Toyota Connected Services: Here's What They Cost (And If They're Actually Worth It)

Last year, and not coincidentally, right around this time, I became the proud owner of a 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. When I bought the car, the dealership walked me through setting up the Toyota App, which allowed me to monitor the status of the car, remote start it, and even remote lock and unlock the car as well. It's one of the hidden features I didn't know about at first.

In my review of the car, I noted that the app was great at telling you what was going on, but not so great at allowing you to do anything about it. If you left your windows down or your sunroof open, you could not correct that through the app. But all this was made possible through Toyota's Connected Services app. In this case, it was Toyota's Remote Connect. But Toyota has a few other plans you can pick from including Music Lover, Go Anywhere, and Premium. Additionally, there are two other options called Safety Connect and Service Connect.

All these different services can be confusing, and in my case, a little infuriating. So here is a breakdown of all of Toyota's Connected Services, what they include, and most importantly, what they don't.

When you buy a Toyota, you get free trials on some of their plans right off the bat. The first of those is Remote Connect. This service allows you to check on the status of your car, remote start it, or remotely lock your doors. You can also do other things like sound your horn, get your last parked location and see various stats like tire pressure, fuel status, and the like. This is a one-year trial.

There's also Safety Connect and Service Connect. Safety Connect gives you an emergency button you can press to connect to a 24/7 call center who can dispatch emergency services to your location. You also get a Stolen Vehicle locator and Automatic Collision notifications, which are exactly what their names suggest. You also get 24/7 roadside assistance.

Service Connect gives you monthly health reports, maintenance alerts and reminders. These can come directly through the app or via email, whichever you prefer. Both of these trials are 10-year trials. Some vehicles also get a 30-day Wi-Fi hotspot trial, if you want. That also does what the name suggests — turns your vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Then, there are three different paid subscription plans. There's the Music Lover, Go Anywhere, and the Premium plan for $15, $15, and $25 respectively. Go Anywhere gives you "up-to-date" navigation assistance and a live agent to give you turn-by-turn directions. Music lover offers unlimited streaming from Apple Music or Amazon Music. Premium gives you both of those. All three of those plans include Remote Connect. Here's the problem with that.

There is no way to subscribe to only Remote Connect so that you can continue to start/unlock/lock your car from the app without also subscribing to one of those other three plans. The problem with that is, if you're traveling with a phone, you don't really need any of those plans. Your phone has any number of popular map apps that can give you directions, and your phone can give you streaming music (from mores services, mind you).

One could argue that if you're on a limited data plan, perhaps Music Lover isn't the worst plan in the world, but it doesn't change the fact that if you want to continue to use Remote Connect after one year, you still have to subscribe to a plan that there's a really good chance you do not need.