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It's a first for me to pay list, too. I looked at shipping across the country and could have saved 2K, but would have lost 1/2 the savings in shipping and then would have to deal with California craziness on importing a new car, and quite likely would have not gotten the CA benefits on additional implied warranty.
This is also the first time I haven't had any forms of lost-opportunity buyer's remorse. It's a great vehicle, and I laude Toyota's engineers.
-- Rick
The filter is much larger than the FRAM PH3614 listed for the 3MZ-FE engine.
The owner's manual doesn't specify the oil filter specs.
Does anyone know the FRAM or equivalent oil filter number for the 2006 Highlander Hybrid?
The hybrid battery will run down to 1 or 2 bars (from 6 bars out of 8) and then the ICE kicks in to recharge it to 3 bars. It took 30 minutes to run down without A/C yesterday in bumper to bumper, occasionally creeping on battery traffic - with the fans and radio on. With A/C on, it's more like 15-20 minutes.
Based on experience the battery recharges faster when the gear is in Park than when it's in Drive (even if you aren't moving).
Reasonable price to us would have been $39,000 for the 4WDi, Ltd w/NAV. We paid $40K for same. If there were no HH, we would have paid $36500 (MSRP $42000) for a fully decked-out Sienna XLE AWD and saved $3500.
Given battery replacement cost is estimated at $2000, we assume that $1500 of the extra $3500 go to the SULEV, VDIM, EBD, electric motors and CVT and associated components and the Sienna has none of these.
The Sienna will return EPA 20-MPG mixed, HH is EPA rated 29-mixed. At then gas price of $2.75, we would "recover" (one never does) the extra $3500 at about 82000 miles assuming no car loan. With gas price now at $3.09 locally and if it stays there, we will recover $3500 at 73K miles. Our HH is currently returning 28.7-29.1 MPG mixed.
Seeing these numbers made our decision a little easier. Any car over $20000 is way too much for me but my mrs. tells me I am still stuck in the 80's .
As for paying sticker price, this is the first time we didn't negotiate on a vehicle and never paid full price before either. I did dicker on the trade in for my Acura and got the guy up to the same price as the Acura dealer was offering me back home on any vehicle I wanted. The car salesman basically said that there were no negotiations on the hybrids - that they weren't marking them up but they were selling them MSRP. My gold Limited 2WD was $40,000 with all the options except the dvd player which it didn't have and I didn't want (kids are grown and the dog in the back seat doesn't need movies). My dealer back home in Florida was asking $1,000 to get on their waiting list for just a Prius. I have no regrets about buying this vehicle. I like it better than anything I've ever driven before and even my spousal unit (who drives a BMW) likes the way it handles. He did about half the driving on our 1,000 mile round trip this past week and he was really pleased with it (he doesn't drive it at home).
mmreid
I have had a few leather cars and leather couches and leather books, and personally I like the Meguair's One Step Leather Cleaner and Conditioner. It comes in a red bottle, and you rub it in then come back later and lightly polish the leather with another dry cloth.
Easy to do and works very well. My couch is several years old now, and is not high grade leather, but the leather has remained very soft and well conditioned.
I use it on my full leather books too, and it keeps them in tip top shape.
Until then, the car needs to break in through the first 3000 miles, so patience and a few tricks can turn in good MPG. Our HH returned only 22-24 MPG for the first 1000 miles. It returned 24-25 mpg at 2000 miles and finally reached 26-27 mpg consistently at 3000 miles. At 3500+, it is now around 28-29 MPG.
Forgive this post if you do and know all the known driving tricks already. The following is a summary of many poster's input on this board.
Check and puff up the tires to anywhere from 35-40 as others have done. Ours are at 35. This helps the car roll.
Do a lot of anticipated rolling, even when not heading into a stop sigh or traffic light. It charges the battery quckly and sets up for the next run.
Use cruise whenever possible because the on-board computer uses electric more than I and wife could do with our foot.
For real good mpg, drive slower when safe and traffic condition allows.
Find alternate routes if possible so there are less traffic, lower speed and less stops and less slopes.
There seems to be a sweet spot at 25-30 MPH where the HH uses electric most. We can do a 6 mile loop around our town on 80% electric at that speed. On certain flat roads, it easily maintains 35-40 on electric.
The HH also seems to like 55-60 MPH but that is practically impossible and unsafe on freeways. We are lucky to have an old country freeway with posted 55-MPH, so we use that whenever possible.
