New double din in 2005 Prius

nice, can you snap up some pics of how it looks during the day? also how much was the installation?

 

I have a 2006 Prius with the premium JBL stereo and navigation system. I am looking at upgrading it to the double din Pioneer AVS -X8500BHS which comes out next month, April 2013, which has an HDMI port for iPhone 5 video support. The installer at Car Toys in Irving, TX has told me that he can hook this up with the steering wheel cables to allow the steering wheel buttons to work for the phone and audio controls. He said the A/C steering wheel controls should also continue to work and the A/C temp info should continue to be displayed on the OEM display which remains in the car - but he is not positive about this. He wasn't sure if the Energy Monitor stuff would still work as well and display on the OEM screen without the original JBL radio - and said if this was the case he would move the JBL radio to the back of the car and extend the cables to keep the Energy Monitor features active. He also thought the OEM nav would no longer work without the JBL radio - but i wasn't as concerned about this since the Pioneer 8500 provides for app mirroring and will allow me to use m iPhone mapping app to display the gps nav map on the Pioneer unit.

I haven't found anyone who could actually confirm what will still work and what won't work in my Prius once the JBL radio is removed. It looks like your picture shows the Energy Monitor display was active on your OEM screen as well as the Kenwood unit was active. Did you have to keep the original JBL radio to accomplish this? Also, I have read several posts indicating the A/C no longer works once the JBL radio is removed without a special resistor being installed. Did you have this issue?

Any feedback you can provide on the upgrade requirements and OEM features you were able to keep or lost once the upgraded radio unit was installed would be appreciated. I'd love to have the bluetooth streaming, phone access and other HD radio and app features, but don't want to cripple the other car features.