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I do have one minor question, though. I searched in the Owner's Manual but couldn't find an explanation for the Tire Pressure Monitoring System display layout. It shows a single column of tire pressures, but which reading is which tire or wheel location?
Here's to many miles and fewer gallons!
Here's a question I had. I've transferred my bluetooth enabled phone contact list into the cars phone book. However, the car's phone book doesn't seem to be able to dial numbers that contain pauses, such as is used for accessing voice mail. Does anyone know how to handle this?
Did you pay at, above or below MSRP.
I find Carmax is giving about $1500
off MSRP. Fitzmall is just $500 off.
Trying to find out if there is any
possibility of a Limited with Navi
for around 40K. Might have go for
a non-hybrid otherwise.
I'm really quite surprised that Carmax or Fitzmall is giving anything off at all. Are you sure they're talking about the Highlander Hybrid? Even if the markdowns are accurate, they're unlikely to have any to actually sell like that for quite some time, so it may be a moot issue.
I think that the iGuide (thanks for the link, BTW) is referring to pre-2008 Highlanders as they have just a dash indicator light from what I recall.
On ours, if we had to, we could simply remove one wheel at a time to determine which row on the tire pressure list belonged to which wheel location. I can't believe that they didn't physically arrange the pressure readings on the screen to correspond with the wheel locations on the vehicle. At the very least, they could've added an 'LF' (Left Front), 'RR' (Right Rear), etc., label to each of them. Wanna bet that it'll change in a future software update??
I'm new to the in-car Bluetooth phone system and find it quite interesting to use. The call quality is really good, but with a vehicle this quiet, I guess that should be expected. At any rate, is it stripping out or ignoring the pause characters (usually a ','-comma) from your numbers? If so, I'm not sure what you can do about that.
Otherwise, have you tried entering the commas when speaking the numbers? Such as, "five, five, five, one, two, comma, comma, three, four..."? That, or maybe the actual word, 'pause'. Let us know how it goes. Also, does Toyota have a 1-800 number for Customer Assistance? That might be the fastest way to get an answer.
I have to run by my dealership tonight and they have a Bluetooth expert--Isaac--there. I'll see if he has any answers.
I'm still loving the vehicle, but of the sections that I've read in the Owner's Manual, I'm quite disappointed. And, yes, I usually read the manual cover-to-cover. It's not particularly well written and has very little detail. It took me forever to figure out how to reprogram the door lock operations when shifting into and out of Park. The manual really only gives you a hint of what to do and seems to be missing some required steps. Perhaps the documentation department didn't get all of the latest code updates from the software design/development group. I ended up just trying various combinations of things until I decoded what actually worked. However, that's a very minor annoyance and I think that I'll survive it somehow!
The Edmunds invoice is $510 less than the invoice price provided by Carmax. The difference is due to a $500 item labeled as "TDA" (anyone know what that is?) and a $10 charge for gasoline. So, when you are negotiating up from invoice, you need to know the actual dealer's invoice. Carmax is "no haggle", but for other dealers I'm not sure how much one can negotiate the TDA. So, even when they sell the car to you at their "invoice" they are making $1708 minus whatever it costs them to prep the car and get it ready for sell.
The invoice also separately lists "Dealer Holdback" of $799 and "Wholesale Financial Reserve of $399 (anyone know what that is?), but these two charges are already included in the base vehicle invoice price listed on Edmunds.
Carmax now has at least on Hybrid on the lot and read to sell (I drove it last Saturday) and they are offering about a $1500 discount off the MSRP that is close to $38,000.
Holdback is profit to the dealer from Toyota. The dealer pays this to the factory when they get the car and gets it back when they sell it.
Wholesale financial reserve is basically the interest the dealer paid to finance their purchase of the car to sell. As with TDA, you're paying their expenses.
It's quite a racket and that's why the car sales business is so profitable. Not for the people who work at the dealerships but for the people who own them and for the car companies themselves. Except for GM, of course
Furniture stores
Clothing stores
steel wholesalers
Auto parts stores
etc, etc.
There is no difference. All the vehicle makers have the same expenses.
There is only one receiver on the vehicle that picks up the pressure readings from the sensors in each tire. Thus, the vehicle has no idea which location the signal is coming from.
Even if the sensors in the tires were individually serialized and their locations entered into the computer, as soon as you rotated the tires, all positions would then be incorrect. You could possibly have the techs rescan and re-enter the information into the vehicle's computer after a rotation, but if you didn't go to a Toyota shop for the work, again, the system would be out of whack.
