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Comments
Typically these things get fought to the death of the small company, or if legit, settled for a few M or 10s of M, I believe. Little likelihood of someone coming from Solomon and prying the keys out of my hand!
-- rick
That will never happen. I imagine if the patents are real and Toyota is found guilty they will pay some serious money for using the technology in yours and every other hybrid. Just like the NiMH battery lawsuit with Panasonic, it will be settled and if this company has a legitimate patent or patents they will be well compensated. Or they may want the manufacturing rights which would put a crimp in Toyota's bonnet.
What would be an interesting twist, is if the money Ford is paying Toyota, to avoid patent infringement, is part of the same patents.
One positive note for buyers waiting to buy the HH "when the price goes down",there are 4 HH's on Ebay now.When gasoline peaked there was one to none.When the HH was being poisoned pressed by the NYT a while back there was maybe 7-8.Not suggesting that the Ebay HH's are great deals,but they are a decent indicator of demand pressure.It is down from a recent peak-MSRP+ was probably the rule for a week or so.There are still lots-15+ of Escape Hybrids onEbay,they don't generate the demand that the HH does-no surprise despite their 4 mpg advantage over the HH.Thanks.Charlie
http://www.carmax.com/dyn/factsheet/factsheet.aspx
Apparently, my HH is 'loaded' but there's a place for a button lower left for a button. I always assumed that this is because the H has more options and this was for the AC inverter button. But now I'm wondering if this is for the EV button in other markets. Does anyone know?
Picture
I know that I don't get the avg mpg per trip and of course the color display.
Wes
Marvin
BTW, some confusion about MPG display options. The automatic AC option (is this only on the LTD or could it be ordered a la carte?) shows the average MPG. US poor souls without the Nav or the automatic AC don't have an MPG display option.
I can't see any reason it wouldn't work.It is just a varient of one of those $100 hand held code scanners.
It certainly beats paying $1700 for a NAV system.The NAVs are nice,but I don't need a $1700 talking map- a $9.95 Rand McNally works fine for me(I'm not young-54-so paper maps are more my speed).Let us know how it works.Thanks.Charlie
How much did you pay for your extended warranty? Did you purchase it from the same dealer that sold you your HH?
I found 985 via the internet (and phone) from a dealer in Greenfield, MA. I live in Cleveland, Ohio and bought my HH in Cleveland. I researched the ex-warranty and called around and found $985 about the lowest rate. I had a sample copy of the contract faxed to me from the prospective selling dealer and then I called Toyota Corp to ensure that I was buying the Toyota product and not a third party warranty. It all added up. I had an easy transaction with the MA dealer, got the warranty quickly from Toyo direct and am very pleased at saving over $1,000.
Toyo explained to me that, "the dealers are free to charge whatever they want for the ex-warranty. Some charge under $1,000, some over $2,000. Shop around."
Good luck.
I had posted a link to another automotive website where the deal is described in detail, but the powers that be here removed that link. I'd help you find it easier if I could.
Feel free to e-mail me to get the link to the other site.
I have noticed in the last few weeks more and more articles, commentary on news programs (both radio and tv) etc. about hybrid cars. I wondered if it was my imagination as my ears kind of perk up when I hear "hybrid car" or is it because the world is beginning to wake up and see the future. Anyone else noticing this? I heard someone talking on NPR this morning about the need to convert regular cars to hybrids. First time I'd heard that.
mmreid
Locally, we are seeing many more large brand new SUV's (Envoy, Explorers, Montereys, LX 470, Sequoia, etc) this month. People continue to buy these large cars. Last night, a person left his Lexus LX470's engine running while he shopped in a local Safeway. His family sat in the car. I was waiting for my wife for about 15 minutes too with engine ON, but the ICE was off. As we backed out, he was walking up with groceries and stared at our HH, probably because he could not hear any engine noise.
Our HH is happily averaging 28 MPG right now with periodic spikes to 29 MPG. We think in another 1000 mile, it may start averaging 29 MPG. It once required careful driving to even approach 28 MPG, it is a whole lot easier now. I can even drive it "normal" about 25% of the time with little impact on fuel economy.
It is also very easy now to go from start to about 30 mph on electric only, a lot easier now to maintain 40-45 on electric. This was impossible during the first 2999.99 miles. On deserted freeways when we drive 55-60 MPH, we are averaging 31-34 MPG for each segment.
Right now, with a quarter tank gone, we have 145.1 miles. If this continues, it will be 290 miles at half a tank and 580 miles at end of tank. This is closing in on Toyota's claim of 600 miles on a tank. If it happens, I will take all sorts of pictures and post them on the web.
