I see a lot of talk in the thread about the Alpine 9in floating unit. I have been running this for almost 6 months and thought I would share some feedback.
So far I have experienced zero issues with the unit. I had it installed professionally with the harness from Metra. It works best in Apple Carplay mode. I say this because the stock interface is a little messy and can be hard to navigate / get used to. A quick example - making a phone call requires pressing the middle menu button, then phone, then recents/favorites, then the contact, THEN the call button...!
Siri eyesfree integration is amazing though. Whether using it in Apple Carplay mode or stock, siri response is quick and works well. As I mentioned from the get-go, I use this in Apple Carplay mode 99% of the time and I can't think of any complaints. The fact that you can use Google maps within Apple Carplay is about the best most underrated thing that happened in tech last year. I typically just have Google maps up and running like you would with a car's stock GPS. I can tap to go home or work in 2 seconds, or tap the microphone within Google maps and speak an address naturally and it pulls up the navigation immediately.
Steering wheel controls are fine, but using up+down to change tracks took some getting used to. The middle button on the left side doesn't do anything anymore though. I'm not sure if that's the installer's fault or Alpine's.
One tiny complaint would be - because the stock 4runner backup cam isn't great to begin with, it looks pretty terrible on the screen given the unit's disappointing resolution.
Considering how GREAT this unit looks and its massive screen size, I would not make my decision any differently even knowing Apple Carplay and an 8in screen will come standard on the 2020 lineup. We had a rental Sequoia with this setup and it sucked.
10/10 Looks (people ask me all the time if it's stock since it doesn't have that crap aftermarket look)
8/10 Functionality (10/10 in Carplay mode)
x/10 install (didn't do it myself)
10/10 Reliability (unit has never frozen or restarted itself)
7/10 Value (given its still high price compared to models with similar functions)