At 3500 miles, you may be able to accelerate gently from 0 to 25 MPH on electric from a dead stop. We have been able to do this now more and more often on some flatter surface.
Hope this helps.
"Notice: This domain name expired on 09/24/05 and is pending renewal or deletion"
I've emailed the dealer who offered these warranties, no reply yet. I called the toll free number for the only Toyota Dealer in Iowa City (I assume it's the same place) and got a recorded "can not be reached as dialed". So wha't up :confuse:
Thanks.
Sometimes the toll free numbers are only available from "in state" You may want to spend a few cents and call the local number, toll charges are pretty low, compared to the price of the warranty.
Just a thought.
Jeff
If you need another source for discounted warranties, email me and i'll see if i can dig up some email that folks sent me.
-- rick
1. The V6 must be run often enough to keep the catalytic converter up to the optimum operating temperature for cleaning the exhaust gasses.
2. The V6 will also be run often enough to keep the engine cooling water jacket HOT enough to make the automatic climate control reheat/remix mode operational.
The latter need was overcome in the 2nd generation Prius by allowing a c-best option to be set bypassing the reheat/remix mode. But given the over-riding factor of the catalyst heating it isn't likely this c-best option will be offered for the HH. Lexus has already informed me that it will not be made available for the RX400h.
If anyone reading this is interested and wants to see it, it will most likely (but I won't swear) re-air on cable after the "new" show at 11 -- here they show the previous night's show again after the new one at 11:30 p.m. Commercial was towards the end. Daily Show is pretty popular and just won 2 Emmys but, like I said, this was the first time I've ever seen an ad for a hybrid in my universe. Either I move in tiny circles or Toyota taking really getting aggressive.
By the way, I had the first "weird" thing go wrong today. I had a problem getting an audio cassette to eject. It kept popping out only half way so I pushed it in with my finger and it popped back out so I could remove it. Weird.
mmreid
With mostly highway driving until the last 2 miles, I averaged 31.8 MPG according to the Nav. system computer. The length of the trip was 21 miles. The a/c was NOT on.
I currently have 1300 miles on the clock.
enjoy!
The car is very responsive or sensitive to driving style and driver demands. Want power and speed? Punch it and it flies. Want to stretch a tank to the max? It can crawl like a turtle on electric. It all depends on what the driver wants.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/industries/automotive/12781024.htm
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,1106636,00.html?cnn=yes
I don't know about anyone else but when I am stopped a light and I see the folks in the car behind me obviously pointing at the "hybrd synergy drive" logo on the back of my HH, I get a cheap thrill.
mmreid
My German friend, veteran of the Autobahn, thoroughly enjoys driving it; and claims it feels just as fast and powerful as a turbocharged diesel BMW. Plus, its strong low-end torque gives the HH a faster start than most other automatics out there.
Years ago, a Ford sales manager friend disparaged all japanese trucks and claimed that our trucks would always be superior. At the time, I told him that such arrogance would breed complacency, a sure way to finish last. The Japanese are at our auto empire gates and my friend is not happy.
Let's see if this little shake-up can awaken the big 3's can-do attitude. They have been whining, complaining, stewing in complacency and hogging status quo for much too long.
HH overall mpg with regular fuel was 22 mpg.
City was 16 mpg, hwy was 28 mpg.
Lexus overall was 23 mpg with regular fuel.
City was 16, hwy was 29 mpg.
They reported test results of the Merc. ML350, Subaru B9, Pathfinder, Land Rover LR3, Grand Cherokee. Overall mpg was 16 (premium), 16(premium), 15(premium), 13(premium), 14(regular) respectively. City/hwy breakdown was 11/24, 11/25, 10/23, 9/21, 9/21 respectively.
Our HH now averages 27-28 mpg, 5 to 6 better than CR's result.
I remember those early posts on this site when gas was @ $2.50 give or take...
and we all argued about the 'value' of paying MSRP...
I paid MSRP on my Gold 4wi Unlimited model and still groan about it, but in the long run, it's nice to be ahead of the curve or Tsunami which ever the case...
The article reflects the experience many of us have had, the HH is a great ride. Since CR does the same essential test driving for mileage on every vehicle (sure, weather changes will have some effect), their numbers are good for comparison purposes.
