Features you may have missed...

[garygid]

Many gas cars are very quiet, unless accelerating.

If road/tire noise is minimal (like on a "quiet-surface" freeway), the Prius audio (with good speaker system) can be wonderfully crisp and pleasing, without turning up the volume.
Usually poor speakers "muffle" the sound, at any volume.

But, there are those to whom VOLUME is "everything".

[evnow]

I'm guessing the quietness will allow a cheaper sound system to sound that much better; the speakers won't have to compete with the engine noise. I'm crossing my fingers that the sound will be as good as I expect/hope!

Exactly the opposite. Lower the ambient noise, more exposed is the system.

Having said that, I don't much care about the audio quality in cars. As an "ex-audiophile" I think hi-fi and auto shouldn't be put in the same sentence Extremely bad "room" and ambient noise kills any possibility of a hi-fi experience.

[Dav]

If they do put in low rolling resistance tires you can forget it being quieter inside the cabin. Noise insulation is heavy, and there won't be much.

In short, it is the same sound level inside a comparable gas car. Car engines rarely intrude on the passenger compartment these days. More specifically, you will find the car eerily silent only up to about 5 MPH. After that road noise increases rapidly until it is no longer a quiet car on the inside. Above 40 (this is RAV4-EV specific) the tires and wind get downright loud. The RAV has never been considered an aerodynamic vehicle...

[KarenRei]

It's a shame it's of a conventional build instead of composite. Foam core composites, if properly designed, can naturally provide both sound and thermal insulation (in addition to being very strong and light)

[Rat]

I've been spoiled by my Volvo C70 sound system, too, which I love, but it no longer plays CDs. The carrier has broken for the umpteenth time and in the past has been replaced or repaired at great expense too many times. I couldn't get an aftermarket system put in, so now I can only listen to radio or audiotapes. There is nothing good on the radio any more (since about 1969) and music on audiotape in a car is a joke, so that limits me to books on tape, which are rapidly disappearing from the local library. So I just want something that will play my own music mixes (either on CD or flash drive) and audiobooks on CD. I do NOT want a system that requires me to buy an iPod or some other expensive gizmo or paid web service to get my own music into it.

[Jimmydreams]

I've been spoiled by my Volvo C70 sound system, too, which I love, but it no longer plays CDs. The carrier has broken for the umpteenth time and in the past has been replaced or repaired at great expense too many times. I couldn't get an aftermarket system put in, so now I can only listen to radio or audiotapes. There is nothing good on the radio any more (since about 1969) and music on audiotape in a car is a joke, so that limits me to books on tape, which are rapidly disappearing from the local library. So I just want something that will play my own music mixes (either on CD or flash drive) and audiobooks on CD. I do NOT want a system that requires me to buy an iPod or some other expensive gizmo or paid web service to get my own music into it.

Rat..

Have you checked Crutchfield.com? They seem to have radios to fit everything with wheels. Might be worth a shot.

[Rat]

Have you checked Crutchfield.com? They seem to have radios to fit everything with wheels. Might be worth a shot.

Jimmydreams,
As a matter of fact I have and they don't have my model (1998 C70) listed, at least not in my year! Besides the car stereo place I went to told me they had something that would fit my car and I actually bought it, charging my credit card. Then as I waited the installer kept coming in and whispering with the salesman and owner of the shop. Eventually I went out to the shop area and asked what was going on. They then admitted that they couldn't connect to my amp due to Volvo's odd connectors and the unit's own amp was too low power for my speakers and they couldn't connect to all my speakers because I had more speakers than their unit had outputs. Then they said they would also practically have to rewire the whole car, and the unit would look crummy in my dash. Nice of them to mention all that after I had already bought it. They decided they would lose money selling me the unit from all the labor to install and then I still wouldn't be happy with it, so we agreed to forget it. They credited back my card. I never saw such a relieved look as the one that installer's face when we nixed the deal. Two hours wasted. The point is, of course, that I wouldn't trust Crutchfield or anyone else who said they had a unit for my car after that experience.

Still, I do appreciate the suggestion. In any event there are enough minor things wrong with the car (much as I love it) that I am ready to buy something new. I will just have to make do with tape books for now and some sports on AM or something in between times.

[Bicster]

I hope the bluetooth supports A2DP audio streaming... but an aux-in would work too, I suppose.

I don't have high hopes for replacing the stereo in this car. I'm sure they'll make it quite difficult. I haven't been able to upgrade the stereo in my 2006 Subaru because the climate controls are built into the stereo. This car is gonna be worse with the telematics and energy efficiency demands.

[garygid]

Audio from a plug-in USB thumb drive should allow a lot of "new" flexibility, assuming they support most of the popular codexs.

Hopefully, Nissan will deign the system to be easily updated, without requiring a (long and costly) trip to a dealer.