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Comments
my cars are both automatics so I notice when idling in drive mostly but when it is in nutrueral too. It is awful I took it into be looked at and I was dismissed.
Using the a/c as a dehumidifier this way is really nice when you need it: for example, I have climbed into my Echo when I'm soaked from rain, and any fogging on the windows is cleared very rapidly. I would like the Echo better, however, if the a/c did not come on like this automatically; I'd rather just control it with the a/c button.
So, if you are idling the car to warm it up and you have the heater fan running and the a/c is on (automatically) that could be having a bigger impact on the mileage, especially if it's dry and you don't need the a/c on.
On my car, the a/c only comes on automatically if the airflow selector is set to one of the three rightmost positions. In the next position over, it does not. (With the engine idling, you can hear the a/c come on as you change switch positions - that's how I figured it out.) And in this position, there is still some airflow directed to the windshield, since it is an "in-between" position. Also, the a/c does not come on, of course, if the fan is turned all the way to the off position.
I don't know how much of a difference this would make to gas mileage.
Another thing I've read (on this board, I think, many postings ago) is that the Echo has an auxiliary electric heater in the heater core, to heat the car up when the engine is still cold. This is a nice feature, but again it would affect the gas mileage a little.
Something to keep in mind: The EPA testing for simulating city fuel economy is done under mild (around 68 F) conditions and the test run lasts almost half an hour. A car engine will be at proper temperature for the vast majority of that time.
Since nodaker's driving right now is in colder conditions and for much shorter durations (six miles of driving in the city might be just 10 minutes), the engine won't get as much time in its "happy zone." Fuel economy suffers accordingly. Goolapper's right -- a highway cruise to warmer climes would give the ECHO a real chance to show its stuff!
Re the Matrix: I spotted one on the Sam Houston Tollway right before Christmas. (I have to assume it was some sort of tester.) It's a very cool loking car, but I hope Toyota can keep it on the affordable side.
>Since nodaker's driving right now is in colder conditions and for much shorter
durations (six miles of driving in the city might be just 10 minutes), the engine
won't get as much time in its "happy zone." Fuel economy suffers accordingly.
Goolapper's right -- a highway cruise to warmer climes would give the ECHO a >real chance to show its stuff!
Now this is the best suggesion yet for increasing fuel economy in my ECHO! If it were up to hubby and me we'd have been outta here yesterday -- this thing called a *job* keeps getting in the way... drat it anyhow.
7 years to retirement! 7 years until we move south and 7 years until we become Prius owners.
...I like the Echo because it is light and responsive and economical. You go somewhere and it scoots without any fuss. The new Protege 5 hatchback as well as the Ford Focus ZX3 are good looking cars, very functional too. And the Matrix is of that type. But these are 2700 pound cars, as compared to the 2000 pound Echo. The old Civic hatchback was light, as well as the old Mazda 323. These are more like an Echo hatchback in my mind. 2700 pounds is the same as a new RAV4 with 2 wheel drive.
...Most people want MORE in a car, but not me. So I expect the Matrix to do well.
I'll wait till my 30k check as it isn't something that seems serious and hasn't affected mpg or drivability.
I had the car at the dealership a few times for this and involved Toyota's area rep. They tried swapping parts such as the air box and intake manifold and nothing resolved the issue. They admitted that some Echo's do it and some don't. Ultimately they couldn't figure it our and said they would research it in the engineering department of Toyota.
My suggestion would be to contact Toyota and ask them if they have found the solution to this known problem before the dealership starts experimenting with your car.
BTW, for me this issue was a nuisance but did not cause any drivability problems.
Hope this helped... Good Luck
spoiler sure don't look like ya picked it up at your Toy dlr's!!! give us the skinny...with
a car that sharp u need a bigger back seat
Large pictures take a very long time to download - especially if there are more than one on a single page - and also skew the screen, making all the messages on the screen very difficult to read - you have to keep scrolling left to right to read every single line.
