Before tax, title and tags-- I paid less than $25k for my v2. I didn't get why I would pay more for the 3 just to get eTune.
I thought the same initially when my wife and I started shopping for a Prius v, I'm never going to use Entune.... while that is still true after purchasing our v Three, there are other small niceties about the v Three I'm glad we got.. like Voice Control, HD Radio, and while we have a handheld GPS, the built in GPS is so much nicer than I expected, especially with a traffic option. All this for an extra $800 or so. But on the other hand, less than $25k for a v Two is a hell of a deal IMO.
Thanks for mentioning those items. I did think about them. Here is why I didn't spring of them: 1. I have an iPhone 4s, that already has voice control. 2. I have an iPhone 4s with unlimited bandwidth, so I have Pandora, iTunes, YouTube to find any song I want at any time. 3. My Garmin fits perfectly in that little left tiny window and I don't have to really take my eyes off the road to look at the GPS (and it has lifetime traffic/map updates). The biggest problems I have with the computer sync to the iPhone are: (a) no search option. I have hundreds of songs and I have to scroll to find anything. (b) my daughter keeps grabing the phone and hiding it so she can control the music. (c) If you want the phone to move through bluetooth, it will put the iPod through BT as well. This means you continually have to turn it off to use all the features through the tether. It is a small step but an annoying one.
That last point is inaccurate. My iPhone does phone through BT and works the ipod (and entune if I run the entune app) through the tether. Peter+