Cassette tape players and touchscreens are entertainment features we don’t typically think of as coexisting in cars. One is archetypal 1980s, the other is the standard interface of the modern world, for better or worse. But for a few years at Toyota, the two features overlapped, with the first-generation Prius leading the way.
Evidence of this bizarre combo survives in a handful of archived press photos and listings for the parts themselves. It appears to have been the standard equipment on the Prius for its debut year in the U.S. in 2001 per Motortrend, combining an LCD touchscreen with a “logic control deck.” For those of you who grew up after CDs had already largely supplanted cassettes (like me), that just means it was controlled electronically instead of mechanically. As for the screen, while most sources refer to it as a “multi-function display,” owners’ forum posts indicate it was indeed a touchscreen—a novel feature in what was then a novel car.
To help put this into perspective, this means the Prius debuted a touchscreen tape player after the arrival of Bluetooth in automobiles. According to Driving.ca, that occurred in 1999 with the launch of Chrysler’s original Uconnect (though on which model wasn’t specified).
Toyota was slow to retire cassette players, as the 2003 Prius was far from the last Toyota—or Lexus—to use them. The Avalon sedan offered a tape deck through at least 2007, while multiple Lexus models held out longer still. The LS lost it after 2006, but the LX kept tape decks til 2007. The GS, GX, and RX all took tapes through 2009, and the ES and the infamous SC430 became the last vehicles in the U.S. market to offer cassette players in 2010. When spec’d with optional navigation, every one of these Lexuses paired the tech with a touchscreen—meaning their combination in American-market cars stretches for a whole decade. Quite the run for a combo you’d never imagine existing in the first place.
Update: Jul. 17, 1:05 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more complete information on Toyota and Lexus vehicles offered with touchscreen-operated tape players.
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