Church

BTW, one can get also "active" universal mounts among brodit offerings. I had to get one (Item no 521622 EAN: 7320285216228), due my SGS3 having much thicker aftermarket extended battery. Liking how i don't need to separately fiddle with plugging in power cable, just put in phone and it gets power plugged in already ..

I felt need to honk .. maybe once in five years? (in old car i found that horn didn't work only @MOT inspection :D). Imho such usage frequency is a bit below justifying any spendings on that :).

Interesting, if UK BRZ also has same custom alarm, as GT86 has. As i never had any problems with gt86's original battery i sometimes wonder if maybe non standard alarm sys @UK GTs at fault, that uses too much power when car is off/locked. (For example i don't have that mini remote for alarm sys in GT bought here in Latvia). Apart from alarm after all everything rest is same (leaving LHD/RHD aside).

Eek. How i sometimes wish for audio controls on wheel

I NEVER seen one driving car with headphones on (though i was once shocked seeing one woman driving tram and reading book(!), when i waited in jam in near lane). Yes, that would much cheaper way to get high quality, that i am all for eg. at home (though i prefer Sennheiser hi-end ones, currently using HD650), but not so convinced it's way to go at car. 1) though main input of driving information is eyesight, some important information is passed via hearing aswell. Be it unusual engine or suspension sounds indicating problems, or someone on road honking to rise awareness, or some cops/ambulance and alikes going with sirens. Not sure it's good to lessen or isolate that input. 2) almost with no exception wireless headphones audio playback quality sucks. Wired .. that wire can be inconvenient and distracting thing, that may get in the way of controlling car

Hmm, looks interesting. Not so much for leather/alcantara trimming that i'm not too much interested in (being rather fine with stock wheel material both touch and looks wise, and even more so - ease of care, and less affected by wear long-term), but that he also did red center line bit. May help gauging wheels position after heavy steering when sliding .. Even more so nice bit that he offers is exchange system. Might be reasonably priced good option for many. Please report later on, how this wheel after retrimming is to actually drive/use/touch.

knightryder: regarding Ace's price: 1) NA power gains in general are expensive, so why not get best at that from part that makes up most of gains? 2) people had got similar gains with that header with everything rest stock as some others with way more exhaust bits upgraded. -Another way to "save". 3) when comparing prices among headers, you should add price of overpipe to those "cheaper" ones, as it's integrated in Ace's construction/design. And by then difference of price is nearly diminished.

You cannot install firmware & map updates of one onto other. Hence you've been sold wrong (cheaper) product, if you ordered and paid for more expensive one, that includes some free map updates (hmm, 4 times? or one year? don't remember) and few less important extras (voice navigation?).

And i'm certain that i could get it for my 86, just like for other Toyota vehicles like Rav4/Avensis/Corolla and rest having Touch as stock HU .. When i asked my dealership they listed both options, but if full price of even just T&G seemed insane to me, T&G+ seemed way worse price wise. IIRC partnumbers are: PZ490-00331-00 T&G, PZ490-00332-00 T&G Plus kit (last 00 may change depending on how new it is and what maps are already in, eg. A0 or D0). 100GBP is as high as i can go for such. 200 already too much, and real prices .. to pay 3 times as much as for smartphones or aftermarket Hu-s with better navi options/better multimedia playback seems wrong. That money is better spent on performance/suspension upgrades imho

Wait a sec. FW version is L(ow)? Then you have T&G, not T&G+. Later should have firmware ending with H(igh). And as except first (IIRC there were extra details to this, as in milleage driven should be small enough or something like this) all the other updates are at price. And for such update price on bill seems cheap enough.

Squadrone Ross: Hmm, if your's is T&G+, not T&G, shouldn't you have free map updates? I wonder for what it's charged in that bill? IIRC one had to: ready fat32 formatted usb stick (at least 4G size), make usb footprint from navi to it, install toyota's T&G toolbox, create user & login on my.toyota.eu, enter there your car VIN / navi serial number, check what's available from maps (for standard T&G one needs to purchase. Don't know how it really is with plus version). Meanwhile with toolbox running insert usb stick with footprint, agree to download some updates on it, login in with my.toyota.eu created login, in Downloads or Updates(?) d/l map update, wait till it copies it to usb stick. It might be lengthy process, especially map updates (was 40min for me). Imho worth do it at same time with some longer trip, to not burn fuel for nothing during update process. If one fsck-up FW upgrade process, from this page listed 1.7.4 firmwares (high for plus version (link), low for standard (link)) can help unbrick. They can be used to update (read - unbrick) any T&G without any purchase/footprint issues (probably because they are listed as minimum version to work with T&G toolbox), and it's fast (as they don't include navi maps, firmware only. 78M vs ~ 2.5-3G). I also found a way to to install newest firmware even if one doesn't have 'purchased' very latest maps (when i generated in toolbox usb stick with firmware and maps i had, i put in newer firmware version's swdl.iso & it's checksum file instead or original), but imho it's not worth the hassle. Failed to successfully update maps to newer that i haven't purchased though, even if i found where to download latest maps, i still need to get it through toolbox, that setups them on usb also checksums & licences for maps update to not fail at the end with update content consistency check. After fail needed to unbrick and after that reflash back with whatever latest was listed as purchased/available. I still think that stock navi is overpriced crap that is far inferior to normal navigation systems and totally not worth the cost. I got it used for cheap from ebay, but imho those 100GBP would be better spent on some aftermarket HU. My condolences to anybody paying full sticker price for Go/Go plus.

