Aftermarket Remote Start

Looking into aftermarket remote start systems for my 2017. What do you have and what do you like and dislike about it?
I've heard about the truck shutting off when the door is opened, but it sounds like there's no way around that.

 

In my experience OE or don't bother. Hacking up the OE harness to trick it into functioning in a way it wasn't designed is a recipe for disaster, headache and lost time and money, probably for yourself and almost certainly for the next poor bastard to own the truck down the road.

 

N2 Designs has been great. Yes, the engine shutting off is annoying, but that's Toyota's solution. However, that only happens with push button start vehicles. If you have a physical key, it won't do it. N2 also makes one for the manual transmission too, if that matters to you.

I originally asked about OEM, but the dealership quoted me like $800 and told me aftermarket would be cheaper and work the same. N2 is pretty much completely plug and play minus the programming, but that's easy. The whole thing took me 15 minutes and most of that was just me messing with the plastic panels.

 

+1 for N2 Designs.

Install might be a bit easier than it was on my 2020, but honestly, it wasn't tough at all and it is fully reversible. I've used it quite a bit (no garage) this season and it has worked every single time. Like @RedWings44 mentioned, it's annoying when the truck shuts off when you open the door, but that is inevitable with any remote start solution for Toyota/Lexus.

 

Did either of you guys with the N2 system also get the smartphone module? Do you think it's worth the extra money or should I skip it?

 

I didn't. But it just wasn't worth it, for my use situation—my truck is only parked a max of 100ft from where my home and I doubted that I'd ever want to start it from around the globe or lock windows, for that matter. I would consider your scenario, and any future scenario, to help you decide. I definitely could see how it's valuable in certain situations.

 

I did not either, but there's always the option to add it later. I may add it later, but right now I'm happy. Plus, I didn't really want to pay the yearly fee.

 

I got one. It depends on your situation if it's worth it or not. I like having the ability to start the truck from my office desk and have it warmed up by the time I make it to the truck. I also constantly worry that I forgot to lock the truck when going to the store and stuff. So having the ability to lock/unlock on my phone is helpful too.

Haven't really used the GPS functionality of it yet though. Still need to check with my insurance if having a GPS tracker on the vehicle will drop my insurance rates or not.

 

Dang...then we better not tell some customers that Toyota dealerships across the nation actively order our hardware (for non Remote Connect capable trims) and install it at a cost six times our retail price to the customer. I'll keep this a secret if you do

 

Was looking at the remote starts for a while and was thinking of the n2. Although the downside is that the truck will turn off when doors open seemed to turn me away. It doesn’t seem like there will be any way around it. But the truck is always push to start so I guess it’s not too bad. The joy of not having to sit in the car in the cold to warm up the car seems like a good trade off.

 

I just installed the N2 on my 2020 push to start tacoma this weekend. Im not very car savy and i was able to do it pretty easily. Customer service is great too, i had an issue and someone picked up right away when i called

 

Accessorides is also a plug n play option. i went with it on my 2nd gen with no issues at all. Nothing cut or spliced.

 

Dealer here in Vancouver Washington is $600.00 and they hire a company called Coach,they come and get it drive it to there shop to do it and it is a 2 day process.