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AVIC-F700BT in a 2006 with stock audio.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by azzieo, Jan 23, 2009.

  1. azzieo

    azzieo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Last night I installed AVIC-F700BT in my 2006 with stock audio (now without).

    I'm still waiting for the PAC box to connect wheel controls, and also for Scosche to release the promised TA2103B double din kit.

    Overall - easy install, mostly because of all the great info I found on priuschat and avic411 boards.

    Thank you!
     
  2. Tripod137

    Tripod137 New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2005
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    Location:
    Long Island
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    May as well start uninstalling that thing now. I have a 2009 Sienna and had two 700BTs installed. First was installed at the dealer. It crashed and died after 1 week. The second was installed by an installed (on the dealership's dime). That one crashed after 2 weeks. They are crap. They don't integrate well w/ the steering wheel controls (at least on the Sienna...volume up and down, voice button, scan up and down, etc.)

    What else is bad about that system? Well, it isn't easy to turn off the radio. Lets say you go to a driveup window. To turn off the radio in the Prius, just hit the power button...place your order....turn the power back on. With the Pioneer system, you can either turn off the radio OR mute it. To turn it off, you must go through 2 menu options to get to the Audio Off screen. If you want to mute the radio, you must depress that little "joystick" button on the left and hold it down for 3 seconds to mute the radio. If your hand moves any, you will activate the Voice Control system. Very annoying. Hey, you can also just turn the volume down from the steering wheel (w/ that annoying ping everytime the volume goes down 1 notch) or you can TURN that little joystick thing on the unit. Since it IS a joystick, you can't just "roll your finger" along its side to turn the wheel...you have to hold it w/ 2 fingers and just keep turning. Very annoying.

    Try muting the radio while you are driving. The guys who designed this thing didn't seem to bother to consider that the car might actually be moving while you try to operate it. With the car bouncing around, while trying to mute the radio..you will....let up on the joystick (that you are trying to hold down for 3 seconds) and end up activating the voice control...or your finger will shift up....which is some other function...or your finger will shift left/right..which (I think) is the radio scan button.

    And the backup camera sucks too. I guess if you have never seen the toyota backup camera, this may be fine, but I was "spoiled" by the toyota camera in the prius.

    Do yourself a favor. Get a different nav system. Yeah, the pioneer is slick and all, but it isn't ready for prime time (btw...my second nav system STILL has my CD in it. Since I and the installers, couldn't power the thing up, they couldn't eject the CD. Still haven't heard from them.

    I ended up going with the Eclipse system. I am told it is the "lower end" model of the Toyota nav. Apparently Toyota owns Eclipse. You can tell by the interface being similar. The backup camera is way better than the Pioneer and comparable to the Toyota cam. The Bluetooth (in my model) is a separate unit...but it works just fine and we haven't had any trouble with it.
     
  3. azzieo

    azzieo Junior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Oh well - you probably know, but the original firmware was apparently horrible, and Pioneer released updates which are easy to install. I have a backup camera on the MFD, so that's not a concern, and I'm sure there's plenty of quirky design solutions that might need some time getting used to.. Btw, the (unverified yet) claim is that the PAC SWI-PS module can be programmed to either turn off or mute the device, using the wheel controls, but I'll report on that after I install and program it...

    In any case though - for under $500, having nav/mp3/sdcard/usb/bt/voice controlled ipod and phone/MUCH better sound than the stock player/ - I don't expect it to be perfect.

     
  4. jgraham103

    jgraham103 New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2009
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    Location:
    Charlotte, NC
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    OK. I'll bite. Did you get your PAC box and Sosche double din kit installed? Pictures and how your experience has been would be informative. I know Pioneer has released a few firmware updates for this line of units. I believe there is one just released or being released this month. I think they even have newer 2009 models. Just curious. If you could include details on any functionality lost by replacing the stock head would be interesting, also (ie. no beeps when using the MFD touchscreen, etc)