2008 Prius audio upgrade

$3800 was the selling price, but the county taxes and fees were another $400 (paid when I got my tag). I saw a lot of Priuses on sale, and the ones in good shape with anywhere from 130k-180k miles were well over 4k, with several over 5k. Technically, they all blue book valued that, so it isn't like people were asking way too much. Now, when I looked within 500 miles I started seeing more options for less but in my area they don't want to let them go for that. I felt anything in the 3k range, lower miles, and really good shape was a good deal. I was getting tired of looking, and I needed a car. I also didn't want to have to drive 4 hours for one. This one had new tires and pads as well. So that's another 300-400$ in the value. I did drive 2 1/2 hours, but he drove an hour also to cut the time down.

I still feel good about it, and I am really enjoying it. There will always be a better deal somewhere else, but if you don't settle on something you'll never get to just move on with life and enjoy one.

 

The audio upgrade was a success, however, I did come away with some broken trim pieces lol. I might end up replacing them. My friend helping me used some epoxy to put them back together. They look bad, but it works for now. When I was removing the old speakers and tweeters I found one door had a JBL woofer, while the others were all standard. A different door had a JBL tweeter, but it wasn't connected lol. Now it has nice JBL aftermarket components all the way around. I ended up running new wire just to avoid any wiring issues (with so many inconsistencies, I didn't know for sure what wiring was there. I also figured if there was any loss in quality, it would just knock that concern out.

The wiring was a pain because I don't do this kind of thing often. I work on computers lol. I did find a GREAT tip online about using a smaller hard plastic tube to run through the rubber grommet between the door and panel, then stick your wiring through that. I wasn't able to get the wiring all the way through the tube, so I just got it in enough to pull the tube out and the wiring came with it. For the back doors, I had to drill a hole right beside the existing harness behind the seatbelt panel. I then put heat shrink on the cable to help protect it from the metal around the hole since it was sharp. Everything was ran under trim and carpet. Waiting for my sub to arrive tomorrow to install it. Just has to be plugged in.

It sounds great, but I still wonder if I should have gone with a different set of speakers. I used higher end Kenwoods back in the day, and unless my memory is just off they sounded better. While I'm still in a return window, I need to decide if I want to go with something else. I considered infinity as well. I will probably keep what I have, but it isn't that big of a deal to remove panels and replace the speakers since everything is already run for them.

 

As a side note, I've removed several panels in my history doing these kinds of upgrades, and this has to be the easiest panel to remove yet. Two screws and it pops off.

 

I had one out of 4 woofers, and 1 out of 4 tweeters (but on different doors lol) that were jbl. Everything else was standard. No amp under the seat, nor cables. I got the sub in today, and messed with it for about 10 min. Hard to say yet, but I think it will work very well. I would like a little more rumble, but it isn't tuned yet really. For $95 shipped new with a wire kit, it's very hard to beat.