" the car to have that package. I had a 2008 Chrysler 300 and the there were 3 different factory head units for that car, the AM/FM/CD one, the one that had navigation, and the one that had navigation and a built in hard drive for storing your music. No matter which level car you purchased (base or the v8 SRT8) you could upgrade/downgrade to any of the head units in your own drive way. If you bought the AM/FM/CD car, you could get the Nav/HardDrive head unit on email and drop it in and it was literally plug and play. Is this the same with the Prius. I would like to upgrade to the 7 inch head unit that plays DVD. I have a feeling the cruise control and lane assist features are a little more involved and I am ok with out them, but I would love to upgrade to the heads up display. Possible?
The Heads Up Display would require cutting a hole in the dash close to the windshield. That looks like it would be a major undertaking. Because the HUD uses reflected light, it is hard to see in daylight - especially bright sunlight, I'm not sure you get that much from adding it. I don't have my new car yet which has the HUD, but I've read and seen video of the HUD. I'm not sure I would want to add that to a car that doesn't have it. Changing the head unit to another is no big deal. It can be done in about 20-30 min. The tricky part is changing the size of the head unit. You would have to get the surround for the larger screen from Toyota. and you have to look at the switches on the surround to see what differences there are.
I read that HUD uses a different windshield with a special coating for that purpose, so a whole new windshield is in order. It'd be cheaper to trade the car in for one with ATP than purchase the individual components and add retroactively. For example, the front emblem (for radar) alone is $800. Just adding the Park Assist (available in 2010/11 Five with ATP) would've been a nightmare.
Actually it is not a reflex coating, but special, wedged glass structure to minimize double image. The result is, that you feel the display more far from you and sharp. Pictures below illustrate the windshield layout and the projection principles. The "A" is a standard glass, "B" is a Prius HUD one.
