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I had some unused vacation time and it took us (traveled with my wife) 26 days. We never spent more that 2 days in the same place and visited many places we had missed on previous trips. We did not make any reservations and just stopped whenever we got hungry (often :-)) or tired (not so often).
kaz6:
I have not noticed any mileage changes since installing platinum plugs. Mileage has improved lately to about 42 average but I think it's more due to warmer temperatures than the spark plugs.
I only changed to platinum because I don't need to replace them for the next 60 K miles.
is your echo good on the freeway? is it sensitive to wind and big trucks passing u?
just wondering coz i'm choosing between echo, corolla and matrix for my next car
If the '03 Corolla had been available a year ago I'm not so sure I would have bought the Echo. Here in Vancouver you can get the Corolla with AC and automatic for CAD$ 19300 plus tax (about US$ 12370) and my Echo was just a couple hundred dollars less.
But I intend to keep my Echo for at least 5 years (about 187 K miles in my case). I'm sure it will last much longer than that.
At the brake inspection the other day the pads were still at 85% after 38 K miles, both front and back. I guess I will not be changing brake pads for a while!
mike
p.s. the focus only wishes it were even half the echo!!
I didn't go close enough to the Dakota (I was too upset) to see the extent of it's damage, but the driver said it was leaking anti-freeze. I seem to be physically okay. The ECHO seems to have done everything it was supposed to do.
As far as a much earlier poster's comment about increasing the horsepower of the Echo, I disagree. The best thing to do would be to advertise, advertise, advertise and keep on showing the lbs/hp number. It's really quite good. Judging a car by straight horsepower makes as much sense as judging a car by displacement alone - apologizes for a lot of inefficiency. A dyno curve is even better, but that's asking for at least 60secs of attention span, which is pretty rare.
Oh well! :-)
Any suggestions from anyone:)
rick
A comparison with the past is helpful here too.
Today, the Echo is the cheapest Toyota, and weighs about 19 lbs per hp.
By contrast, 25 years ago the Corolla was the cheapest Toyota. At a bit more than 2200# (manual), it was about 10% heavier than today's Echo, but its engine put out only 78 hp. Bottom line: this car weighed 28 lbs per hp. And the older car was not underpowered. The Echo has a lot of power for its small size.
Two areas in which a lack of horsepower would be noticeable are 1) climbing long steep grades and 2) accelerating while merging on to a freeway. In both of these areas, the Echo performs better than my expectations. In particular, when I'm getting on the freeway in my Echo, I usually find myself having to "hold back" while the car in front of me gets up to speed. And so far I've had no trouble at all keeping up to speed going over mountain passes.
(I've never had the Echo over 100 mph like some people here, though. It's nice to know the Echo will do that if I need it, but I think I'll stick to lower speeds if given the choice. :-) )
In Germany I used to travel for hours at speeds exceeding 100 Mph, sometimes touching 150 Mph. No sweat, German autobahns are great and drivers know what they are doing.
I am NOT saying the Echo is underpowered in its present form.
From a strictly comfort standpoint, my roommate and I both like the driver's seat of the Echo and she is about 5'4" and I am 6'.
Don't forget - the steering wheel tilt is adjustable (a little) - this can make quite a difference in how far you have to extend your arms to hold the wheel. Another thing that greatly affects how close you are to the wheel is the seat back tilt. I had to experiment with this a little before I finally got it right for me.
Your help is appreciated!
I don't know who told you that you never replace it. That's crap.
The pcv valve is located near the top right of the valve cover. Remove the 4 screws holding the black vanity engine cover and you'll see it.
My echo (2000) had *both* tail lights die within 1 1/2 years (at different times)
My 2001 Echo, aproaching 40 k miles (next week) has been flawless (so far). Other than regular maintenance no extra costs.
I'm planning to keep this car for 300 k miles (7 years of use for me). We'll see if it holds up well. At the inspection done a few weeks ago brake pads front and rear had only 15% use. Apparently my first brake service will be near a mileage of 200 k miles, unbelievable (I will visually inspect them every 3 month when I rotate the tires).
By the way, the tires's proyected life is 130 k miles, at present rate of usage.
I USUALLY KEEP MY FRESH AIR OPEN---ON OCCASION I WILL ONLY RECIRCULATE FOR A FEW MINUTES TO GET A FASTER COOLER TEMP IN THE CAR. IN RECIRCULATE IT IS COLDER, YET I HAVE BEEN TOLD BY TOYOTA TO NOT DO THIS FOR EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME, AS IT CAN CAUSE FAILURE. SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE COILS AND CONDENSATION.