I think that they should still have had a unique identifier built into the sensor that could be displayed on the Tire Pressure Monitoring screen. Then they could mount a corresponding identifier (a sticker or a stamping) somewhere toward the insde of the wheel, where it would still be visible from the outside if you knew where to look for it. That way you wouldn't have to check all of the tires to find the low one. You'd just have to look for the right sticker.
So close, and yet so far! :mad:
Also, I tried to find out more about the Bluetooth phone system and adding pauses to a dialing sequence, but Isaac the expert had already gone home for the day when I got to the dealership last night.
I did, however, think about it a bit and here's what I came up with. Even if you could add the pauses so that you could get into your voicemail, for example, how would you 'press 9 to delete the message' after listening to it in order to go on to the next one? Will the system still respond to voice commands while you're on a call? I kind of doubt it, but will give it a try when I get a chance.
Happy hybriding!
I think it would be more efficient to use a very low wattage transmitter for each tire, and locate a receiver in or near each wheel well. That way the closest receiver would record the nearest tire, and the display would tell the owner which tire was low.
All I am saying is that these costs you noted are normal expenses that every business encounters. I had them in the steel business, same exact costs the magnitude was just different.
Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks.
That probably isn't a cost effective solution. First, you have to pay insurance on two rather than one vehicle. That alone would offset the improved mileage for most people. But if you happen to pay really cheap insurance, you still have to add in the cost of the second vehicle. Even if you only spent $5,000, that is a lot of gallons of gas. Buy anything cheaper and be faced with repair costs. Plus, you are not driving the vehicle you want. You are settling. And you now have two vehicles to try and fit in your garage (or have one sitting out on the street in the weather, etc.) Now your very nice primary car sits and depreciates without you even getting to enjoy it because you are commuting in some beat up little commuter car.
As nice as it sounds, in my opinion, buying a 'commuter vehicle' just doesn't make sense for most people, finacially or otherwise. I looked into doing this a few years ago and it would have cost me extra money per month. Your situation may vary.
As nice as it sounds, in my opinion, buying a 'commuter vehicle' just doesn't make sense for most people, finacially or otherwise. I looked into doing this a few years ago and it would have cost me extra money per month. Your situation may vary."
I agree that it's probably not cost effective, but it's also an expensive proposition depreciation-wise to trade in a vehicle that's nearly brand new, just to save some gas. My reply was based on hotch41's desire to spend less on gasoline, and if that's his main objective he could buy a (used) small economy car for his 70+ mile round trip commute and come out way ahead in terms of his weekly gas bill.
I'm still amazed that people would think it's a good proposition to dump a brand new vehicle and take a huge trade in hit, just to save a few bucks on gasoline.
Didn't you budget for gas costs when you bought the large Acadia?
Lets say that you trade in the Acadia and take a $3000 hit on it for getting rid of it so quickly (in all likelihood it has already depreciated MORE than $3,000).
That would be 1,000 gallons of gasoline at current prices.
1,000 gallons of gasoline in your Acadia would let you drive it for between 15,000-17,000 or more miles which is over a year's fuel for the average consumer.
The smarter move for you is to be more prudent with your trip planning, doing things such as combining all of your errands into a single trip, which can often be done mid-commute. Is your Acadia Flex Fuel capable? That could also save a little bit of pain at the pump.
At the end of the say I'm still amazed people buy $35,000 gas guzzling trucks and then have a shock that it costs $300 a month to fill them up.
At some point demand will slow down, in the case of the Prius it was 3+ years after initial launch. At that time when demand slows you'll likely be able to buy off the lot or at least order one without a package.
One other limiting factor all the dealers face is that all of these are being made in Japan until the new plant in Tupelo is completed. So whatever comes across on the next boat is what the dealers have to take....and the buyers too. This goes back to the demand question. If most buyers are asking for more rather than less then that's what the plants will build and ship.
I ordered one in August (Denver dealer), I really didn't want the third seat or any other package, and I wanted a certain color. My dealer tells me that the one I want is indeed coming in in a week or so...
But you make me think more carefully about any drastic moves as my Acadia cost me quite a bit more than the $35K you indicated. It seems like I would never recoup the additional money outlay to get into the HH or even the conventional HL to get the gas mileage I thought I'd be getting.
In addition, although I did drive the HL prior to my purchase of the Acadia, the HL is much more agile than the Acadia. I bought the Acadia only for the amount of space it allows. I don't even drive my kids around on a daily basis and I should have purchased a vehicle based on something I'd enjoy driving during a long commute. The Acadia is a nice vehicle, just not too exciting. I know sacrifices need to be made, but either HL is more enjoyable to drive over the Acadia. I drove the HL again last night.
Anyway, thanks to all for your opinions and insight. It's been very helpful.
Navi in Bay area. I think prices will become reasonable by next year. I am
in no hurry. Will wait till spring.
