Looking For Ipod Advice

[BigTezza]

Hi

I've just bought a 57 plate D-4D and want to play my iPod in the car. At the moment I'm using a £10 FM transmitter from Amazon and it's pretty awful to be honest. A friend is going to lend me his Griffin model to see if that improves things but I'm wondering what others have used to get a permanent iPod connection.

I live in Exeter and there only seems to be one local independent car audio place that seems to have any knowledge of how to get a connection in there. I've seen Dice/XLink (?) adaptors on the internet which would seem OK as the car's unit has CD changer capability already in place. However some reviews I've read say that you can control the iPod from the steering wheel buttons and others say you can't. The local shop I mentioned couldn't tell me exactly what they would fit as it's not something they keep in stock but oddly enough they knew the exact price - £150 fitted.

The other option they put forward was to change the head unit for one which is iPod ready but (sorry if I'm showing my newbie owner ignorance here) it all looks built-in to me so gawd knows how they would do it or if it would look ugly in the silvery central console.

What have other people done? Are there pikkies anywhere of what a new head unit looks like in the central console? Does anyone have experience of the Dice/XLink thingies?

BTW - is it just me (likely) or are the rear Speakers almost useless even when listening to CD or radio? If I fade the sound to the back it's like I'm listening to music 5 miles away in a padded dustbin.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks

[BigTezza]

Oh well, I tried

[ormi]

Oh well, I tried

go to toyota and get them to fit their ipod lead i've fitted a few(very simple 20mins max) and its hidden in the top glove box on the drivers side and its approx £200 fitted.

it charges and you control your pod via the stereo.

[BigTezza]

I knew there was somebody out there! Thanks for the advice.

I did try and wangle Toyota's own iPod connection as part of the deal when I bought the car but they wouldn't play ball. Instead they tried to take me for nearly £300. I told them that the Toyota website was advertising it as costing £200 but they tried to tell me that it depends what the dealership's hourly workshop rate is and the web price was a factory-fitted price. Not sure if that's sphericals or not.

I'll ring around a couple other dealerships and see what they can offer.

Thanks again.

[alfiejts]

The answer is yes - you can get a cable to connect and properly control your iPod.

On Toyotas it connects to the CD-changer socket on the back of the radio.

If you have the will a nd can follow instructions, its a simple job to unfasten bits of the dashboard to get to the back of the radio, but if not, a local auto-electrician or local car radio shop can do it for you.

There are two cable types for Toyotas, as they changed the type of cd-changer socket - hence the confusion probably in the local shop.

There's one here for example, but I haven't done a wide search....

Just Google "Toyota ipod adapter cable" or similar and you'll find more...

This firm wants £100 for the cable and £80 for fitting.

My 2008 SR has a different radio (and different cable) but I got a cable from the US for £20 and fitted it easily myself.... There's a thread on this forum with instructions to follow. Yours will be similar but the cable will be a different one...

http://www.ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk/iPod_Car_Kit/For_Factory_Fitted_Radios/Toyota_iPod_Car_Kit/DICE_Toyota_iPod_Car_Kit/Toyota_-_DICE__iPod_Car_Kit

[alfiejts]

This was my thread for fitting the cable to the 2008 SR model.

The process is the same, but your head unit will be different so you'll need a different cable....

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=100536

[BigTezza]

Many thanks guys - I've now got some more options to consider! I'll take a look at the fitting instructions (I'm at work at the moment so will have to find a quiet time) and see if I feel confident! Usually when I try anything like that I start breaking clips and plastic tabs begin to fly off everywhere but I'll take a look.

Just a couple of general questions - how exactly are they controlled by the head unit? In other words how do you change the input to reference the iPod when there appear to be just AM/FM/DISC options? Do you switch it to DISC and hit the disc 'up' button so it thinks it's talking to a CD changer? How do you then browse playlists? Is it done through the same controls you use to browse folders on an MP3 CD as that seems rather slow and painful?

My other question was in my first post - anybody know why the rear Speakers are so pitiful? I commute on the M5 and when I was first tinkering with the settings (carefully) when driving along I faded the unit to the rear Speakers and thought the car had had them removed - it was that poor! I spoke to the dealer and his reponse was that the rears in a Yaris are "always very soft" but gave no explanation why. Seems daft to me.

Thanks again all.