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I looked into this and the answer is unfortunately NO. On the Presara, you will NOT be able to get iPod information and control displayed on the nav screen. This made it less attractive for me and did not go ahead with it.

hmm... I too don't usually consider refilling until I get to the 0 kms cruise range left. I too learned that there's usually at least 10L left at that point. Regarding any engine problems, Toyota warranty will cover that won't they ? After all, they can't tell me that it's because of my refilling patterns and thereby not a warranty item ? If that was the case, they'd make that disclaimer in the owners/warranty manual ? Perhaps that's a little too naive... :) Come to think of it, they could just say that there was water in your fuel which becomes your problem straight away if there are any fuel impurities. You won't get anywhere saying that it's due to condensation which their design didn't "cater" for, they could debate that and say that condensation is insignificant and not the likely source. That would leave you in a pickle...

Who would have thought window tinting would create so much discussion... :) I've managed to dig up yet another question, here goes... I have a presara which has one of those rear view mirrors that automatically dim/tint/darken at night to decrease the glare/brightness of headlights in the rear view mirror (not sure if all Aurions have that). Now that winter is upon us and its dark by the time I drive home, it was raining a few nights ago which made it even darker. The view behind me was pretty damn dark. I wonder whether tinting the rear window would pretty much mean that I need to disable the auto-tinting function of the mirror? This feature wasn't a requirement when I bought my car, but given that it's there I'd be annoyed to have to disable it given that I paid money for it. So has anyone with a Presara noticed the effect window tinting had on their rear view mirror at night? Did you have to disable the auto-darkening function (sorry, don't know what that feature is actually called).

Hmm... this is one of the bones I have to pick with Toyota. This item was a requirement on my list when buying the new car and I had to compromise and drop it in lieu of the Aurion satisfying so many of my other requirements in comparison with the other cars I looked at. Seriously, how much would that have cost Toyota to implement, very little, all they had to do is select a unit that supports it and add the 3.5mm jack? I'm still not over it though, I love my iPod. I listen to a lot of audio books, and like the ability to be walking while listening, then getting into the car and continuing. I have a Presara which has 4 CDs capacity, and in MP3 format still doesn't come close to the iPod, not to mention that I can't duplicate content and expect to change between iPod and Car mid-book without spending an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out where I left off... So at the moment I listen to two different "books" in parallel to avoid the continuity issue. Frustrating, but it's probably helping my brain multitask and improving my patience. :) The Presara unit I hear is something like a $4000 option, it infuriates me that it has no iPod proper connection (capable of charging and navigating iPod), or at least a 3.5mm input. Even if they had designed it as an optional extra, I'd be happy to pay another few hundred dollars to get it done! I know that there are ways (around that price range) that can utilise the audio feeds from CD to augment the unit by way of a switch for an additional audio in input, but it involves modifying, don't know about warranty implications, wouldn't want for Toyota to not cough up for a new head unit if required just because I've added a 3.5mm jack. I think the reason is the re-use of an existing head unit (out of Lexus older model) which obviously didn't have iPod input - 3-4 years ago iPod wasn't as popular. Leaving design as-is was cheaper than modifying it, and probably had to do with the overall price of the Aurion even if minor (enough minor price items add up). I still love my Presara despite the lack of iPod interface.

Thanks for that advice, I'll have a look over the weekend, I'll let you know if I find anything there.

Black internal plastics? You mean instead of the mirror parts? How exactly would that work, the mirror is used to reflect (and focus) light from the bulb to the road.

... and reduce visible light thereby increasing privacy. As you described, reducing IR though would act as a heat insulation of sorts ? So increasing the insulation property of the vehicle (most noticeable in summer?) and increasing privacy... isn't that why people usually get window tinting ? At least that's my criteria. I haven't made the leap yet, and although I've had the Presara now for 4 months, I still miss the privacy of the window tinting I had in my last car. My idea/point about the UV-sensitive tints was more in line with having a changing level of tint based on amount of UV. So at night there would be less tinting to avoid the reduction in visibility. However, as you point out, UV gets filtered out so for this to work (assuming that there is such a film) the tint would have to be applied to the exterior rather than the interior (as the glass filters UV before reaching the interior film). Exterior film application would be silly though ? Just an idea... Here's another question about the tinting process. Given that the film is applied on the inside, how well are the windows actually cleaned prior to the film being applied ? What's used to clean the windows ? Might seem like a silly question, but have you ever tried to clean the car windows (especially the rear window) to such an extent that it is absolutely spotless and streak-free? Seems to me like quite a challenge, and to have film applied over a bad clean job would permanently seal that disappointment in? Maybe there's a scientific explanation why this is not important if you add another layer on top with no gap for light to be refracted?

