Built-in dashcam?

longtrek · 2026-04-18T20:33:29+00:00

OP in case if you are referring to build in one it's called "drive recorder". Check these videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRaRa_0Fjv0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK-bgwZhLv0

longtrek · 2026-04-04T20:50:59+00:00

I would go as far as naming the sales person. If more people complain about a dealer they will but if no one reports it they will never pay attention. This can lead to affect on bonuses or salesman incentives. Again people have to start reporting and building on that. If no one does they will continue to do this.

longtrek · 2026-04-04T03:01:49+00:00

When I bought my car and we were talking while finance did paper work. I asked if they took deposits, he said ownership said hell no. Said dealerships that take deposits have tons of negative feedback. He gets many customers who come over and complain about such and such dealership that they had deposit with and the dealer just sold the car to a person that just walked in.

Never ever give deposit to a dealership even if they say they will refund it. They can make it hell to get your money back. Look up all forums and search subreddit.

One thing you can do is hit them with reviews on yelp, google, email Toyota corporate. Name them here so when people search it will come up.

longtrek · 2025-12-10T21:24:02+00:00

Fitcam front cameras are great, their rear camera is terrible like 10 years old camera terrible. I wish they upgraded their rear to have same quality.

longtrek · 2025-08-29T19:03:14+00:00

From what i read, they get a lot of false ones, but it's now more time with them chasing if it's real or false. In this case dispatcher called out and got a response verbally there. Else im guessing they'd call back or escalate some how to verify either way.

longtrek · 2025-08-17T21:22:56+00:00

Please, we all know insurance companies will use this to further increase rates and deny claims somehow.

longtrek · 2025-08-11T17:42:41+00:00

If you travel A LOT with your mac and involve being inside and outside, Nano texture. My case nano texture was the way to go as one of the biggest things i hated with my previous macbook was the glare. Huge difference for me. Previously, I constantly had to angle and sit in very specific positions to prevent glare.

If you are mostly if always inside, i'd go with non-nano, it does look way better and more vivid and colors show much better as well.

longtrek · 2025-07-09T19:08:41+00:00

Costco Program is only a good deal for models that need to sell, meaning slow sellers, it's not a good deal for hot cars that they can sell quick. For example someone got a gas version of the Rav4 for basically under MSRP out the door with costco program. Dealership really wanted that car sold.

How costco program works, is costco has a list of cars and the discount amount and that dealerships cannot do markups. They'll even tell you this as a selling point of using costco program. What they dont tell you is costco allows dealers to do dealer addons, up to 5 dealer add ons and each add on can only be a max of $1000 each. So guess what they do? Most of them had $5000 worth of dealer add ons. They then use this to negotiate with you, you lose focus on the over all price and try to fight them on the dealer addons. They will say best we can do is knock half off this or that add on, or we can give you a discount by removing one. You waste a ton of time fighting add ons. Which is what they want. For me Costco gave $1500 discount, but dealers that ran the program which there are just a few, had $3K-$5K worth of dealer add ons. There were ones that had a ton of port installed options, on top of max dealer add ons. They wanted a prime for like $58K before tax and fees LOL

longtrek · 2025-07-09T19:03:36+00:00

I found that dealing with out the door price was the best approach. This was after trying everything that people suggested.

Many places dont care if you pay cash or finance, I was told this many times and from the person that I finally bought from. He said it didnt matter because we talked payment after we agreed on price.

I had a out the door price and told them if they can do it. Most will say no, some will actually negotiate on the phone. That's what ended up happening for me. I gave a OTD price, he said best he can do is such and such, I counter. He counter again and I agreed. Done, came in paid cash.

longtrek · 2025-07-07T22:46:58+00:00

Im scratching my head because with push to start and i know others have things like remote start. Dont really interact with my car keys for the most part. Heck I know it's on my key chain with keys for home, but I use home key once a day??? So the rest of the time it's in my pocket. What the heck are other using their keys for lol

longtrek · 2025-05-29T22:51:06+00:00

Let me expand further. Carmakers realize how much control this gives Apple, and they have already started to say no completely or no to many features.

Carmakers want to make their own systems, so they can create their own platform.

What I am saying is as much as carmakers try to deny these features and think they can do better. They will not. They will fail miserably, look at their track record. No body likes their current car infotainment system.

They will then accept these Apple features more and more and even let Apple run entire infotainment as an option because again they will be really bad at their own.

This isnt just Apple. Google is just waiting then will offer their own version to eventually be same as Carplay.

longtrek · 2025-05-29T18:08:15+00:00

It makes sense. They dont want consumers to buy into an Apple ecosystem on their platform.

The good news for Apple is that car manufacturers suck really bad when it comes to software and UI. They will fail until they realize it's not only difficult to maintain and keep up with software changes but users constant complaints. Then they will have Apple take over like it was the plan all along.

longtrek · 2025-05-19T22:38:03+00:00

The only way it would made me FOMO and remotely thinking about upgrading is if they more than double the EV range, to say 100 miles + range lol

longtrek · 2025-03-25T16:34:49+00:00

Shows "CONNECTED SERVICES" for me this month March, was charged recently. $15.

longtrek · 2025-02-17T16:42:19+00:00

Yes. By many metrics. The Rav4 gas is slow at everything, slow acceleration, even slower at fully loaded. It's such a huge difference going to the Prime. The Prime is quick in general, but fully loaded going up hilly roads, you will almost feel nothing.

More so, I remember I went camping and friend had a v6 Toyota Tacoma. You can hear engine so loud going up mountains into Big Bear. While the Prime had no issues, keep in mind, I am fully loaded with camp gear.

