Warning: IPOD connector in 2009 Avalon sucks!

[pkastl]

I just took delivery of a 2009 Avalon Limited with a Toyota brand IPOD connection. It's ridiculous! Whereas the mp3 software for the CD player can read (and navigate) folders 8 levels deep on an mp3 CDR, the IPOD connector allows only 2 modes of play: (1) IPOD-controlled, so that you dial your IPOD to what you want; or (2) All Songs, which assigns a number to ALL songs, regardless of artist and album, so that they play in the alphabetical order of the title. Sure, you can turn your tuning dial to no. 427, but how are you supposed to know what it is?

And yes, I put all the info you could want into the original mp3 tags: artist, album, trackno, and title. As the IPOD plays in this mode, the text screen shows the artist as "title" and "all songs" as "album." No actual album names appear anywhere.

At least the sound is great, since it's piped directly into the stereo system. But I can't believe that Toyota is so far behind on this.

Buyer beware.

[pkastl]

Oh, I almost forgot, the IPOD connector doesn't charge your IPOD, either.

[pkastl]

After much back-and-forth with Toyota customer support (who didn't even know an Ipod interface had been released), here's the bottom line: it's not supposed to coexist with XM radio. Because the JBL stereo available in some Toyota models (not just the Avalon) has "embedded XM," there is an innate conflict with the Ipod interface. Here's a troubleshooting guide:

http://lobparts.com/install/08is/08i...leshooting.pdf

I find that my IPod Nano 4g can be controlled from the Ipod itself (it takes up SAT1), and that a phone call (my car has a built-in bluetooth phone function) will pause the Ipod upon answering and will start playing again upon hangup. SAT2 and SAT3 work fine with XM, so I get 12 presets.

The operations manual for the Ipod interface that Toyota customer support faxed me indeed shows that (if I didn't have XM radio) one can actually search on artist and album using the automobile controls (radio and steering wheel), just as the Ipod does.

After I told customer support that the Ipod interface was IMHO a poorly engineered Toyota product, they said they will push for some sort of fix.