Anyone else have this problem? Fortunately I have a full tank but unfortunately the dealership is about 30 mins away.
But here's the big news. The guy who singlehandely revolutionized the Prius has bought a HH. Watch this space as he cures all it's ills.
http://www.coastaletech.com
http://www.virginiagasprices.com/
Even some of the pundits on FOX has changed their stance on hybrids. In the last week I have observed more announcements from more auto manurfactors setting 200, 000 units per year (and up) targets for hybrid production over the next 2 - 3 years.
I think that anyone who got one of these Hh's pre hurricaines, made wise investments.
Toyota wants to rule w/ hybrid tecnology in all the formats it has pioneered (hi mileage Prisus, Speedy Hh SUV, new H Tricks coming soon, Lexus hot rod hybrid sedan next spring, etc).
A colleague home on-leave from Germany told us European laws set to take effect in 2008 will also push European manufacturers to gas-electric hybrid. There is apparently CA-like emission standards that their current diesel technology cannot achieve. I hope they invent a new way to clean diesel exhaust because biodiesel-hybrid seems really promising. This may explan why London Police is testing the Lexus RX400h as patrol cars.
UK has announced a way to tap the hot exhaust of the ICE to run a generator that charges the traction battery. Not sure how this can help the current HH design but still interesting.
Our attempt to hit 290-300 miles by half a tank (580-600 miles per tank) went bust the past 2 days. A bit of urgent high speed driving dropped the on-board MPG to 28.1 again from 29.7. May be next time.
Oh well,we bottom feeders will just have to wait a couple of years.Luck,Charlie
PS I still see lots of Escape H on Ebay???The prices that the dealers want-close to $30000-just aren't very attractive for a little SUV.
Would that web-site you mentioned be toyotawarranty.com?
We have noticed gas gauge calibration problem, as you described, with our Sienna. Thankfully, this HH gauge seems OK (knock on wood) so far.
The HH has been getting about 200 miles at half tank and then another 200 before the needle gets close to bottom. Each quarter mark corresponds to 90-100 miles consistently. The low fuel light comes on around 420-435 miles. This has been consistent over the previous 2 fill-up's. We do not normally let it run that low, but we are "testing" the gauge to see if it also has the "Sienna" syndrome.
We will try to hypermile (500-600 miles) again on the next tank. As of tonight, our MPG has crashed to 27.6 after another day of hard driving with AC running.
I just filled up at $2.85 here in LA, Regular Unleaded at Shell.
Our two week old Toyota Highlander Hybrid wouldn't start (last monday 9/19/05)..
then we got it started and brought it in. Toyota did a computer analysis and couln't understand the four page print out so they went to the California people. End result -- we were low on gas -- but we had 3/4's a tank of gas and never got to even a quarter of a tank!
Picked up the car on Monday and Tuesday -- wham-o - all sorts of warnig lights on the dashboard that wouldn't go away! Drove it in to Toyota and thee it stayed until Thursday. What was the problem? They didn't know.
On Friday morning we were in the car -- only two short blocks from home when the Message area in the cebter of the dash came on with different messages... Check Hybrid System... Check AWD... Check FSW (or something along those lines)... then the warning light icons started lighting up... the anti skid icon and others, then check engine... then the motors went DEAD!!!
Our two week old Toyota Highlander Hybrid wouldn't start (last monday 9/19/05)..
then we got it started and brought it in. Toyota did a computer analysis and couln't understand the four page print out so they went to the California people. End result -- we were low on gas -- but we had 3/4's a tank of gas and never got to even a quarter of a tank!
Picked up the car on Monday and Tuesday(9/20/05) -- wham-o - all sorts of warning lights on the dashboard that wouldn't go away! Drove it in to Toyota and there it stayed until Thursday (9/22/05).
What was the problem? They didn't know. But it works fine -- you can take it home.
On Friday morning (9/23/05) we were in the car -- only two short blocks from home when the Message area in the center of the dash came on with different messages... Check Hybrid System... Check AWD... Check FSW (or something along those lines)... then the warning light icons started lighting up... the anti skid icon and others, then check engine... then the motors went DEAD!!! The car shut down and wouldn't start.
Called for a tow as we couldn't get it started. Got down to Toyota and while they were nice enough it seemed like the underlying response was -- "what are you doing wrong?!" as one mechanic put it... "I drove it for 70 miles and never experienced a problem with your car!"...
Well, maybe but that was last Friday and I still haven't heard from the service dept. They are dealing with Toyota headquarters and the problem is out of the handsof the local Toyota dealership.
