Chinese GPS???

I believe this is the same as the one ottonavi.com sell, heres the link to my review http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-audio-electronics/97121-my-ottonavi-experience.html

 

Looks like a RoadRover original manufacturer. Try to ask the seller. The RoadRover is known as a good quality China producer. Its web page doesnt show the Prius variant, but who know how current the web is.

 

Looks like the unit uses CE6.0 and a Sirfprima 600MHZ CPU. Many of the Chines HU (and even name brand units) use older chips.

The unit costs over $600 shipped. Most of your savings will evaporate (US customers) if you have to ship the unit back for warranty work.

 

This unit isn't the same as the ottonavi unit IF the auction description is accurate.

Otto has a 6.2" screen vs 7"

This unit has the newer sirfprima product. The face of the unit looks the same but this unit has a newer design, again if the description is accurate.

 

I don't believe that its 7" it looks smaller.

 

This is a link to the companies website.
FeDom (China) Limited

Maybe some of the members who are knowledgeable about Chinese HU can comment.

glennhl--It would be hard for companies like Kenwood to market vehicle specific units. Retailers, probably even distributors, wouldn't want to stock dozens of versions of essentially the same unit. That's why dash kits and wiring harness were developed. I don't think there are enough DIYers to justify Kenwood coming out with a line designed for the self installer. Such a line would probably have to be sold via the internet and probably wouldn't sell enough units to offer the pricing we're looking for.

Audivox (mfg of Jensen and other brands) has a vehicle specific line of HUs (including one for the Prius). It's being sold under the Advent brand name. It's being marketed to Toyota dealers. The suggested installed price,including installation by a Toyota dealer is around 2K. I don't know what the "street price" is for a unit. This unit is warrantied by a US company. A US company is upgrading the software as needed.

That's probably as close as you're going to get.

You might see companies like Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony etc start to market vehicle specific radios IF every Toyota used the exact same. radio.

 

Companies like METRA and PAC have JBL adapters. It's not completely "plug and play". I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with this HU. The unit has front and back RCA outputs.

I got an email from otto. They claim their unit doesn't need an adapter.

 

Whether or not a JBL fitted Prius needs an adapter depends very much on where in the world you are. For example, here in Europe the JBL fitted Prius doesn't need an adapter, all that's needed to turn the underseat amp on and get the door speakers to work is a wire link to the amp power-on pin. The Chinese units have this as standard, so they automatically work in European JBL equipped Prii.

My guess is that the Chinese vendors may not fully understand that the US JBL equipped Prius needs a CAN bus signal to turn the under seat amplifier on, hence some of the confusion.

I still can't understand why Toyota fit two so totally different systems to near identical cars of the same model.

 

Jeremy--My email specified the US market. I understand your point. I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of the information I was given. The picture posted on this forum only shows a cable, but not any "black box". Although it's possible the HU sends the amp turn on signal through the bus I'm more then a little surprised that only this one mfg figured out what to do. Advent is marketing their product to Toyota dealers and it requires something like the PAC adapter.

edited to add Otto-Navi is out of CA. That doesn't necessarily mean they know the difference between European and American JBL systems.

 

why not get a Toyota Nav unit from a crashed car? More money sure, but no worries about fit and/or quality.

 

Some of the Chinese, OEM look, units certainly seem to have CAN bus connectivity, but whether or not they interface to the US JBL amp and provide the correct data to it I don't know for sure.

I assume that the Rosen (which is just a re-badged Chinese unit) has the right connectivity to send these signals to the JBL amp, so its reasonable to expect that some of the other, similar, units to be able to do the same.

I still find it very odd that Toyota choose to use two such radically different systems in the same car. They must have a good reason for doing this, but I'm darned if I can see it.

 

Perhaps it's a similar reason to why they have LHD and RHD variants.

 

Other factory look units including Rosen, Coagent (selling/FlyAudio), Advent etc require a JBL amp turn on adapter.

I'm edited my post to remove some links and to say it's possible this is the first unit not to require an external adapter (US market). The unit allows use of the AUX jack in the center console box.

 

Thanks for that, I'd assumed (wrongly) that the Rosen was a direct plug-and-play unit for the US Prius and didn't need the add-on interface.