Okay so I just recently bought a 2005 Prius and want to be able to use navigation, reverse, and aux... maybe even a bit of movie watching for long car rides (but that’s not necessary) what is the best radio on the market in 2021 to drop in here that matches all of this stuff along with the necessary adapters and mounts?
You'll want to buy this unit from VLINE, it's plug and play and gives you wireless carplay on your factory MFD, but it only works if your car is equipped with navigation Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
One issue is that you need to keep the factory sound system in place - the computer inside has some other functions, so you get a red triangle if you remove it; I have a single-DIN stereo with aux-in, etc in mine; I rewired the four speakers to a standard connector which then plugs into the new stereo. It fits in that 'cubby hole' below the factory stereo. This could be an option to get the sound system sorted. Regarding the reversing camera, I believe it *may* just be 'plug and play' on the built-in screen (it was an option in the 'base spec' models like mine, but the connector for the standard Toyota camera is there; this is an upgrade I have wanted for a while)
Mine didn't seem to have bluetooth so I got a $15 logitech bluetooth to rca stereo adapter, it had a 5v power brick so I cut the wire off & connected a USB end to it, plugged that into a 12V dual USB car plug near the ACC jack in the console so the bluetooth adapter powers up when the car starts, I plug my phone in to the charger cable off of the other USB out of the dual 5V out, 12v usb plug & I'm good to go! I dial the bass down 3 clicks, dial up the treble 1 click which gets me to overly bassy teenager EQ which is good enough for driving.
I put a Boss BE7ACP in mine. $229 plus the wiring. It gives you CarPlay, video capabilities, backup camera, etc. It's the cheapest CarPlay radio on the market right now and I love it.
you don't need to keep the oem head unit; you will need to buy a unit with built in interface or a separate interface. i had a 2DIN kenwood in my '05 and with the speaker upgrade it sounded great. crutchfield.com will hook you up with whatever you want. i use them most of the time when i upgrade car stereo.
