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Comments
As a Toyota mechanic maybe you could help me with this one? How do I adjust the aiming of my headlamps? My owners manual says "take it to a Toyota dealer". I never had to do this before with something (usually) so simple as this. I'm a pretty good back yard mechanic and have been working on cars for over 40 years, so please help me out here....
What does the hexagonal plastic knob that sticks out the back of the headlamp housing do ? I only want to tip the headlamps down a bit, sideways they are OK. My problem is that I often carry 2-300 lbs. of tools in the trunk and that causes oncoming traffic to flash their headlamps at me even when I'm on low beams.....
I spent the last couple of hours before bed last night sending out requests for quotes to the six area auto dealers that have websites. There is a seventh, but it is in Lawrence which for those not around here is about 30 miles from the greater Kansas City area and is actually about 60 miles from my house.
I made it abdundantly clear that I am serious about wanting the Echo equipped exactly the way I specified and I would take nothing less. I also made it quite clear that I was willing and able to wait on a factory order from Japan. Many of the websites promised 24 hour call backs so we will just see. I told them that 30 days would be a nice time frame as to the earliest I am able to buy.
I do want to have the option of getting wider tires so I will need to tell them that I want alloy wheels. Would someone explain why I need alloy wheels to have wider tires?
Danny, if you want a wild time, Kansas City may be it more than people realize. Sometime I think we are Vegas East. We have four riverboats really close together and another one in St. Joseph which is about an hour from my house. We also have two "juice bars" as well as several gentlemen's clubs. I have been to the four casinos here, but have never been to the St. Joe casino or the other "attractions." Just let me know when you are coming, what you like to do, and I will see what I can suggest for you.
Moses,things sure must have changed at Superior since I was there last with my friend. They had no problem giving her an offer on her possible trade-in and they did not make her state that she was very committed to buying from them. In the future, never go alone to a car dealer unless you absolutely cannot help it. I will be taking my roommate although she has absolutely no say and no control over what I am buying. Remember there is strength in numbers. I know how I need her to act and what to say so I am going to coach her on this. Unfortunately, I do not believe the salesman around here are as nice as Cliffy1.
Cliffy1, what would it take to get you to move to our area? LOL.
As much as I hate to, I better end this because I still have to haul the laundry in from the car. I have a washer, but no dryer so I go down and do my laundry at my mother's house.
Azecho-----"he drove the car" LOL, that`s the funniest thing I ever heard of! hee, hee,.
toy tech--will sure be nice to have you here,th`ks. been fun reading what you have to say.
Mong1- you sure are nice to do the legwork for folks wanting to know the 20/20 thing. Tk`s.
echoluvrst--- I remember about 20 years ago I went into a Honda place. I really wanted to buy a Honda but the salesman wouldn`t even give me any price unless I sighed a piece of paper and my Dad had said to sigh nothing so I had to walk. I probably would have gotten one right then and their and he probably would have made alot but I just couldn`t sign as I din`t have a clue what I was signing for. I went ove to the Chevy place and bought. I`ve allways paid cash and not wheeled and dealed to much at all as I don`t know how too. Hey I still love my ECHO, got 600 on so far.
If I want to run to the store it seems so wrong to have 3000 pounds of machine burning gasoline to get my 175 pounds over there. I like a motorcycle but it's hard to carry much and they are no fun when the weather is bad. Anyway, even at 2000 lbs. the Echo is a lot. But it runs so effortlessly and smoothly that it feels good, not unduly wasteful.
If most of your driving is on high speed freeways then maybe stability and weight are important, and maybe the Echo is not your best choice. But for me it is just right. And I love the quick handling that comes with a light and responsive car.
I'm glad our configurator worked out well. I don't know what they are talking about with two different spoilers unless Southeast Toyota is offering one.
If you had made a price inquiry to our web site, it would have gone to my partner here in the Internet Department. We can sell cars across the country but it would not make much sense on an ECHO. The shipping costs would override any savings you would realize.
Now I've got a little chip on the hood and noticed the primer is black! I would have gotten the Black Sand Pearl if I'd known that! Then the scratches wouldn't really show at all!
