2010 Prius II Bluetooth and iPod Connector

Figured I'd use my experience to help those out there trying to decide if they should buy the Bluetooth or an iPod Connector.

I am still learning and going through this experience so, I will be updating as I go, but here is what I know as of 7/26/09.

As it stands right now, I think the iPod Cable is a waste of money and I'll tell you why.

First of all, I am talking ONLY to Prius II owners, or prospective owners. Bluetooth on the Prius II is quite different than the Prius III and up.

Second I am working with a 3G iPhone. Your experience and expectations may be different with a regular iPod as it will not bluetooth, and you can throw it in the glovebox and not worry about trying to use other apps. See below...

Prius II has NO Handsfree buttons on the Steering Wheel. You CANNOT save any of your contact info to the Prius itself. I basically runs strictly from the phone that it is paired with. What they do give you is a button near your right knee that you push to call your last# Dialed, answer an incoming call, and put a call on hold. If you want to call out, you pick up your own phone, find your contact, and push the connect button. It then transfers to the car's system, over the stereo, and has a mic located near the right side of the steering wheel. All in all this works pretty well. I am being told I should good on the other end of the call, and the calls sound good to me. On top of and on the bottom of the main button, there is a volume up, and volume down. This is all there is to it as far as calls go.

There is a surprise here and if you are thinking of buying the iPod set-up, you may think again before spending the $329.00 on it.

If you are hooking up an iTouch, or iPhone with 3.0 abilities, (Or have another phone with bluetooth music streaming capability) The phone streams over the Bluetooth just fine. At this point you are totally controlling your music from your iPhone manually though vs. hooking it up to the iPod Set-up, and being able to control it from your dashboard.

So you have some things to weigh out here if you in fact have an iPhone, and not just an iPod.

Let's say you have the iPod set up in the Glove box. When you enter the car, you open the glove box, clip in your iPhone, and away you go. With the Bluetooth; an incoming call - no problem, Hit the button by your knee and it should drop the music out, connect with the phone call ,and when done go back to the music. If you want to make an outgoing call you will have to open the glove box, find the contact and select, then you can throw it back into the glovebox and continue your call, when it is done, it should go back to music. Not as super convenient as the Prius III which stores your numbers in the car's system, and you can voice connect to your contacts. But a workable solution. Now, what if you want to use an app like Maps when you are in the car listening to music. Again, you have to go in and get the thing out of the glovebox. The cord is only about 18" long, so it doesn't come out very far. Not real convenient or safe.

What may be better and cheaper for you is to simply go with the Bluetooth option. You can then keep the phone out, and accessable, it gives you the capabilities of both the phone, and the music, and since the iPod function works in the background, you can still access your apps.

• There are several apps out there for voice dialing with 3.0 (3G - 3Gs have the capability built in I think) I haven't used one yet personally, but I think I will be trying it. AGAIN, remember if the phone is in the glovebox, you will have to get it out, unlock it, find and choose the App, and then at that point you could use the voice dial. You may or may not find this beneficial.

••At the moment, my iPod Set-up is not working real well anyway, so I am contacting the dealer about that and should have some better info on how that works to write about early this coming week.
(Basically what happens is when you plug it in, the iPhone buzzes twice every 20 sec, and is in scan mode where it plays a 10 Sec clip of a song and then moves on to the next. No playlist control. I have read the manual (Which is dated 08' and good up to iPhone 2.2 when printed) I have renamed my playlists all caps TOYOTA1 ..etc.) I even hooked up an older Video iPod and same thing happens - except for the buzzing, cause they simply did not have a vibrate function. I will fill you in on how that goes after I talk to the techies at Toyota.

•••I know many will say, let the buyer beware. I don't know how much you have researched this stuff, but many things on this car are new, or not very well documented. Maybe I should have been able to find this out prior to buying the car, but I thought I had done my homework. If you look up Bluetooth on Toyota Owners site, there is documentation for the With Nav, and without Nav. I figured I was without Nav. Oh Contrare mon friar, They are talking about a Prius III and up with out Nav. I still cannot find a place that explains the difference, hence I am writing this so maybe others won't spend the money if they don't need to. DON'T TAKE WHAT THE SALESPEOPLE TELL YOU. I have pretty much learned that they will let you believe what you think the car has or will do. I really don't think they know, and they figure you have done your homework and know better than they do. Maybe they just teach them that this will sell more accessories. I do not know. Just Make sure you do your homework, and if possible take a look at the exact model.

Disclaimer: I am a private owner, and if my advice is wrong, let me know so I can update it. I'm just giving advice as I see it through my personal experience.

 

There are third party apps now, but you have to launch the app first. Not as nice as the 3GS

 

I have the Blue Logic set up.

Besides being disappointed that the Prius II was substantially substandard to the Prius III and up Bluetooth capabilities and integration, the quality of the sound, both how you are heard and how the call sounds is very acceptable. It is a simple system but capable.

Note: The iPhone's Bluetooth will stream quite well through the system as well. One observation for you is that you then control the volume solely thru the bluetooth's control. All you have is volume up, and volume down. You cannot use balance, fade, bass or treble. True you can key into your iPhone's settings>ipod>EQ and use the controls there. You can also effect the volume by simply turning the iPhone up. >>>NOTE: It only plays through the two Door Speakers<<<

 

Update to Previous Log:

Took the car into the dealer on Day II of ownership. (Bummer) Techs are baffled as to why the iPhone/iPod is doing the skipping thing. So they are going to replace it. Personally, I haven't met one person that can give me straight answers about the unit. I think all this is too new to them and they aren't sufficiently trained on the equipment. Nobody can give me a simple answer to the question, "Is the iPod Adaptor compatible with iPhones, specifically the 3G Model". Nobody in service, nobody in sales, and I can't find a place on any Toyota website. I even asked if there was a phone number to call, or website to look at. The tech said there are no alerts or problems listed about the iPod adaptor. So I'm a Guinea Pig.

I had this question that just got blank stares. Let's assume the thing does work when they replace it. If I take the iPhone, and plug it in, what happens? 1) Is the unit/or iPhone smart enough to block out the Bluetooth Music Streaming while keeping the Phone ability open for incoming/outgoing calls? 2) Does the unit shut off all Bluetooth operations in order to utilize the adaptor as its primary function while plugged in - In doing so the phone does not accept or allow phone calls and acts solely as an iPod? -or- 3) Having both systems, the phone defaults into bluetooth mode and only streams music even thought it is plugged in? They couldn't tell me. Like I said, it's all too new.

I'll let you know what I find out when they have replaced it.