$40K+ for a non-luxury midsize SUV means it competes with MDX and others. Sure it's a hybrid but that's about it. Still no sunroof or other base 'luxury' stuff. Toyota certainly knows how to make money of hybrids...
So I could imagine you could get a discount on a non-luxury $40K midsize hybrid SUV. Although I doubt you could get such discount easily at this time...
No! No matter what you tell me the auto makers are NOT discussing the pricing in some offshore island. I don't believe it.
I purchased my HH about April of '06 and it currently has 26,000 mile on it.
I will not bore you with the 10 page dicertaion of what all happened to my car but you are welcome to ask questions as you comment on this thread.
To put it in short form.
HH starts shaking. Owner has it towed to Toyota dealer. Dealer calls and says "Bad gas, not covered under warranty, $285.00" Owner says please fix it. Dealer runs & idles it for 2 days calls and says engine blown, steel parts fly out from under it. Calls in special tech for HH. 8 days later leaves message that cause was hydro lock not covered by warranty.
This looks bad for us. I must guess five to seven thousand for new engine.
On top of this they performed the 30,000 mile service prior to purgeing the gas.
Confused. :sick:
What's really weird is that sometimes the battery is completely dead, like now. But there have been other times that it started right up, drove a substantial distance (120 miles), then wouldn't start again after it had been off an hour.
We use our Highlander infrequently because our main car is a Prius and we only use the Highlander when we need to pull a trailer when our band tours. We've already been stranded at a club in the middle of the night with a trailer full of expensive gear because the car didn't want to start (after having driven 40 miles with no problem).
This is very frustrating, especially now that it's completely dead and we have a trip Friday. We had to bring our tractor over to start it, but of course it turned itself off then died completely before we had a chance to put the tractor away. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed? It does seem like a pretty big design flaw.
EDIT: Found this confirmation on the Toyota FAQ page what a drag!
In addition to the storage tips for our conventionally-powered vehicles, our hybrids require additional steps for each battery, as the hybrid vehicle battery and auxiliary battery will discharge and their condition is liable to decline.
To prevent excessive auxiliary battery drainage, charge the battery at least once every two weeks by driving the vehicle for 15 - 20 minutes with all non-essential electrical accessories (such as air conditioning and audio equipment) turned off. As an alternative, you may disconnect the negative terminal of the auxiliary battery.
For the hybrid vehicle battery, charge the battery at least once every two months by starting the hybrid system for about 30 minutes*. Check that the "ready" light is on and all lights and electrical accessories are off. It is not necessary to drive the vehicle, but do not start the hybrid system in an enclosed area unless the tail pipe is connected to an exhaust hose to prevent harmful build up of fumes.
*If the battery was disconnected, it will have to be reconnected before the hybrid system is started.
Cost of hybrid engine
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$12,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am done with hybrids.
Any one want to by a hybrid with a blown engine.
You fix it and save about $12,000 on what I owe.
doug
Also no problem leaving the Highlander battery (or the Honda for that matter) for ten days while in Ireland.
We love both our hybrids and they work for us as a family of five.
Hope to never have the blown engine problem and I have never heard of that on here before, and while I feel sorry for the owners but suspect that it is an isolated incident. I think it would be worth writing to Toyota and the dealership outlining the scenario- there is nothing else to lose.
You have a 60,000 mi warranty on the gas engine and transaxel. Unless there are other issues with how the vehicle was being used ( towing a 12000# trailer? ) how is it that you don't have a valid warranty claim?
There's too much missing here to reach a conclusion. I certainly wouldn't give up on this.
Apparently mice got into the engine compartment, chewed through the wire insulation on low side of the injector circuit, the bare wire shorted, dumping massive amounts of fuel into the cylinder resulting in hydro-lock....
Piston rod ejected through the engine block.
doug
Mine is with the cause of subsequent damage.
If I did this on a lonely stretch of road they would hold me responsible for operating this expensive state of the art machine after violent shaking begins.
Why am I responsible when the dealership causes the subsequent damage???
doug
1) Bad gas should be easy to rectify and eliminate.
a) purge all fuel possible from system.
b) change filters
c) add known good fuel
d) idle car till fuel behind injectors is replaced with know good fuel from tank (approximate idle time up to 5 minutes). (I see this step being a challenge for a toyota hybrid idle is to charge hybrid battery)
e) scratch head and look for something else causing violent shaking of engine.
2). This whole scenario has a problem to it. The engine was shaking violently. Why run it at all. I chose not to. These guys are the pros. Get tech in from out of Town to figure it out or admit not qualified and recommend qualified facility. I do it every day in my work.
Doug
Hard, for me, to find fault with anyone but the mouse.