Does the touch up paint work well? And is there some kind of thick wax or coating I can put on that will prevent these little rock chips on the hood?
Just make sure to copy the color code correctly off the label on the side of the door. It would suck to put on the wrong color (unless you are the hippy type).
One response said that in order to give me a more accurate quote, they would need to know things like trade in, method of financing, and down payment. Excuse me? How will that affect the bottom line of what you want to charge me for the car? I am definitely not going to give them those details until I am darn well ready.
Cliffy, if I ordered the Echo from an out of state dealer, I would not have them ship the car to me. I would fly out and pick up the car there. Actually, not a bad idea. Beware a person who has too much time and money on his hands. LOL.
(wrgraham) thanks for the weight clue... I knew the Echo felt as light as my 73 corolla... Boy, do I have a story about that one!
It amazes me how people can keep buying big SUVs. my wife and I try to walk or cycle to the store as much as possible for our health as much as anything. We still drive more than I'd like but at least we're only dragging one ton, not 2, and the Echo engine is as efficient as they come.
Did you know that the Honda Hybrid vehicle won't do much better in gas mileage on the freeway than the Echo? I read a road test that said in order to cruise at 70 mph the tester had to slow down every so often to recharge the battery because the gas engine didn't have enough power to sustain 70 by itself. In other words they had to supplement it with electric power. So they only got 45 mpg, not the 70mpg they brag about.
Neat huh!
I love doing u-turns in my car. It's so neat to be able to do a tight turn and stay within a lane. Watch the SUV behind me and they go all the way over to the shoulder. Although has anyone noticed how badly people drive their cars these days? I can't tell you how many people making right turns in small car do the "wide-right-turn" thing where it's totally unnecessary. I mean I can make tighter turns in my minivan than I've seen people make in their compact cars.
Price sounds good to me. For my 2000, I paid 13,200 before they added on all the taxes and other junk and mine came with everything yours does except the split seat.
Glad we're back!!
On Tuesday, the dealer called me, she told me that it will take 3 months to get my Echo.... which is January 2001!!! (It will be damn snowy at that time, besides my present car seems can't take it anymore)
I'm wondering does it really take that long to import a car? I'm ordering a compact car and not a tank! I was told that it takes about 2 days to build the car, then may be 2 weeks to ship... so they estimated the worse, told me 4 to 6 weeks.
Now, they have a Gray Echo that fit my requirement and ready to go. They were try to sell that to me, do you think they told me that it take 3 months to get the Seafoam Blue because they want to get rit of the Gray Echo in their lot or what?
Does anyone have experience of special order a car or some one work in Toyota dealership? How long should we wait? They are convincing me to get the Gray one, which I don't want as the last time I saw it, it was dusty and dirty, I'm sure it has been used for demo and test drive, and been abused.
which sounded quite fair to me. Is this the same one you saw ?
I also forgot that there are Focus owners out there who read this chat line, so my comments were being addressed to Echo owners and potential Echo owners. On hindsight I could have chosen my words better
By the way, I came very close to buying a Focus. I really liked the side air bags and the rear seat headroom. I also like the wheels and the exterior styling in general.
I too am concerned about rust. I have owned 3 Toyota prior to this and found that they didn't last any better than any other make I had with respect to rust. Since I live in Winnipeg and we get a lot of slush in the spring, I've found that all my cars rust out before they wear out. When I asked the salesman he said:
1) All the car manufacturers have stopped using recycled steel like they did in the 80's, which was prone to rust due to it's many additional impurities.
2) He also showed me this technical paper on the Echo which talked about all the stuff they do to control rust including special paint in the critical areas. Anyway it sounded good enough to me.
I agree with your washing program. I've found on my cars that rust usually starts on the outside at paint chips or defects and goes in. It rarely starts inside the body panels. As a precaution i bought a package of 1" wide body side moulding and installed it on both sides at the widest part, to help protect the body from car doors in parking lots.
My wife (and my old F150) have also trained me to park out at the back of the shopping mall lots in "Truckland" where there's usually more room. She said that driving around and around to find the closest possible spot was a "boy thing", that most women don't do. On reflection I think she was right. We both feel that the extra walk is good for us.
