it's still a sh*tty stock deck with virtually no equilization. waste of money upgrade.

 

I checked with Elmore Toyota/Scion today. When I told them I wanted to know the price the salesman quoted me 260. I told him that quite a few people had said it is around 900. He called the parts department but they were busy. He said he would give me a call with the price.
I should have said OK I'll buy it right now if it is 260. To be determined though.
The instal cannot be that much. Access to the HU is quite easy. Since I am not an auto-audio aficionado are there aftermarket HU's with iPod capability, noise leveling, and a non-disco look?
Most HU's I see make it seem you want to be in a club with the visuals. I have no need for that.

 

if i can get it for $260, i will get it in a heartbeat.

 

Damn. I'm all over that for $260. I was looking at the Harmon Kardon solution, but I'd still have to deal with the stupid pushbutton volume control on the 2005. $260 is worth it for the dial-volume alone. the iPod integration is just a bonus.

 

The Harman Kardon Drive and Play will not be out until October/November. HK anticipates this will be just as hot as the JBL On Stage iPod player. It will be sold at an endless number of retailers, you will not have any issues buying one. The problem will be finding one when they first come out if you are not already on a retailers buy list.

It is FM modulated so it can be installed in the matter of minutes, or you can hard wire it as you would any inline FM modulated system.

The system is cool looking, functional, clean install and I think it will be very appealing. I reviewed it in one of the companies top of the line Mercedes Benz demo cars. To me it sounded pretty good for a FM modulated and MP3 music.

As to sound quality, well it is a MP3 recording, which everyone knows the dynamic range and audio bandwidth is limited. As you up the sound systems performance the short comings of MP3 could become apparent. It depends on the individual, I think the overall sound quality (MP3) is good with stock or mild upgraded mobile audio systems.

I do not own an iPod, I will be buying one now as the Drive and Play is the one item that has finally pushed me over into being an iPod owner. Drive and Play, yes I am buying one for my Siena.

 

I got the iPod HU for my NB tC. IMHO, it was well worth the $260 and the final deciding factor in me getting the scion. I love the way it connects out of sight and with no wires anywhere...I hated having so many tangled wires in the saturn with the car charger and cassette adapter. It keeps the ipod out of view which is good so I will never forget to put it back and have it left out for thieves, and I have always preferred stock decks for my stereos...fancy units just attract thieves, and I don't need 400 equalizer settings or a visualizer.

 

If it goes through the FM player, then the sound quality is not great because there are already FM players on the market, and they suck...FM is just crap

 

my dealer said that it would be $500 for the head unit and then plus labor, tax and everything else.

i asked for a discount, and he said i might be able to get a 10% discount...but that is still a LOT of money

he said there are some car adaptars, but aren't those all FM transmitters?

he told me to try to sell my 6 Disc changer so it would be cheaper...what should i do to sell it?

 

The 2006 model doesn't have the six disc option any longer. You either get the standard single disc setup or for $260 more you can get the upgraded single disc unit w/ipod hookup. You can also add the Sirus or XM option for another $449

 

i know...the dealer was saying i could make some money if i sold my 6 disc CD to someone who only has a single disc player...my salesperson was trying to save me some moeny

 

No offense intended to anyone, but if you are paying $900 for the iPod upgrade to your pre-06 Scion, you are getting ripped-off.

As a non upgrade (i.e, stand-alone) item, the iPod head unit is about $450. That is to say, that anyone can walk into their dealer and just buy the deck w/o installation for $450 (not discounted). As we are all aware, many vendors on this site offer discounted parts, so you should be able to get the head unit and all associated wiring for <$400 in the near future.

Installation on pre-'06 models looks to be a plug-and-play, with the exception of the fact that you will have to find a place for the iPod interface jack (the blank already exists in the console for '06+). If the iPod head unit doesn't come with a harness, you will need to buy it and the iPod interface jack as well.

If you have even a basic eptitude for wiring, it shouldn't take you more than an hour or two to wire the iPod head unit into your pre-'06. If you are completely uncomfortable with the idea, your local install shop should quote you about 2 hours for the job, with labor rated per hour running around $50 mark. So figure $100 - $150 for a local shop to do an install. If they are quoting it as an "all day" or a "6 hour" job, they are fleecing you.

That totals out for $550 - $600 if you paid full retail for everything and didn't do any of the install yourself. If you can pick-up a discounted deck and do the install yourself, you could conceivably do the job for around $400.

As an aside, the "new" basic (non-iPod) head units ae popping-up on eBay and going for <$150. The install procedure is basically the same, but instead of finding a spot for the iPod interface jack you will need to find a space for the analog mini-jack. And, of course, that input jack just acts as an aux-in and thus the head unit will not display track information.

 

I got the upgrade, and it's really nice. All it is you are paying for is the interface box and connector I think. It's around the two hundred price so it's not that bad. An interface unit costs just as much. But this one is hidden away in your compartment so no one really has any hint whether you have an iPod or not. With your flap down there are no indications of a device. At first I thought, why they wouldn't be flashy, and show off your iPod. If you think about it though your iPod can cost so much more than your CD deck, and could be easily stolen if you don't take it with you. Like me... I am lazy about that.

 

my dealer said it would be $500 plus tax and installation...but they would give me a 10% duscount...i'm going to see if they could wave the installation instead of the discount

 

The last few posts regarding the "upgrade" to the HU on the 06's are incorrect. The HU is completely different for the iPod version. It has two *****/rheostats instead of only one on the stock 06 HU. One of the ***** is used to navigate the iPod from the HU.
Compare the pics from the scion site.


I don't doubt that it would cost less than the 900 noted by some. I would like to know the price quoted from Scion for the unit separate.

 

I stated that the iPod HU *is* completely different from the new-for-'06 "base" headunit. The iPod HU has iLink, whereas the new-for-'06 base HU has an aux-in only.

I checked the local dealer last week, and the iPod HU (what Scion calls the "upgrade" HU) is $450 retail... boxed, no upgrade. They didn't have pricing for the base unit yet.

If you check eBay you will my research is corraborated by a Toyota dealer who is selling a NIB iPod HU for $439.50 with "Buy-It-Now", which coincides with what I was told by the local dealer (i.e., $450).

 

My mistake. Thought someone stated it was the same HU. Not sure if it was you or not.
No Worries

 

if I wasn't clear - my bad.

 

i was just looking at this thread again, and i realized that there are 3 silver ****...the picture on scion.com has only one...but that is one the xA...

http://www.scion.com/showroom/xa/gallery/

does the xA have a different system than the xB?

 

You are looking at the difference between the *new* stock head unit (one ****, aux-in only) vs. the *new* "upgrade" head unit (three *****, iLink).

 

so they don't use that HU anymore?