I've spent days trying to find info on it and what I have is so little. Why aren't people buying it?

 

My stock head unit shakes my side view mirrors, allows me to plug in my ipod/computer/etc...seems good enough for me.

EDIT: Derp, this is in the tc2 section. oops.

 

I didn't get the premium because I liked the style of a full touch screen display so that's why I went with an aftermarket brand on my 2011. (AVH-P4300DVD)

 

^^ this.
I have the Alpine, and I like it. But there are some things that bother me. Scrolling for a song on my ipod is like nails on a chalk board for starters. There is no easy way to skip straight to what you are looking for. Also, I was so excited about the Alpine video input cable, so my wife could watch movies on long drives, but I dident think about the fact that the screen pointed toward me.....or that my wifes' HTC Thunderbolt has a screen that is nearly as large, so why not just use that? In retrospect, I should have stuck with the stock unit and added a aftermarket DVD player/radio with a huge screen.

 

because i knew i was going to spend money on an aftermarket radio

 

severely overpriced for what you get. Money much better spend on aftermarket gear

 

when you get a stock head unit be it the upgrade or the basic its normally a POS and is severely overpriced... especially when you can spend the same amount ($800 i believe) and you can get a good dvd player and everything you need and still save money

 

Agree with all of the above.

 

The premium headunit is great. If you just won the lottery and are choosing between the base and premium headunit, hands down get the premium. But for the other 99.9% of us that would prefer to not waste our money, the premium headunit is overpriced. I have it in my car, but that's only because I bought it used with 5000 miles on it and I didn't get to choose. And more than likely, I will end up taking that out and buying a full touch screen with nav and dvd.

 

Im confused... are you guys all talking about the same radio?
The premium radio is only $479. It offers all the same things as the base, but has touchscreen. Plus you can add backup camera, navigation, or a video input... Thats pretty much on par with any aftermarket radio, if your comparing price to features, except this one is warrantied by Toyota, and functions with all the extra options the car comes with, bluetooth, ipod/usb interface, steering wheel controls...

EDIT: BTW, I have the premium, with video connected. I love it...

 

Features have nothing to do with it. It's a huge pain in the ___ to use. The interface is unintuitive, the buttons on the touchscreen aren't big enough, it takes a good 2-3 minutes to find a specific song (but the browser resets to default if you don't press a button for 15 seconds), and it has no idea how to shuffle; it either plays songs by song title or by genre. No in between, even when you press the shuffle button. Oh, and it randomly decides not to recognize your iPod/iPhone. Correcting this means you have to restart your device AND turn off the car.

It's a complete piece of ____.

 

Never once have I had to restart the car or the device, on any of my Scions, nor customer cars... unplug and plug back in... also, shuffle always works fine for me, and you forgot that it also can shuffle by playlist... and how else would you want it to shuffle, aside from Song, genre, album or playlist? Artist maybe? I cant think of any other option... But this leads me to believe that you dont use playlists on your device, which also seems reasonable to me that you cant find your songs either...

 

I agree with wellesey, never once have I had to unplug my phone and turn my car off. I agree that it's not worth the money, but I don't think that it's a piece of ____ at all

 

I love my premium deck. ive never had any of those problems.
btw WellesleyScion do you know the part number for the video hook up?
Thanks in advance.

 

As far as I understand they stopped making it. You used to be able to find it on this website, but I can't find it anymore.

http://www.optomizescion.com/Category.aspx?c=204&d=

I will sell you mine for $300! lol, not even...

 

he is talking about the 2012 tC not the 11 unless you somehow found a brand new car used and they are two completely different radios made by two different companies

 

I've had this problem twice. No, unplugging and plugging back in doesn't work, at least it didn't when it happened to me. And others; see 3-page forum discussion:

http://www.yoursciontc.com/forums/12...omm-error.html


Shuffle = random. That's why they call it shuffling when you take a bunch of cards and randomize them.

It's not that I can't find the songs, it's that it takes a much longer time than it needs to. I can get to any song on my iPhone in less than 10 seconds; it takes at least, say, 20 seconds and up to a minute on the HU. Half that time is spent looking at a screen intermittently when I'd rather be looking at the road.

And no, I don't use playlists. But that doesn't make a poorly-designed interface reasonable by any means.

I'm just providing an explanation as to why it's a terrible, terrible idea to buy this particular head unit. I can honestly say that, while power output and sound quality was inferior, I had a HU that cost a fifth as much as the premium with a user interface that was leaps and bounds more advanced. Five years ago.

 

I just read through this thread and it's making me feel a bit uneasy about the HU because my wife just added it to her purchase yesterday. Can anyone shed a bit more light on the unit just for information?

 

Most of us are just saying, that for the price, you could do better. More features, better interface ect ect. I wouldn't worry too much if your wife is anything like mine. As long as the ipod works she is happy. If your wife is a audionphile then she may want to look at something else. Its a decent unit, but if it was $100 less it would be more on par with pricing for a compairable aftermarket unit.

 

Oh ok... Yeah, iPod and Bluetooth, that's all she cares about. Now I don't feel that bad, thanks