After Market questions

I (and many others) put in an aftermarket radio in the slot below the OEM radio (the pocket with the fold-down-door). It was obviously designed for this purpose, as all the slots, holes and bumps line up. You will obviously loose the pocket and the front of the radio cannot be too big: I think my Volvo's JVC AVX33 would NOT fit due to the larger front.
I did not need any plugs as I could re-use the aftermarket plugs from my aftermarket carkit.
But starting from scratch, you'll need one or two wiringkits and you need to read up on the magical 'resistor'. Without it you will loose AC control...

Have a read here, especially for the wiringkits mentioned. Google them to get an idea what is involved.

 

As far as the GPS functions, a smartphone has much better features that the Prius and is much cheaper for hardware, and usually updates are free to maps etc. A standard GPS such as a Garmin or Tom Tom is also a good option.
To update the Prius system maps, requires a DVD that runs over $300 each time you want to renew maps.

 

unless you live in a very high crime area where your car is likely to be broken into, take the stock unit and put it in the trash. then get a double din head unit and install it. its very easy if you know how to do it. if you're the kind of person that twists wires together and then wraps masking tape around it, get someone who knows what their doing to do it for you. and yes you will need a wiring kit and a scosche adapter kit, both available from ebay. you don't want to hack your stock harness up, so get the kits. i just installed a kenwood in mine and it sounds much better; today i will set up the bluetooth.

 

update: bluetooth works fine, and the aux jack is great to have. usb port works w/ my phone, but i haven't figured how to make it work w/ my blackberry which i use as a music player. the metra axxess automatically programmed itself so i have full use of steering wheel buttons. damn i love my car. i bought the kenwood ddx419 from ebay; if you have > $900 to blow, the higher priced units have your voice control, gps and more. don't wait. do it.

 

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 harness 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 "magic 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.

 

the wiring kit came w/ the resistor pre-installed. i don't have the jbl, so its a little different. if your installer can get an aftermarket head unit to work w/ the jbl power amp under the rf seat, he's good. otherwise the jbl amp will need to be replaced with the head unit, and pretty much the whole system will need to be rewired. as long as the 68Ω resistor is installed correctly, the climate and energy monitor should work normal. nav has a separate unit under the lf seat and i don't know if it needs the jbl to function.
"gun owning prius driver" did have the jbl removed; he might be able to tell you more about what your system requires.

 

I want to try Pioneer SPH-DA01 on mine. Quite frankly I'm running out of my mind here.

What kind of connectors/harness did you use? Can't find, I have 2005 Prius and local audio places keep offering me Toyota's general connectors/harness which clearly doesn't fit. I'll try to add links later.
They're telling me that they can joint it manually with the cost of around 50 euros (65 USD). When looking at your unit seems like BS talk to me...


[EDIT]: My current Prius has an OEM radio with a backside like this - http://images.sc1.netdna-cdn.com/D/Toyota-Lexus-R-1591-detailed-image-01.jpg, they are offering me connectors/harness like that - http://www.car-hifi-radio-adapter.eu/en/media/images/50011eu-36.jpg.

 

the wiring kit i bought on ebay. i think it was scosche brand, but i'm not sure. the mounting kit from ebay was scosche. also bought the metra axxess steering wheel button interface from ebay.