Somewhere I read a post about how to dim the lights on the audio display separate from the instrument dimmer **** which dims all of the lights on the instrument panel. Can anyone refresh my memory? Thanks

 

There is no way to do this. Not unless you wire your own switch.

 

Al - I know this is available on the Honda Civic Hybrid II (as I own one) and there is a button next to the steering wheel for the normal instrument light brightness and then the Nav screen has a setting for the brightness as well which is separate from the instrument light brightness.

 

Toyota seems to be lacking in the ergonomics dept, especially comapred to Honda. My TL was very well thought out interior, the TCH seems to be a bit lacking in things like door pulls, dash lights, steering wheel buttons, and radion controls of the non-nav.

 

We all have good and bad parts to the car (there are threads on our HCH-II page for "Best HCH features" and "Most-lacking HCH feature"). I like how other cars have Nav that let you modify as you drive while the HCH doesn't allow you that luxury and you have to cancel the current route to do a look-up and add-to-the-list-of-routes move. Do they think that no car ever has a passenger in the car who does not have to drive the car and is capable of running the Nav screen? The HCH-II does have "Jeezus" handles in all positions *including* the driver's seat (a feature I have missed since an '85 Audi I had). It also has lots of map pockets (one in each door) and other good perks but it is hard to see the hood when parking or the trunk when backing so none of our cars are perfect yet.

 

Kluken...How many more buttons do you want on the steering wheel? I do miss the cruise there, but there really isn't much more room. What else do you think should be there? Just curious!

 

I want less. 3 buttons for phone is at least one too many, one for voice, one for off hook and another for on hook. Also too many on the face of the wheel, I like the way Acura did it in the TL, the voice and phone buttons were set slight behind the wheel in a very natural place. The audio/radio controls seem too high and awkward to use and none of the buttons has a very positive feedback or tactile feel when actuating them.

 

I have to agree. I came out of a TL and the radio buttons were more natural to operate. I think that the channel up/dwn buttons and the volume up/dwn should be switched around and none of them feel right.

I am however glad I have them all, so maybe I should just

 

From Kluken's statement I thought he meant the steering wheel was lacking in buttons! I agree there seem to be a few too many! I never seem to use the voice button, except when I paired my phone...and don't really care to have the change station button...I only listen to a couple and can easily reach over to make that change. I do like the volume and temp controls on the steering wheel, though. Having never had this before I have little to compare to.

 

I don't use most of the controls on the steering wheel. Have never used the climate control or radio controls on the wheel. However, probably because I'm used to it on my Explorer I wouldn't mind the cruise control there. When I first got my car I would often hit the cruise control stalk in stead of the windshield wipers and vice versa.