Squadrone Rosso: be careful. No matter what is in pics, but "Colour Name: Black leather-Silver thread" in that amazon link

Reflection bit, yes. Reason i plan in future alcantara one. Don't know how good/bad it is with leather vs stock material, but hoping that alcantara will reflect less.

I had completely dead battery once (not it's fault but mine, forgetting interior light on). I was able to unlock door with mechanical key, so unless there is something very changed for cars @UK locks/security wise, imho so should they.

Has anyone found out what are part numbers for those straps?

Ours has standard toyota Touch (I) headunit that can be optionally extended with Go or Go+ modules. Both can be chosen/purchased at dealers. Imho though both are not worth to get (but then again in my eyes other car makers stock navi options are inferior too to specialised navigation products like tomtom or navigation apps we have on smartphones) and way too overpriced. Clunky UI, overpriced unit itself and overpriced/outdated map updates, i see nothing good that can be said in support of stock navigation. IIRC Touch II should have at least screen mirroring from smarthpones option, but ours is version I.

To me necessary feature would be also to be able to work with rear camera.

And electric supercharging can easily use energy from multiple sources - be it from generator turbine in exhaust, be it from regenerative braking, be it from main battery .. it's all electricity .. only caveat that it can only provide supercharged/turboed boost to internal combustion engine rising it's power/torque, not directly assisting turning wheels as in some hybrids. Still it seems as better fitting in future petrolheads then hybrids/electric cars will. Somehow hearing about something as heretic as electric formulas in future makes me want to puke. Yes, most probably performance will be there, once storing electricity tech will get up to needed weight/capacity parameters .. but it won't pump any adrenaline in me like watching B group rally monsters or crazy turbo formulas with active fan downforce of past with shooting from turbo blow off valves. F-1 priuses, eek. :/

Yes, direct mechanical linkage of turbo will have less energy loss .. but such electric SC + electric turbo generator will still be more efficient then electric SC-only (that works fine even on linked in SC kit, with energy charge accumulation during normal driving, and limitations rising only during very long WOT driving), and turbo has several cons due that direct linkage, such as lag, for fixing which it needs much more complexity and costs rise (such as dual stage turbos, variable wing geometry, blow off valves), direct mechanical link also puts limitations on underbonnet space usage / turbo placement / exhaust routing configuration. Electric separate SC & generator will need none of such. Just cut in at any place on exhaust (probably closer to exit for lesser temps/more longetivity) & on intake.

I'd rather expect industry to have electric supercharging + electric generator turbine on exhaust as Next Big Thing. =widest possible tunability by ecu, =efficiency of turbo, =no lag of turbo-ing, =any boost possible at any rpms even lowest idle ones, =reasonable simplicity & cost, =rather simple extending of existing internal combustion engines with such (due no need for mechanical linkage between SC & generator). At least results & user experience in this thread about DIY electric SC kits makes me think so, with main limitations being only battery dump pack charge (that would be fixed with generator that would recycle otherwise wasted exhaust gases energy) and slow pace/long wait times for assembling these kits by this guy :).

Knighty: I ended never using center console cup holders. Removed them, due not using to save weight & gain more volume in console. It was too hard and down right dangerous to reach there. So i just use 'bottle holders' in doors, that even while are suggested not to be used for cups (but imho it's because of spillage danger, not that important for me having normal hermetic coffee jug), but are way easier to reach without diverting eyes from road without leaning/turning as it was with stock center cupholder.

One of mods that i loved most. Now it's much more comfortable to rest / put hand there right besides handbrake & gear lever, unlike before, when hand was kept on handbrake boot. Another big pro for this particular armrest - result is very OEM-ish of stock look. It doesn't look like some bad fit aftermarket addon. Hating one thing for it though, that it opens to side, not to back. No clue why they chosen to make it accessible only by driver.

rob: can you tell, how much you had to add to base list price for shipping & import charges?

I wonder if audio output of said dashlinq is really on par with that of pioneer/alpine/sony and alikes .. though native android, native better navi, torque app, bits sounds nice, i wouldn't like to change one subpar sound to another. And i wonder at what extent to this dashlinq is possible to connect/reuse other existing goodies, like backup camera, handsfree mic, gps antenna and so on ..

Lauren: i doubt that those two door speakers of that corolla wear of high class too :), yet they sounded acceptable with normally amped input after simply installing relatively cheap headunit, hence i'd love to hear if stock sound can be improved too for cheap. Sound doesn't have to be the best in my book, there is no limit how far audiophiles can go. It just has to be 'good enough', preferably by paying less, hence i'd love to hear more input from others trying out multiple upgrade paths. If stock speakers in modern car are really beyond any saving, so be it, i'll have to pull trigger on more expensive purchase. Question being - are they really THAT bad or they underperform with T&G?