If you were around on Earth Day for the PriusChat Earth Day Live Chat with Doug Coleman from the Prius product team, you already know half the story. The Prius will have a factory-installed iPod integration option for Navigation-equipped models beginning with August production and most likely hitting the shores in September. What Doug couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us back in April was the price of this upcoming option. Today we have news from Toyota's Flickr and Twitter feeds that the option will be MSRP $230 if installed in the factory and $240 plus labor to pick it up from the dealership.
A few things you should know about before you walk into your dealership asking for this to be installed:
- It's only available for Navigation-equipped Prius models
- It's called the USB Interface Kit. If you ask for the iPod integration unit you'll probably end up with this installed in your car (and it will remove your Satellite Radio functionality).
- Cost seems to be about in line with the cost of the existing OEM iPod integration unit.
- It does NOT work with the Zune, but it should work with USB sticks and the like.
I'm looking forward to playing with this one!
