2013 Prius v Three Rear Speakers

Good luck....amazing how clueless most of the salesmen are...

 

There's another thread on this elsewhere too. The audio system for the rear speakers is almost nonexistent. The sales guy at my dealer did the same for me, we went to another car. Same result, could hardly hear them. Apparently, all of the cars are the same, very little sound from the rear speakers.

So I don't know what the problem is, but it's an obvious design issue somewhere.

 

You have to fade back to them and even then they are muffled by the placement behind the front seat back. Others have installed speaker level input amps with good results.

 

I've faded them almost 100% rear, jumped in the backseat, and still barely heard them. It's not the placement, it's more than likely something bad in the head units. In all these years, this is the first vehicle with this problem that I've ever been in.

 

Not complaining, but we don't have this muffled rear speaker volume issue with our 2012 Prius v Five. They aren't booming loud, but sitting in the front with the seats at full rearward extension on the tracks, and fading front to back to front it's clear there are rear speakers, and they produce volume comparable to the fronts.

 

Must be the different head units. I noticed that as well in the Five version. I'm not as picky as I used to be with sound systems, but it's a pretty lame setup for a car that retails for $27/28 k.

I'm wondering if they set up the cars mostly the same, but left out something for the V Three rear speakers. We took a long drive with four people last year, and the rear seat passengers were saying they were wondering what we heard, because they heard nothing. First time I knew about it.

 

I'm not so picky any more either. My last custom audio job was a Becker in a 1983 Porsche...

 

so all three years of the Three have this same issue.

Personally, I'd rather do an inexpensive amp if that fixes things than a recall. Probably not enough sold, and/or not enough real complaints about this issue for Toyota to have noticed it.

 

We have the same problem with the rear speaker in our new 2014 Prius V and we made a Youtube video to show it. We tried to work with the Dealer and Toyota customer support, but they say its normal.

 

I do not care what is done, as long as they FIX this issue. It is not normal at all, and considering the Prius V is a family vehicle and seems to be the only model that has this issue, it is horrible. I personally sat in other Prius models, listening to the stereos and appears only the V is the one with this issue. If Toyota wanted to give the driver the sound experience and changed the design to reflect this experience, they should have done it in a 2 passenger vehicle, not a 4 passenger.

Seriously Toyota, other employees at the dealership can observe the same issue we are seeing. You claim it is a 6 speaker system, but WHY? the rear speakers are useless, and there is a video to show this.

We deserve to be provided with what it should have with equipment on the vehicle and all working as it should. I will continue to fight to get this resolved also. If we tamper with it, it can void our warranty, so Toyota..... It is your responsibility to correct this.

 

Nothing you post here will be seen by anyone at Toyota who can help. PriusChat is just a forum made up of owners like yourself.

 

Thanks, I think she hopes Toyota follows this site and will take note that this is an issue with the Prius v.

 

Actually, the dealership I use and Toyota Headquarters in which I opened a complaint with a case number are now aware of this site per me. I have directed them here, and even read some of the post to them when I went higher up to get this resolved. At least if the headquarters of Toyota does not follow up in reference to the chat here, the dealership has listed it in there case which they have to respond back with. So, it is a good push in the right direction.