Drove a group of professors I work with to a meeting yesterday in the HH, one is a first gen Prius owner, and they were all impressed, commenting on the ride and how for 4 adults there was lots of room. I suspect if it was jsut an SUV (which I wouldn't have chosen had it not been a hybrid) the conversaton would have gone elsewhere....... - John
I am just curious as to what the MPG figures were reported for the HH?
Did they also comment on the acceleration? :confuse:
I know...go buy the magazine...
But, further up, there's a post with all the MPG results, which are poor but better than other SUVs.
Not a commercial for them but just saying its definitely worth it's relatively low cost (I can't recall what the subscription to the magazine costs).
mmreid
With gas locally back up from 3.09 to 3.19 a gallon this week, I am beginning to groan a bit less .
Ouch! CR got only 22 MPG mixed off their HH . While it is decent compared against other mid-size SUV they tested, it is too low to excite CR readers.
We had to buy gas today, filled up to 14.009 gallons at $3.19 (premium) for 423 miles. No top-off this time, stopped pumping when the auto-cutoff popped. A whopping 30.19 MPG by our own calculation, on-board computer claims an impressive 31.5 MPG. WOW!!! First time ever we broke the 30-MPG mark. It took a lot of work, a lot of crawling and sacrificing a lot of time for gas, probably got a few drivers angry at us . At least we have finally proven to ourselves that the car can indeed break the 30 MPG barrier if we really try.
For this new tank, I will need to drive it normal and see what the MPG will be.
I think your computer's more accurate than the fill-up. So, you really did great.
Just how I felt went I broke the 30. But it's more kudos to the driver than the car. As you say, you have to drive it like a golf cart at times.
The HH can do it but it shouldn't be this much work for us.
Any idea what the major service runs for the HH?
Has anyone else gone the prepaid route and compared the numbers?
-- rick
But even the combined 22 is far worse than anyone's claimed.
I also wonder if CR checked the tire pressure. If they used 32 psi, it probably will adversely impact the mpg.
I am trying 40 psi with this next tank.
Call your Library! Most public librarys subscribe to a data base callled EBSCO HOST. You should be able to access it from your home internet, and read CR on line. I believe that the current and most recent 2 months issues are excluded, but for back issues, it is great.
At first I thought it would not work w/ the HH because it turned off after 15 seconds of non-ICE running, thinking that the vehical was off. A call to the company (maybe a one person biz?) --the person who picked up the phone mentioned he programmed it. It does work with the HH. The trick, not mentioned in the manual, is to set the fuel type to Hybrid. With this setting, the guage works great.
It gives the missing info--trip MPG--plus numerous other bits of info: digital instantaneous MPG, daily average MPG, digital speed, battery voltage (only the 12V bat), percentage of enegine load, and many other possible bits of arcane info.
It also reads any error codes the computer might be storing, for the technically minded.
All this for $130 pp. Such a deal!
http://www.ConsumerReports.org?source=CR26
Another article about declining sales figure of larger cars, more like a crash.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aNEyMGdjmVfY&refer=home#
UAW is apparently quite concern because GM is about to roll out more large vehicles while sales figures for the Tahoe just dropped 56%.
Watching GM's VP answering questions about larger cars is disappointing. The VP was not arrogant but was quite sure that large cars would continue to sell well although there will be little increase in the coming years. His claim is that people who want large cars are still out there and they will buy them regardless of gas prices. His comments seemed to have implied that the current sales numbers will hold without significant increase but neither will there be a decrease.
The sales figures announced in the news article above just destroyed his claim.
I wish he would have said something like GM has seen the light and will begin to develop a new generation of hi-tech gas efficient high performance reliable vehicle to rival the foreign car companies.
I wish he would have said something like GM has seen the light and will begin to develop a new generation of hi-tech gas efficient high performance reliable vehicle to rival the foreign car companies."
Concur with your comments. How about a quote from the original Airplane! movie:
"First the earth cooled. Then the dinosoars came. But then they got too big and fat, and all died and turned into oil."
Maybe the same quote is true of the mammoth SUVs... only they die and turn into scrap metal.
The link you sent takes us to the main page, which has no mention of the HH
The ice age killed dinosaurs. GMosaurus will be extinct by global warming.
I filled up for the first time since coming back from Tennessee over a week ago and the station was out of anything but 87 octane and it was $3.09! Yikes.
mmreid
I don't think that wait time is accurate but it was right there on CBS.
GM had best rethink its bigger is OK outlook.