Toyota touch screen upgrade

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by Bowflex

Any reason why everyone is going with the OEM touchscreen radios instead of aftermarket? I haven't heard great things about the stock radio.

Mostly because they are new to cars and don't know any better.

Take a trip to your local car audio shop and ask. They can help you price out great head unit with all the bells and whistles you can ask for.
And still cheaper than anything oem and with room to upgrade.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Bowflex

Any reason why everyone is going with the OEM touchscreen radios instead of aftermarket? I haven't heard great things about the stock radio.

everyone wants to only change the radio, but keep the entire rest of the system as it came. me? i gutted everything.

[Bowflex]

Originally Posted by xdavidx

Stock radio is not great, but changing it out is quirky and has issues. They don't make any units that truly fit properly for the US market, so you either have to get one that has that aftermarket looking adapter around it or order one from asia/australian that really wasn't supposed to work with out cars. As one person stated, you need to get a wiring harness from an australian company that never responds and even then it has issues. Also, the bluetooth microphone won't work anymore no matter what you change it to and all the aftermarket ones result in fuzzy phone calls. That's not even getting into the speaker/amp issues as they have a very particular setup with speaker sizes that are impossible to get and non standard ohm ratings. Everytime anyone does anything with the stereo it somehow turns into a 14 page thread of issues.
I'm sure there will be someone out there who is going to respond to this saying their aftermarket swap was super easy and great if it was, but I've seen enough go awry that I wouldn't opt for anything but factory plug n play.

Guess I'm that guy lol. I had a headunit, amp, sub, and backup camera added with no issues. I've swapped headunits in every car I had and it’s never made the car worse compared to the stock stereo. CarPlay and Android Auto are enough for me to go with an aftermarket stereo.

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

Mostly because they are new to cars and don't know any better.

Take a trip to your local car audio shop and ask. They can help you price out great head unit with all the bells and whistles you can ask for.
And still cheaper than anything oem and with room to upgrade.

That makes sense. Some people probably just want the plug in play upgrade, but for a few more dollars they can get wayyy more functionality. That’s why I was confused.

Originally Posted by soundman98

everyone wants to only change the radio, but keep the entire rest of the system as it came. me? i gutted everything.

Same. I don’t think the stock unit looks better than the aftermarket one, so I got rid of mine as soon as I could.

[NCtoBRZ]

Originally Posted by xdavidx

Stock radio is not great, but changing it out is quirky and has issues. They don't make any units that truly fit properly for the US market, so you either have to get one that has that aftermarket looking adapter around it or order one from asia/australian that really wasn't supposed to work with out cars. As one person stated, you need to get a wiring harness from an australian company that never responds and even then it has issues. Also, the bluetooth microphone won't work anymore no matter what you change it to and all the aftermarket ones result in fuzzy phone calls. That's not even getting into the speaker/amp issues as they have a very particular setup with speaker sizes that are impossible to get and non standard ohm ratings. Everytime anyone does anything with the stereo it somehow turns into a 14 page thread of issues.
I'm sure there will be someone out there who is going to respond to this saying their aftermarket swap was super easy and great if it was, but I've seen enough go awry that I wouldn't opt for anything but factory plug n play.

I will say that it was a pain installing my Pioneer head unit with Maestro RR... but that was primarily because I pretty much had to figure it out myself since the harness that idatalink was selling for the Maestro at the time that I did the install was far from plug n play and I had to add pins/wires to get the backup camera and factory amp working properly. However, with the latest SU2 harness from idatalink and the help of threads including my own install thread on here... it would be a pretty easy install for anybody doing it at this point.

Aside from that, you are pretty far off base on most everything else. The adapter plate that I used makes it look as clean if not cleaner than the factory head unit. The aftermarket mic that came with my Pioneer radio is crystal clear... it actually sounds better than the factory head unit/mic. I’m still using the factory speakers but the audio quality is MUCH better than it was with the factory head unit... by a long shot. As another person stated, the added functionality of having Android Auto/CarPlay is worth the swap alone. All of the other features and greatly improved audio quality just make it all the better.

I just don’t see the point in swapping one garbage factory head unit for another, but to each their own.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

..And still cheaper than anything oem and with room to upgrade.

Not sure that's true. I swapped out my original '13 radio for the touchscreen '14 with NAV/GPS for well under $500 and 15 minutes of work. The radios are easy enough to find, with all the swaps going on.

I'm actually considering it again because it would be only marginally more expensive than getting a map upgrade.

I stuck with OEM mainly because I didn't want the extra trim piece as I haven't seen one that looks good in the car. I'm really surprised someone hasn't made a full piece of trim to replace the existing one for a double din swap.

That said I have no issue with aftermarket headunits, every other car in our family has an aftermarket unit in it that I installed.

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Not sure that's true. I swapped out my original '13 radio for the touchscreen '14 with NAV/GPS for well under $500 and 15 minutes of work.

I get where you are coming from, but for under $500 you can have a kick ass touchscreen with CarPlay and android, and with back up camera, maserto link thingy (that app that's basically is OB2 scan tool) and with room to upgrade.
Yeah install won't look as great, but still pretty much plug and play if you pay for the extra plug and play wireing kit.
Yeah it would take an hour to install, but at the end of the day would you work a little extra to have way more features.

Like I said before just take a looky see at your local car audio shop, ask what's new. I would say Best Buy, but good luck trying to find a knowledgeable person there. Online is great, but it's a nightmare if you don't know what to look for.

[Bowflex]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

I get where you are coming from, but for under $500 you can have a kick ass touchscreen with CarPlay and android, and with back up camera, maserto link thingy (that app that's basically is OB2 scan tool) and with room to upgrade.
Yeah install won't look as great, but still pretty much plug and play if you pay for the extra plug and play wireing kit.
Yeah it would take an hour to install, but at the end of the day would you work a little extra to have way more features.

Like I said before just take a looky see at your local car audio shop, ask what's new. I would say Best Buy, but good luck trying to find a knowledgeable person there. Online is great, but it's a nightmare if you don't know what to look for.

The guys at my local Best Buys are actually pretty good. I had them do my installs and I don't have any problems.