I believe that thanks to the higher running temperature it also reduces the life of the exhaust system. When I had an LPG Fairmont, I had to keep changing the exhaust every 2-3 years. Also had a lot of problems with the fuel injectors which used to cost about $500 to service and clean. Whatever cost saving was gained by the cheaper fuel was blown away by such maintenance costs. Perhaps if I drove on petrol more often the injectors wouldn't have been a problem, so you must consider that in the fuel comparison calculations as a must rather than a recommendation... 1 tank petrol 2 tanks gas (as mentioned above). The higher running temperature would obviously also reduce life of cooling system hoses, belts, etc. I most definitely had LESS power on LPG. It was notable. Consumption was also higher on LPG, probably by about 30-40%. Fueling time increases as well, took a lot longer to fill a gas tank than a petrol tank. ... the only thing that gets me is if LPG is so bad for the engine, why are there so many TAXIs that have driven more than 1,000,000 kms on LPG and still going? Is that perhaps thanks to the FORD engine? Not a great engine, but seems to take LPG in its stride?

I'm not convinced that this will help in my situation as the rattle is also there when the moon roof is open (in either the up or slide position). The rubber seals are not stressed when moon roof is open, therefore that can't be the problem in my car. I keep trying to isolate the noise, can't believe how temperamental and difficult it is... Likewise for the dash, just far enough to be out of reach for the driver.

Do you have the Presara, or the factory Sat Nav unit ? Did you see the note on the Neo Pro Link "If your Toyota is fitted with factory Satellite Navigation this kit is not compatible." On the other hand, the SL2i unit has the following note: "Playlist/Folder and Track/File browsing is NOT supported on the navigation screen of most Toyota models. Please contact us to confirm compatibility of this feature for your vehicle." This is a shortcoming of the Sat Nav unit, not the iPOD interface device. The demo on the web page is not a true representation of the device installed in the Aurion Presara or other with the factory sat nav. You'll need to set up playlists in your ipod to be able to skip through various music via car's controls. Not quite sure of the details here. The demo on the web page is for the newer generation sat nav units found in Lexus and Toyota Prius (and possibly Landcruiser). Despite the Presara having the sat nav unit from Lexus, it's the older generation unfortunately. If you don't have the sat nav interface, it might be ok, I suggest sending an email to Advanced ICE if in doubt. I did, they were very responsive and professional. They were happy to fully disclose their product's capabilities in my car, the limitations once installed, etc.

Glad to hear that they will fix the problem, bummer about having to wait 6 months until decision came through. I'm now being driven nuts by my dash which seems to have more rattles now than 1-2 months ago. Does anyone have any experience with Toyota Essendon or Melbourne City Toyota? I'm thinking of taking my presara there from now on as the place from where I bought it is too far out of the way. Thanks.

Great info, thank you all. Made things a lot clearer. My novice understanding was that Stability Control implies suspension control as well, but now I know better. My disappointment is not so great that the Aurion doesn't have suspension control on top of the 4-independent brake controls. Sounds pretty good as is. Thanks again.

I had a quick look at the Toyota page, the AT-X (not sure about sportivo range) does NOT have vehicle stability Control. The Prodigy and Presara does. The replies above however talk about Traction Control which uses engine power management and ABC to achieve it. Are you sure that this is the the same manner in which stability control is achieved? I also noticed that stability control was also referred to as Steering Control. Perhaps this is more of a power steering control to ensure that you can't swerve too hard at high speed and lose control (I had something like this on my old Calais). My (novice) understanding of vehicle stability control tells me that there must be some kind of active suspension, but perhaps there's different ways to achieve it. I know that many of the european cars use the active suspension, and they can still call it stability control. In some of them you would even have options for the suspension comfort level (soft / firm / sports). A bit disappointed if the Aurion stability control is purely based on using ABS and engine power management to achieve it, I think that only takes it a part of the way, you'd need active suspension to make it a lot more effective.