This is a no brainer -- it's the computer system! They should just give us a new car -- we only had under 2,000 miles on it.
Anyway -- Has anyone else had problems like ours?
Please let us know.
If so, it is time to report this to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The following link takes you to a NHTSA page with a link to a "Complaint" section.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.bead436724af02e770f6df1020008a0c/
The Toyota Prius had engine cut-off problems with all indicator lights coming on and about 13 cases were reported to NHTSA. Toyota acted then by updating software. So far, we have not heard from Toyota that current model HH needs an update but reports to NHTSA should help set the ball rolling.
Our HH is still running fine, but we will be a lot more careful now.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/complaintsearch.cfm
I found 1 against a 2006 Highlander but no clue if it is a hybrid. Complaint was about side airbags not deploying in a side impact crash at 45 MPH. There were 3 injuries.
General description was car lost all power and coast to stop. Indicator lights came on for many of them. A few was able to restart after some time, 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Some would not restart and needed towing.
Solution in most cases was a visit to a dealer who then *RESET* the computer or changed software.
Not certain, but I don't think the 2006 GAS ENGINED Highlanders are on the road yet.
Actually, I'm very unsure as to how long the car can be stopped with the radio or cd player on and the air conditioning on as well (this is Florida and it's pretty uncomfortably hot from May to October). Do I just watch the battery lines on the NAV screen and shut the car off? Apparently people in conventional cars were having to shut their engines off and push their vehicles to conserve gasoline. Has anyone had the battery run completely down by sitting in the car stopped for too long?
An observation on mileage: we drove to Nashville and the mileage was not very good with cruise (about 22 to 23) but on the way back, same as the original trip home after buying it, the mileage was closer to 28 until we hit the very flat Interstate 10 along Florida Panhandle for the last 70 miles of the trip and then it dropped just below 27. I figured out that it's slightly uphill (or more ups than downs) all the way to Nashville and slightly downhill obviously coming home. We used cruise control both ways and averaged around 70 mph except for 231 in Alabama (small towns, red lights etc). That has to be the explanation for the difference in mileage. We even had worse weather conditions on the trip home - showers and drizzle and wet roads. The only other explanation, from comments on this List, is the vehicle is approaching 3,000 miles and this trip put 1,000 miles on it.
mmreid
I later got a chance to see how much we would use at idle-with the AC on.We parked at a rest stop and slept with the Ac blasting.My guesstimation is that we used less than 1/2 gallon per hr(well under actually to run at idle with the AC.This isn't much of a surprise since we use about 2.5 gallons an hr with the AC blasting ga 60 mph(about 25 mpg with the Pilot at 60 mph in pure interstate travel).
The HH would be an excellent evac vehicle.It is just a little smaller than the Pilot,but we manage to put 2 large dogs(greyhounds are tall 28" leggy mutts-70 lbs),and 3 adult sized people with "stuff" on our regular trips.
Three small cat carriers and a mid sized dog will fit in the back(behind 2nd row).
pretty easily..
We actually evaced with 2 cats in a 42x31x31 dog folding crate,and the kitten in a carrier.My wife and son were also in there.The HH would be perfect for your load,and it would last longer in bumper to bumper with the AC on than anything but a Prius.What is the tank capacity-17 gallons?30 hrs of idle-with AC- would chew up less than 10 gallons on something that efficient(1/3 gallon hr would be about right,certainly better than the Pilot).You would then have at least 7 gallons to drive you a heck of a long way.A 5 gallons gas can strapped to the top of the bumper is a good idea in evac situations.Yes,gasoline is dangerous,but so are evacs.
You have a prime evac vehicle-.This is one reason I'm thinking about dumping the Pilot for an HH-range in evac..Nothing in the HH interior size range would last as long in bumper to bumper with AC on.Along the way,if they limit how much gas you can buy-and it happened-10 gallons will get you a long,long way-.Luck.Charlie PS The HH's computer will manage the battery charging,don't worry about it.Use the AC as much as is needed.You will beat everyone in bumper to bumper range-hrs or miles.
We have parked our HH with engine ON for up to 15 minutes without problems. The ICE shuts off automatically, traction battery was fine, the 12V did not drain down.
We also were stuck once crawling only 2.5 miles in 50 minutes with A/C blasting on a hot day. No problem.
The on-board computer will turn ON and OFF the ICE as needed to charge the traction battery. So there is little convern there. The only concern we have is with the 12V battery but even that one should be fine as long as you are not parked overnight with interior lights or headlights on.
When we saw the Rita evac traffic jam, the first thought we had was how a good gas-electric hybrid would have been perfect.
I still find that mindboggling.