There are two good ways to go here - either post links ONLY to large pictures, especially multiple pictures, or cut the size down to load reasonably quickly on a dial-up AND to fit an 800x600 display with no scroll bars.
Thanks - these methods are considerate of the rest of our community and we very much appreciate it.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
My starter and theft system went because I kept trying to jump-start the car, not knowing it was the starter that was bad on it. Because of the repeated tries, I blew the ignition and the theft system (Pas_key or something like that it was called) where the thingie on the key keeps the car from being started if it doesn't match up.
Thanks for the thought in sending them though.
As for me, I have one key on a key ring that I use when driving my Echo. I have the spare keys together on a separate ring.
However, the NHTSA itself will caution consumers that you can only compare vehicles in the same weight class. This is because the frontal test into a fixed barrier simulates a collision with a another car of similar weight. I would wager that there are a lot more Camry-sized vehicles out on the streets than ECHO-sized ones. This, of course, is a problem facing all subcompact cars. If the ECHO had posted five-star scores all-around, I would be more inclined to believe the like-Camry claim.
An interesting note: Because of the way the side-impact test is conducted, the side-impact results ARE comparable across all vehicle classes. You may be pleasantly surprised to know that the dummy in the back seat of the ECHO fared better (4 stars) than the dummy in the back seat of the Camry (3 stars).
I don't really buy that but it isn't a major enough annoyance.
At about 40,000 The manual transmission started grinding intermittently going into fifth gear. I took it in to the dealer but (of course) I couldn't duplicate the problem in their presence. By the time I reached about 53,000 my Echo was grinding fifth just about every time so I made another trip to the dealer.
I have a good automotive background and had ruled out cable misadjustment, slave cylinder leakage, pretty much anything outside the tranny. I put my best possible guess as the synchronizers.
The dealer checked it out and decided they were going to order the fifth gear synchronizers and associated parts (without any input from me). But they also warned me that those type of parts would be hard to get and probably be backordered.
The parts were backordered for a month, until last week. When the parts finally came in, I dropped the car off for them to work on it. The parts they needed to replace did not require removal of the trans from the car so they said it would take one day.
I got a call that afternoon from the dealer telling me the fifth gear assembly was frozen to the hub and they had to damage it to seperate the two. They didn't have a hub available to replace it however. They then surprised me by paying for a rental car for the remaining duration of the repair (a severely abused `01 Escort from Enterprise).
It only took them three days to get the last part and the car shifted smoother than new after I picked it up!
Kudos go to Nourse Toyota in Central Ohio for their excellent customer service!
Don't tell those on the engine sludge board. You might just give Toyota a good reputation. ; )
While the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has not crash-tested an Echo, they do compile statistics that summarize injury, collision and theft losses for various cars. (That is, they examine the actual data on the claims insurance companies pay.) And they now have this information for the Echo.
To find it, go to www.highwaysafety.org and scroll down to the story that has the 1999-2000 results and click on "results". Select "four door cars" on the pulldown menu and you will find a table of results grouped by car size; the Echo is near the end, being a "mini" car.
The web site has a complete explanation of what all of the numbers mean. Higher numbers are worse, with 100 being "average".
In summary, the Echo's injury losses are "substantialy worse than average", at 178, and its collision losses are "worse than average" at 124. There is no theft loss number given, probably for lack of data.
Other people on this board have compared the Echo and Camry recently; the Camry's numbers are 102 and 87, respectively, i.e., "average".
The site doesn't give any data for the two-door Echo, but I can't imagine it would be a whole lot different.
I hope the Insurance Institute crash tests an Echo soon; I'd like to see the results.
Re: transmission woes...I really think the synchro is the weakest part of the tranny. Glad to hear it was easily fixed!
Any expanations............
Thanks,
Don
I'm hoping for a new front fascia that makes the car look less cartoony.
~alpha
What are some good replacement tires that people have been happy with?