I too remember some ridiculously low consumption reading when driving the car home from the dealer on the freeway. I'm sure that if you are driving along a freeway, stop, refil, and get straight back on the freeway the consumption will mostly likely read 7.x, or lower initially with good driving conditions. In terms of the fuel types, I like to stay away from the ones that have "substitutes" like ethanol. However, we probably aren't always aware of the ethanol content. Aurion should be ok up to 10% Ethanol (hence the E-10 sticker near the petrol cap). The more expensive fuels are cleaner perhaps while also containing some beneficial additives. I think the additives will be different between say Caltex and Shell. I vaguelly remember someone else in another thread confirming this as well. Might be a personal preference between Caltex and Shell (or others). For me the choice is made purely by the fact that I have about 4 Caltex options close to home while only 1 Shell option. I will try Shell as well at some point and compare range (based on stats) and feel (based on perception). Yes, I too am very happy with the Presara, a great package that would easily cost over $100k if it had a german badge (... unless it was VW). Or perhaps a Lexus badge. By the way, I recently saw a Lexus GS400? on the road that looked remarkably similar to the Presara. The 300 range is the popular one on the streets (a little smaller) which doesn't look anything like the aurion, but I was surprised by the similarities to the 400 range.

Very good questions. To be honest, I didn't really look at the Prodigy, but no regrets here. As I understand the differences are: - Moon Roof (a moderately pricy option) - Illuminated Vanity Mirrors (who cares...) - Rear passenger reading lights (who cares...) - 17" wheels rather than 16" wheels (a few hundred dollars difference?) - Michelin Tyres vs. other brand (a few hundred dollars difference?) - Sat Nav is a dealer fitted cheaper unit around $1k rather than $4k Presara unit - HID head lights (unsure of $ value) - Active / Moving / Leveling headlights - Keyless start (button rather than key) - Bluetooth? (works extremely well) - Rain Sensing Wipers (nice to have, I use it all the time) - Rear Reversing Camera (nice to have...) - Rear window louvre (nice to have...) - Toyota Link (3 year subscription) and its satellite phone/link - Obviously a different radio/CD player (Presara is through the GPS unit) - not sure what else... If you were to add the individual prices of each of these, I'm sure that it would exceed $10k, but only worth it if you want these options and are prepared to pay $10k for them.

Have a look through the service manuals (separate thread), you'll find a circuit diagram that will show you the wires on which you'll need to add switches (to mimic the car being placed in reverse). If you intercept the wires/control into the GPS unit, the reversing lights should not come on (they'd be controlled by the car's control system rather than by the GPS unit). Curious as to why you want to do that. You would have noticed that the camera has a very wide angle lens to the point where movement is greatly exaggerated and picture skewed. So if you're driving along at 60km/h or higher, the view at the rear is not going to be all that exciting to watch. Might also be distracting, or appear as if you're watching moving pictures (TV/DVD) to a policeman driving past and could technically book you (not allowed to watch TV while driving). You could argue that it's just a "rear view mirror", good luck :). Not sure how this would affect your warranty should something go wrong with the GPS unit ($4,000 component), consider this before proceeding.

Hi all, How exactly does the VSC (Vehicle Stability Control) work on the Aurion / Presara ? Is it present all the time, or does it kick in only at high speeds ? The suspension still feels "soft", although cornering at high speed I have noticed an increased "stiffness" and reduction in roll which would have been expected if the softness was maintained. Is there a way to turn it off (like the traction control) to compare VSC with no-VSC ? Thanks.

My Presara is black with black leather interior. It does get v. hot if left in the sun on a very hot day, but that would be more because of the black exterior rather than the black interior. As pointed out, the car cools down very quickly though, the A/C is awesome on this car. I live in Melbourne, so very hot days are few and far between (when considering the whole year). I bought my car late last year (hence 07 build), but I too got it for less than $48k and it included a somewhat big ticket item (tow bar) on top of minor things like floor mats. I think the retail price for Tow Bar is something like $1100. Obviously costs them a lot less than that. Do dealers have monthly and quarterly sales targets ? Getting close to the end of such a period gives you the best bargaining advantage (at least what I found). In terms of blemishes, I found some marks on the leather (mostly rear seat), but turned out to be grease which wiped away easily. The only problem I had that required fixing was that the rear passenger light console had some broken clips which I didn't notice when inspecting at pickup. It didn't quite sit right. Reported it at the 1,000 kms service (if you can call it "service") and they ordered me a new one from Japan which came 2-3 weeks later. Amazing that they didn't have such a part already in Aus.