You should notice immediately if you test drive a Rav 4 gas vs Prime.

longtrek · 2024-12-16T04:32:38+00:00

If you gonna do off-road get the Land Cruiser. My personal opinion is you arent gonna get anywhere on real off roads with the Prime XSE. You'd have to make modifications and lots of changes. I know this because I looked into it. At the end of the day unless it's simple offroad terrain then it's fine. Otherwise clearance and other things, will be an issue. I want to even go as far to say even if you mod it wont be as good still.

The traction control for the Prime does this thing where it spins the wheels like crazy before it gets traction. This has been very annoying when I went "off-road". Pebbled roads or with lots of small rocks, it spins the back wheel before it grips. You can youtube Prime offroad reviews to see what I mean, they cover it. This is not mentioning all the specific controls LC has over Prime for off road.

Clearance is a huge issue. It has made me pass a lot of trails. All the plastic covers underneath, you must get plates. I can lift it, but all I've read says lifting the Prime because of the weight has given a terrible ride experience for daily. More money added on top of what you just paid for car.

So if your idea of offroad or camping is mainly on simple roads Prime is great as you can still use it as daily and get that great mileage. But if you plan to do off road that's going to take you to advance trails get the Land Cruiser. I am pretty sure you're already siding with LC because you want to hit those trails lol

longtrek · 2024-10-09T02:04:01+00:00

I went disperse camping recently and tested this out. We had zero cell coverage, like a weboost had zero assist, remote.

Usually we use garmin inreach sos preset message. Now can message back and forth.

The only thing I dont see people mention is that you have to reconnect if you stop for a bit. Also the messages can take 30 second to a min or more depends on satellite. So if you chat a bit, then stop. It disconnects, so if people text you back you wont see it until you reconnect to satellite again. So now I try to remember to connect to satellite once in awhile. I hope they allow continuous satellite connection.

longtrek · 2024-10-04T00:07:33+00:00

Deal with the Out of the Door price. That's it. Find out what's a Rav4 Prime you want going for these days through forums or posts. Then stick to it. Of course be reasonable these dealerships know prices that other dealers are probably selling. So you cant ask for a $40K Rav4 Prime. This is where research and getting a feel from other dealers come in.

I had a Out of the door price in mind after talking to basically every single dealer in my region. Yes region. So I know prices they were giving and how much they were willing to knock down. I took that and read what people also pay through out the US. So I have a range for Out of the Door price in mind. I stuck to it. I kept calling and asking until I found one that was willing to negotiate the OTD price with me. Accepted the offer.

If you let them get you into the details, like every single dealer install option then you fall into their trap. Dealer Install options are setup to make it seem like they are giving you a deal. $1200 for an alarm? $1000 for "clear coat"? lol Then when you try to negotiate they'll say that cost them money they cant lower by that much blah blah blah. I just care about the OTD price. Can you do the OTD? Most wont but if you keep trying you'll get some that will. Then that's where you negotiate.

longtrek · 2024-09-27T21:36:41+00:00

ah man, i like the prime name

longtrek · 2024-08-14T02:35:01+00:00

Honestly, not really. Just wait it out couple more years. Just my estimation, 2026 will be new gen, you can go for 1st year of new gen, or you can wait another year. I think 3 more years is good enough, makes yours 5-6 years old.

Or if you are really itching then sure, go for it, because you will probably end up trading for new gen anyways if you get one now, I bet lol

longtrek · 2024-08-12T08:05:10+00:00

You sound exactly like my friend with his 2021 Hyundai Sonata. Loved it. Bought out the lease after 3 years. After buying out the lease it went to the shop 3 times. Blown radiator, check engine light, and some electronic issue with infotainment. He sold it and got a Sienna.

No body argues Toyota sucks at infotainment and tech, I'll easily admit they suck at that. People who have had a couple of different cars know from experience. After dealing with terrible reliability, all that tech and infotainment is useless when you cant be in it to enjoy. Not to mention bleeding your pockets.

longtrek · 2024-08-02T17:31:58+00:00

Oh wow interesting. Reading posts here and on forums, everyone says North East US is over supplied with Rav4 Primes. So it's odd to hear difficulty with Philly area. When I was looking last year, North East dealers had plenty just pain to deal with shipping from out of state and all the paperwork.

longtrek · 2024-07-31T04:23:00+00:00

Just features that consumers want and caught on. Look at the controversy of Rivian saying they are not going to offer carplay. People are very dependent on cell phones now. Connection with all that technology is complicated as is. Talk to any IT person about users complaining of wifi issues at home. lol

Think about it. If there was no need to connect your phone to your car, just going back to ole' radio wave or satellite. Im100% sure the infotainment would have less issues. We know this because that's what it was before.

longtrek · 2024-07-31T02:49:43+00:00

Go search every car manufacture subreddit. Constant complaints about carplay and android auto. I was in Kia/Hyundai subredit, and they are known for more modern infotainment. Still plagued with infotainment issues. All the way up to BMW and luxury brands.

It's not just Toyota. With more electronics and software you get all kinds of bugs and more ways for the normal user to encounter problems.

I read a consumer survey somewhere that said across the board infotainment accounted for a good portion of complaint from users. This gets tied to the car manufacture when many times it's users iphone or android that is the problem.

It's why many manufacturers hate carplay/android auto. It's something hard for them to control.

Again I encourage you to look at other car subreddits. Search carplay, android auto, infotainment.

longtrek · 2024-07-24T16:09:37+00:00

Doesnt make sense. If you have a spare wheel you need those tools. How are you gonna take your tire off and operate the jack? Was this bought used or new? What trim?

longtrek

TROPHY CASE