What features are in my giant - Toyota Alphard?

Let have a look at some of the features that come with my giant (Toyota Alphard).

The twin power door is an very important features because it provide the flexibility for the passenger to get in or come out in whichever side that is convenient. Here is a rear view when both power doors are opened.



Also with the power doors, the opening and closing of both doors can be controlled by the drivers. Similarly the power doors can be controlled via the remote buttons on the master car key. This feature is very handy whenever I go out with my wife. She doesn't like the hot sun and before we get into the car, I would have already open the door for her to get in. Yes, she like to sit in the middle row seats because she can move about (whichever direction the sunlight come, she can always move to the other side!)

If you couldn't find a unit with twin power door and decided to take one with a single power door, do note that the cost to retrofit the other vacuum door with the power door is quite expensive. Last I heard it will cost upward to RM7K. Take your time to find one unit with twin power door if you think your really need it.

This is the view of the steering wheel and tachometer from the driver side.


You'll noticed that on the steering wheel, there are a few buttons on both sides.

Let start with the right hand side. The top two button on the right side are used to control the telephone function. The top button will disconnect the phone while the 2nd button below is used to receive incoming phone calls. One of the reason I have chosen the NFL model is because it comes with Bluetooth function. With this feature, the moment I step into the car, the built-in Bluetooth unit will automatically establish connection with my mobile phone. Whenever a call comes in, I just have to press the receive button (the 2nd button) on the steering and I will be able to speak to the caller and listen to the phone conversation via the car speakers, without having to press any key on that phone.

The 3rd button is the front camera button. Because the car is tall and you sit up high, it is not easy to gauge the distant to the front of the car when you are driving or parking. Pressing the front camera button will turn on the camera view on the head unit and you can see how close you are to the object in front of the car. The front camera view will only come on the head unit when the car is either stationary or it is moving below 10km/h.

Now to the left hand side. The lowest button on the left of the steering wheel is the mode button. It allow you change the operating mode of the head unit from radio to DVD player, MD player, HDD media player or GPS function (which is not operational in this country). The top 2 buttons on the left of the steering wheel is used to control the volume of the head unit. The next two buttons below that are used to change the channel/selection depending on which mode the head unit is operating on.

This is a view of the center console from the middle seats.


And this is a close up view of the center console

The head unit in the center console has an 8-inch LCD display. This is a standard fitting on the NFL model. Older model would have a head unit with smaller screen. This is also one of the reason why I choose NFL model over the older model. This head unit has more functions than the head unit from the older model. Specifically it support DVD, MD, GPS, Bluetooth and front/back camera. In future posts I will share more on these features.

Below the LCD display are the air conditioner control buttons. These buttons allow you to control the front and rear outlets of the air conditioning. To control the rear outlets, you'll have to first push the "Rear" button on the left side of the airconditioner control buttons panel.

On the left handside of the clock display, there is a rectangle shape of a car with 4 dots at each corner. That is the sonar sensor/indicator. The sonar sensor button is directly below that rectangle shape (the left most black button) is used to activate the sonar sensor. In this post, I covered the sonar sensor functionality briefly.

If you look closely at the gear shift, you'll notice that this car is still a 4-speeds model. A lot of people has the misconception that all NFL model comes with 5-speed gearbox. Only the 3.0L NFL model comes with 5-speeds gearbox. The 2.4L NFL maintain the 4-speeds gearbox as in previous model.

On the passenger side, there is a two-layer glove box as shown below.

In some model such as those with 5.1 theatre sound system, the DVD player is installed in the upper glove box.

This is the view from the rear seat looking up at the roof.

On the top are the control buttons for the rear air conditioning outlets. The rear passengers can control the air conditioning independent of those at the front. There are 4 separate outlet for air conditioning on each side for both the middle and rear row passengers (actually there are more but I won't go into each location).

Further upfront is the 9-inch roof-mounted LCD. This is not a standard option for an AX-L model. The previous owner in Japan has chosen this as an installable item when he purchase this car. If your model don't have a roof-mounted LCD, you can retrofit it locally but it is going to cost quite a bit.

The roof-mounted LCD has it own remote control unit so that the rear passenger can control the head unit as well as the LCD display. This is how the remote control unit look like.


I will cover in another post on the sliding seats function.