Kristian Widjaja's Blog » Cars

So many white Toyota Priuses!

Kristian — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:27:51 +0000

What do you think is the most popular color for the Toyota Prius Hybrid? I have reason to believe that the most popular color is white. I have a white Toyota Prius myself and I love it. However, at my office’s parking lot, there are at least three of them, which sometimes caused me to try to enter the wrong car!

Recently, I also had a birthday party at my home, and I could count 3 white Toyota Priuses on my driveway! Everyone that I know who owns a Prius absolutely loves the car. I would agree with them: Excellent gas mileage & driving on the carpool lane!

What’s interesting is that almost everyone I know who owns a Prius, owns a White Prius.

Three white Toyota Priuses at my Birthday Party at home

The 2010 Honda Insight: A Toyota Prius copycat?

Kristian — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:20:07 +0000

I have a 2007 Toyota Prius and I love it! Not only do I get 46 mpg on average, but I also get to drive it on the carpool lane, by myself!

I also pay attention to the competition between Honda and Toyota. Remember how Honda used to call the Toyota Prius shaped like a “Cheese Wedge”? See this Honda commercial from September 2007:

“The Honda Civic Hybrid: All the gas mileage, all the style, none of the hype.”

Fast forward a year and a half. Honda announces the new 2010 Honda Insight, and it looks very similar to a … Toyota Prius. Looks like the “Cheese Wedge” shape is not so bad after all!

Left: 2009 Toyota Prius. Right: 2010 Honda Insight. Image from Edmunds.com

Top: 2010 Toyota Prius. Bottom: 2010 Honda Insight. Image from Cars.com

Fixing Voice Navigation on my Toyota Navigation Unit

Kristian — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:41:30 +0000

Apparently, my 2004 Sienna JBL Amp was not 100% compatible with the Tundra’s E7006. Once again, eBay saved the day. To handle voice navigation, I discovered that I needed a 86280-OW420 JBL amplifier. I bought this amp on eBay, swapped out my old amp with this new one and it works beautifully. So now I have a Tundra Nav unit with a JBL amp from some other Toyota working nicely in my Sienna.

Here are the steps I took to swap these out.

1. I found the location of the amp behind the glove compartment.

2. After I carefully removed the glove compartment, I could see the amp.

3. The amp connectors are oriented towards the bottom. I disconnected the connectors from the amp. It was very tight in there and I needed need to cut some of the tie binders to allow some more flexibility, after which I could remove the amp.

4. After I took out the amp, I laid them side-by-side. They look identical except for their brackets.

5. Once I put the 86280-OW420 in, I had to pull a wire for the voice navigation:

6. Connect Pin 11 and Pin 13 respectively to …

7. Pins 23 and 22 on the 86280-OW420 amp.

I put everything together, and voice navigation works!

Installing my 2004 Toyota Sienna’s Navigation System

Kristian — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:15:50 +0000

I bought my 2004 Toyota Sienna as an almost fully loaded XLE Limited edition. The main thing that was missing was an in-dash navigation system. Since I really value having an in-dash navigation system as opposed to a portable navigation unit (which is more prone to theft), I decided to retrofit a stock Toyota navigation unit into my Toyota Sienna

Typically, you can install an E7001 from a Toyota Solara into a Toyota Sienna. However, I found an E7006 from a Toyota Tundra on eBay, and I was wondering whether it would work as well.

After some research on www.siennaclub.org, I learned that the E7006 is the same unit used on a 2005 Sienna with a JBL digital amplifier.

I went ahead and bought the E7006 taken from a 2005 Tundra on eBay. The part number is 86120-0C160 / DW468100 – 0170. Although the part number of this E7006 is different from an E7006 used in the Solara, I was able to install it and everything worked fine except for the voice navigation.

Here are some pictures:

The E7006 taken from a Toyota Tundra

The rear connectors look identical as the ones on the Solara Nav Unit. I have connected the VSS signal and the brake signal into E5 pin 17 and E8 pin 17 respectively (on the Engine Control Module).

The Toyota part number.

Removing the original stereo.

Plugging in the Tundra E7006.

Unit shown at night. Button lights are green and match the Sienna’s.

Unit shown during the day.