THE A/C WORKS FINE AS LONG AS IT IS ON--BUT TURN IT OFF FOR 30 SECS ON A HOT DAY AND ITZ MISERY. WHICH TELLS ME THE A/C IS ADEQUATE--BUT NOT KILLER POWERFUL. THIS IS A FINE CAR FOR THE MONEY---I LOVE MY ECHO-----EVERY DAY I LOOK FORWARD TO THE RIDE!!
The number one rule is that the cooler the air going into the A/C, the cooler the air will be when it comes out. Let's say that it's a 95F day, and I have had the ECHO sitting out in the sun for several hours with the windows rolled up. When I first get in the car and start driving, I will set the A/C on "fresh air."
Why? Because thanks to the greenhouse effect, the inside temperature will be around 140F. It's better to feed the 95F air from the outside into the A/C than the 140F air from the inside. When I think that the car interior has cooled down to reach the same temperature as on the outside, I switch over to "recirculate."
If I can get the car up to cruising speed, I can also just simply open the windows as an opening move. The cooler air from the outside will be able to rush in and displace the hot air even faster. . . .
Basically you dont need to change the fuel filter unless it gets crapped up. The best way to keep that from happening is to buy only from brand name stations with good fuel for sale. Getting fuel from unmaintained stations will ruin the fuel system and fuel cleaners wont help fix it either. Neither will "injector service for $80 Toyota offers.
Second, run a web search on "Toyota sludge" and track down the story on oil sludge buildup in some Toyota engines (the Echo was not cited, but it may be too new to have a track record). This is either due to owners not changing oil often enough (Toyota's view) or due to some apparently high temperature areas in those particular engines that "cooked" the oil down to sludge. (Allegedly Toyota wanted higher cylinder head temperatures to achieve lower emissions status, made some oil circulation passages smaller, and the temperatures run too hot in those areas; an alternate story is that there is a greater than industry standard temperature variation between the cylinder head and block and this causes the problem.) Toyota's solution, at the dealer level, seems to be to recommend not more than 5,000 mile oil changes regardless of individual driving habits, while the auto repair press recommends synthetics, which won't "cook" since it has a higher temperature spec.
The more I learn about oil quality and car engine variables, the more I believe the "3,000" mile oil company / express change "hype" isn't hype after all, but a good idea.
I am not sure whether I am going to change the synthetic, Mobil 1, that I put in my Echo at 5,000 or 3,000 miles, since synthetics are supposed to last longer. I think maybe the synthetic base stock will last longer, but some degradation is inevitable and I am also worried that the crucial antiwear and antioxidation additive packages in a synthetic will probably wear out just as fast as in a dino oil. Also, the oil filter on the Echo is really dinky, compare it to filters from other economy sedans, so all in all if I have the time I will probably change my synthetic oil at 3,000, certainly at 3,000 for my first oil change to wash out any metal wear particles. This is only made possible by WalMart's economy - $26 for a full synthetic change vs. $50 at an oil shop vs. ? at a dealer.
I don't think I drive "average" but "sporty." Although the Echo automatic has overdrive with resulting low revs on the highway, the little engine is certainly built for high rev's when accelerating or downshifting to merge or to pass - that's why it has that nifty VVT-i valve timing gear on it, why the muffler has the valve that opens up at high rpm, and why the maximum torque and horsepower points are so high in the rpm range - much higher, for example, than the supposedly sporty VW Golf.
Today, in fact, I got over "beginner's butterflies" and used half to three quarter throttle to keep the engine in lower gears longer. The car really flew, the revs really built up. This kind of driving was fun. This car is an "MG" in Tercel clothing. The flip side is, I think I would feel guilty about not keeping the best oil in there on the most conservative schedule. Hey, it's practically the only maintenance item on the car! It's the least I can do for all the fun I am having. And it's only $27 at WalMart. And the filter is puny....
Finally, the Consumer Report on taxi usage is a little misleading. There is a lot of stop and go for taxis, which is supposedly harder than steady cruising, but the worst factor is actually the start up from cold cycle, which taxis just never experience. Most wear in an engine occurs at start up! The best way to minimize that wear is to have a very "clingy" oil such as Mobil 1, which offers the front line protection on start up. Also, continuous operation (read: taxi use) doesn't build up as many acids and as much water as the cold start part of a cycle, or short trips. So the additive package can wear longer.
I especially worry about cold-starting oil performance since I am only able to go about three blocks before jumping on the freeway in the morning to work. That is one significant reason for synthetic in the first place.
So, I haven't completely decided, but if I can afford the dough I think I'll change at 3,000 miles....