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New Toyota Highlander Hybrid Owners - Give Us Your Report

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    dande2dande2 Member Posts: 3
    Wow! 25-26 mpg in the first 500 miles! I wonder if the reason for the higher mpg is 85% suburban driving versus the 95% highway driving that I do. I believe the reason you are not seeing the cars on the showroom floors is because they are not producing them in large quantities. The car we were able to get is also silver (we had wanted blizzard pearl). We could have waited the 6 months to get the blizzard pearl if we wanted to order it.
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    dande2dande2 Member Posts: 3
    It is now March and our WI weather is getting warmer. I have about 1700 miles on the car and I am getting close to 26 mpg. I was initially driving with the fog lights on all the time. We have turned these off. The ride of the HH is very quiet and smooth. My previous car was a Honda CR-V and I still feel that the CR-V handled better in the snow. I may have to get snow tires next year.
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    minivan123minivan123 Member Posts: 3
    edited March 2011
    To dandle2,
    Glad to hear your mileage is getting better. I too noticed that turning off unnecessary powered devices improves mileage. I'm now getting around 30 MPg in mixed driving, but if I have the heater on full blast and highest setting, the EV mode comes on rarely. Ditto for the fog lights.
    I do get some low frequency vibration noise from somewhere in the car for the first 5 min of driving, at light throttle. Goes away once warmed up. Also the disc-operated nav system constantly emits typical disc-reading sounds. Would have been nice to have an HD navigation system.
    I found the EV button is next to useless - works only at very low speeds for a
    short time, if at all. Engine has to be warm, battery nearly full. The auto EV mode however is simply brilliant.

    Still very happy with the vehicle.
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    cpsdarrencpsdarren Member Posts: 265
    edited April 2011
    Purchased a 2011 base model almost 3 weeks ago. Supplies have been drying up in Chicago, plus dealers within 50 miles only had white or silver in the base model since I started looking months ago. I ended up finding a Predawn Gray a few hours away in Wisconsin for $300 over invoice price. That's over $500 more than Carmax Kenosha had been charging on their white and silver base HH, until they increased their prices by 3k a week before I bought mine. I couldn't find a better deal on any color from a dealer that had one in stock at the time I was buying. I'm only on the first tank still. Computer says 30mpg. Was about 29mpg on the 200 mile trip back from the dealer, but has gone up to just over 30mpg around town. Compared to my Odyssey, the ride is a lot quieter and smoother, though the handling and steering aren't as tight. We will miss the cargo space from the minivan. The third row seat is really cramped for adults and older kids, but works fine for my youngest in a booster seat. Other than that, only minor complaints. Crappy OEM tires. Tedious voice interface for bluetooth setup. Still, nice ride overall. And so far, I've only seen one other on the road and it was silver. Blue, Gray and Crimson have been nearly impossible to find in the area, though black seems to come on limited trim. Nice having something relatively rare, even though I don't care for the new front end treatment all that much.
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    badgerfan4badgerfan4 Member Posts: 1
    Which dealership in WI did you purchase yours from? There are only 2 hybrids in Madison and the one dealership won't knock any off MSRP. Just curious which one you purchased from. Thanks
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    cpsdarrencpsdarren Member Posts: 265
    edited April 2011
    Kolosso Toyota in Appleton. I had the impression that the salesperson was close to some sales threshold at the end of March and that may have helped a bit. Even though they quoted and honored a good price on my trade-in, I'm sure they made good profit on the transaction. Still, less profit than some dealers in my area wanted on white or silver which is all they send to Chicago in base trim. Some dealers around Chicago started raising prices a few weeks ago to MSRP also. It's too bad Carmax Kenosha started gouging. We bought a new Prius and Outback (back when they sold new Subarus) from them and had good experiences there. They had a pretty competitive price under invoice until a few weeks ago. Heck, I was considering buying the silver one for their advertised price of $34,998 (then raised to 38k). The silver one is gone but I still see the white one listed at $750 under MSRP.
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    cpsdarrencpsdarren Member Posts: 265
    Even though it's been sitting on the lot for months, Carmax Kenosha raised its price again on that white one to almost 39k now, almost MSRP. Based on Buyatoyota and Edmunds inventory searches, I count no more than 4 base models and no limited models within about 75 miles of Chicago. As has been the case, they are mostly white with one silver. I wrote up a more detailed review of my experience here http://carseatblog.com/9785/minivan-alternatives-that-dont-guzzle-gas-2011-toyot- a-highlander-hybrid-review/ .
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    jingyuanjingyuan Member Posts: 1
    Garmin Vs. top 2010 Highlander Hybrid GPS

    $100 of Garmin works lots better than Toyota’s GPS that come with highlander 2010 model. I’m totally disappointment GPS worthless.
    Here are too many problems I wish I could fix followings
    1. Option to cancel the destination during the trip
    2. Input and cannot do anything when car moving, even passengers could not able to do so
    3. 20% of designations couldn’t able to find, never happen to my Garmin so far
    4. If should update auto by radio or satellite like Garmin does
    5. Local speed limit does not display not like Garmin
    6. Too many steps to setup where you want to go (Spending & wasting too much time to figure out how GPS work! The time you spend to setup GPS, you could be there by now)
    7. Garage opener are too difficult to setup, still couldn’t able to setup properly yet (owned since Feb., 2010 Highlander Hybrid)

    I hope Toyota could get improvement or replace better and friendly GPS before warranty expire
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