Is it a very slight (low volume) and intermittent rattle ? Is it apparent when the inner cover is open and not when closed? At least that is one rattle I've discovered over last few days, but it's so slight that if radio is on it can't be heard, and it's only present over bumps when the inner cover is fully open. I'm driving around touching/holding various parts at the moment to isolate the culprit for my next service complaint... I have a passenger side dash squeak (also intermittent) which is a lot more annoying. I would happily keep the moonroof one over the dash one... problem is that I can't replicate it on demand, so no doubt when I take it in for service I won't be able to demonstrate the problem. :( (Murphy's law)

My Presara's done about 5,000 kms now. Fuel consumption varies with driving conditions (as expected). However, under some conditions (mix of freeway and traffic) it averages about the same as yours. If it's mostly freeway, it will get even lower, whereas if it's mostly city traffic it will get into the 9's. Interestingly I've been keeping a log of what fuel I used and how far it took me. Firstly, note that each time the low-fuel gauge came on, I often drive to range being 0 kms. When I refill, I note that there is usually still 5-10L in the tank. So despite only having done 550kms when refilling, I could easily have driven for another 50-80kms without refilling ... but who wants to take that risk? Secondly, despite only having refilled about 7 times since new, there is clear evidence that higher octane fuel drives me further. I've mostly used Caltex-98. On the two occasions where I used standard Caltex-92, there was ~40kms less travel when the range got to 0 kms. Rough calculations are: 92-octane only takes me 92.6% of the distance 98-octane does. The Octane ratio is ~93.88, so they're pretty well matched (within 1.5%). Given that 92 fuel usually costs around 93% compared to the 98 fuel, extra price versus extra distance travelled is pretty damn close. You pay more for the 98 fuel, it takes you further, but per km the cost is roughly the same. ... at least its what I've found based on my logs to date.

I went for black exterior, black leather. Looks great, but geez it gets hot in the sun...

Looks mean to do that, but its counter productive for night driving. I had some plastic light protecters tinted in the past on another car which made it look as if the whole light+indicator was tinted. Looked good with white car which also had tinted windows, tinted tail lights, two-tone paint, lowered, dark mags, etc... Made night driving significantly worse, the lights were dim and yellowish. The covers didn't last long, I took them off after a few frustrated night drives. If you are considering doing that, I'd suggest you do what I did. Buy some light (plastic) protective covers (Aurion genuine parts should cost around $70) and get them tinted rather than the actual headlight. That way if you can "chose" if you want your headlights tinted on any particular day... or night. Also not sure about the legalities of tinting the actual headlights. Might be a roadworthy issue. However, if it's a plastic cover and the police pull you over, you can just remove them and say that they're for looks/temporary. At night they won't notice.

Anyone having any problems opening the POWER STEERING file? I can open all the others without problem. I re-downloaded the POWER STEERING file, even tried it on a difference computer with different Acrobat Reader, still get the error message that it can't open the file. Thanks.

Don't worry about it. I too had the same problem getting used to it, took a few weeks. Now I like it, such a great idea to have it out of the way. Just cos we're used to a different way of doing it, doesn't make it right! Regarding damage, the alarm is there for that purpose. The most it would do is stretch the foot-brake cable a little, but checking its tension (and adjusting) is usually part of the service anyway (at least that's the way I remember it). So hang in there, the stress will do you more damage than that to the foot brake! :) The click you heard is probably coincidental with the standard (once-off every time you drive off in DRIVE) ABS (or stability control?) clank heard. That one's even mentioned in the owners manual as a normal event.

Toyota folks were overly ambitious in automating this item. It would not have been a matter of saving $. They could have easily implemented a feature whereby pushing a manual button resets the readings... but they opted for the "bells and whistles automatic / computerised method" which leaves the user with no control over it. I don't mind computers doing the thinking for me as long as there's a way I can override it (disable it) when I need it.