A caution to anyone purchasing this unit. When mine was first installed, the throttle stuck open slightly on my test drive. Upon inspection, i found that the cruise actuator cable was interfering with a little flat knob on the plastic Toyota throttle arm (circle ? circular arm? I'm not sure of the correct term) Anyway it's the the moulded part that the Toyota cable actuates and rotates on the throttle butterfly axle.
I think that this bump is there for the AC idle speedup solenoid to press on. It's not functional in my Echo (no AC).
Anyway it was easy for the guy to bend the SCS control arm slightly away from the engine so there was no more interference. He also swapped the nut and bolt on the end of the SCS control arm at my request to improve the clearance with the fan shroud. It now works great !
I had one dealer tell me that I can have an Echo the way I want it from the factory in 6 to 8 weeks while all the other dealers are telling me 4 to 6 months. I believe the other dealers.
To refresh everyone's memory, I want a 2001 Sedan with manual transmission, upgrade packages 1 and 2, the all weather package, ABS, side impact air bags, rear spoiler, cargo net, floor mats, and alloy wheels. I want it in Black Sand Pearl.
The dealer who told me 6 to 8 weeks quoted me a price of $15,109. Another dealer quoted me a price of $14,740. Another dealer quoted me a price of $14,400. These are all drive away prices. In other words, their final answer with no other hidden charges. Only taxes, tags, and title are extra. I have told the two higher dealers about the lowest offer, but what price should I counter offer the lowest dealer with.
Given what I want on the car, would they all laugh me out of the room if I offered $13,500?
Personally, I was having withdrawls because while I may not like Edmunds itself, I do like talking to you guys.
My roommate is on the way home and has promised me a night at the casino so it is goodbye for now.
Our Echo is great, we love it, 39.5MPG average to date (about 6000 miles). Some doofus gave it a door-ding about a week ago though, which was a bummer.
By the way, what did they take town hall down for? The message board itself looks unchanged to me...
headlight on alarm in addition to the key in ignition alarm which my old Toyota Corolla didn't have. Toyota always seems to provide you with what
you need and not what you don't. I bought the car with 5 spd. air and ps only which gives it an excellent price to value ratio.
Also - any ideas about financing? This will be my first car, and I am clueless. Dealer? Bank? Thanks to all for any help.
As to financing, you should check around. Generally, banks will require you to pay a 20% down payment on the car and loan you the rest. The dealership may be able to get you a deal that has less money down, but the rate may be higher so the two things combined mean a higher monthly payment.
Then there is leasing which is only smart if you like getting a new car every few years and do not drive very many miles a year. You also need to be very concerned with the overall condition of the car because you will be giving it back to the dealer at the end of the lease term.
If you do a lease, do not focus on the monthly payments. The bottom line should be on the price of the car. After that is set, concentrate on changing the monthly payment if you are able.
I hope this helps.
Echo in newspaper last week. "Two door 2000
Echo for $11,790, MSRP $12,600 WS Disc $810,
1 at this price Stk#4721." Jacksonville, Fla
Times, Oct 31, 00.
One of the options I want on my Echo is the side impact air bags. MelodyEcho has told me that she remembers reading something somewhere about there being a problem with side impact air bags on the Echo. Has anyone else read or heard this?
One thing that I would like to have is a remote to unlock the doors. My '95 Windstar had it and it was very nice. Is this an option on the Echo and I am just not recognizing it? Perhaps it is part of the alarm system?
As I posted a few posts ago, my roommate was coming home to take me to the casinos. If times like I had keep up, the casino may end up paying for the Echo. I won $100 playing nickel video poker. Together, we won another $50 playing another game and yet another $50 playing a third game. We left $50 of our own money at the casino. The $100 I won on poker went into my bank account.
I have arranged to take off on December 12th to visit whatever dealer I will be buying the Echo from. After I finish whatever needs to be done that day, I am going to see if they will let me take a test drive (by myself) for a couple of hours. Weather permitting.
I think it is time for bed. Night all.