Will the 2012 Prius III get Entune upgrade?

My wife and I are considering getting a Prius as our heavy duty commuter vehicle (I am getting ready to start a new job with a much longer commute so gas mileage and maintenance costs are becoming more of a concern).

We test drove the 2011 Prius and she was pretty happy with it. I thought it drove okay, if nothing like the sportier sedans I am used to driving.

One thing that really bugged me though was how dated the nav/instrumentation is. I really don't want to spend $28K+ on a car that can't even fully integrate with my iPhone.

I did some research and saw some info about the Entune system coming on the Prius V. It looks like it will be more of what I would want to get on a new vehicle (for comparison purposes the Ford Sync system on the new Focus is an absolutely top notch telematics system). I found a previous thread on this subject but it's over two months since the last post.

Does anyone yet know if the 2012 regular Prius will get this as a model year addition? My dealer had no information on the 2012 and said that with the parts shortages, etc, he expects the 2011 to be rebadged for 2012 with absolutely no upgrades or changes. He said not to expect them to even start rolling into dealerships until Jan or Feb of next year and the supply will be very very tight all next year.

 

The reason I asked here is that I don't believe my dealer is actually very well informed. The sales person seemed to be just "winging" it and did not even check with the sales manager or purchasing manager.

I don't want to get into an argument about the telematics in the prius vs. other systems. I have owned/driven a lot of cars and it really did not impress me very much. Newer systems can do a lot of additional things, such as control of Pandora on my iPhone through the vehicle audio controls, bluetooth download/sync of contacts, text messages, etc.

As I said, I was just checking for additional info that my dealer might not have had, did not want to get into a debate.

 

Well, the reality is that entertainment and NAV systems, etc, are one of the few places that dealers can add a relatively low cost addition to the car that turns a very large profit for them.

However, aftermarket systems have their own headaches.

The way that this stuff will inevitably go is that the user's mobile will set up the car infotainment environment through a BT or hard cabled link and it will also be used to set up the car's power seat position, mirrors, etc.

Eventually the car system will simply be an apps suite that talks to the phone, with differentiation being made for the degree of integration with the largest number of phone manufacturers, the size and quality of the on screen display and perhaps a few value added features that users subscribe to on an annual basis to give the vehicle manufacturer more money.

I believe that my original post might have ruffled some feathers. However, I am genuine in my report that the current system in the Prius, from what I have seen of it, comes up lacking compared to some of the other manufacturers offerings. I definitely don't want to by a 2+ year old infotainment system when the newest one, which will be far more upgradeable is just around the corner.

If they refuse to upgrade the system for next year I will have to decide if it is even worth getting the nav/ipod integration at all, I might be better off simply going aftermarket at that point.

 

Thanks Paradox, that's kind of what I thought. From my experience with other enthusiast forums, the members often are better informed than retail/dealer networks are about model year changes.

Looks like I will need to hold tight for a few more months to see if the info on the MY12 becomes available.

I might also arrange another test drive to see how good the iPod integration, etc, is on the current Prius telematics system.