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Here's one of the more favorable reviews from Canada:
http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdrives/01highlander.htm
http://www.canadiandriver.com/roadtest/01highlander.htm
Anyway, at the time of purchase, she asked for a black SR5 and several options out of the Highlander brochure .. including the leather option. As they were keen not to let her go without making a purchase and driving away a new car, they offered her an in-stock black SR5 with the options requested except the leather option. They agreed to call her back in to have the leather fitted when it was available. So now, this past week, she has had the car in for the leather to be fitted and they gave her a rental car whilst they kept hers.
When she went to pick it up she was astounded. They had had a 3rd party company cover her existing seats over with leather and it was all loose and very poorly fitted too !!!!
She told them immediately that what she ordered and what she expected was a factory option leather but they tried to explain that she asked for "leather" and not the "factory leather option" even though she ordered all the options at the same time with the same salesman from the same Highlander brochure.
What a scam. Apparently, she was expected to confirm that all the options she wanted were actually Toyota options and if you didnt specify Toyota options then they said they were allowed to use 3rd party options !!!
Their attitude is now, tough .. return the rental car and take your Highlander away. Clearly we are not happy and have spoken to the salesman,the service manager and the Sales Manager about it but so far to no avail.
So when is a fitted option not a factory fitted option ? even though they never mentioned anything about 3rd party fitted options during her whole time at the dealership when she ordered the car.
Now my response is to tell them that the car is totally unacceptable, to let them keep the Highlander until they fit the factory leather option, to keep their rental car until they do so, to write to Toyota advisng them that she ordered in good faith a new Highlander from a Toyota dealer asking for the leather option whilst looking at a Toyota brochure and what she got was a complete rip-off 3rd party leather bodge-up.
If that doesnt work, then maybe we will have to consult a good lawyer in LA who specialises in car purchase / consumer problems.
Any advice, comments .. or names of good lawyers. This has got to be easily resolved .. hasn't it ??
This is why salesman just love selling to customers with no prior purchase experience.
The new 2003 4runner has an almost perfect AWD setup, over time it will likely prove to over-shadow even the top end JGC.
She does have some recourse. The leather should not be loose. She is entitled to leather that is of similar quality to the factory job.
Dealer installed leather is pretty common. The only way to get factory leather is to get the Limited. Due to this, many dealerships will offer to have leather installed. Generally, this is pretty good stuff. In almost 9 years in the business, I have seen VERY few cases where there was a problem. In those few cases I did see, a trip back to the dealership and some quick fitting cured things.
There are not any safety issues between the two and four wheel drive, except that the four wheel drive handles better in snow as wwest notes. Get the two wheel drive unless if you plan to drive in the snow or off-road.
Regarding the price quote you mentioned in your profile: the $24K figure definitely sounds high to me for invoice; my calculations from Edmunds.com look more like $22,350, with +/- $200 since I'm not sure which special package you're getting. But the $24K figure still sounds like a fair deal seeing that it is close to an out-the-door price. Be sure the dealership doesn't try to up the price when the vehicle arrives!
And yes, I'm on record as having been pleased with my 01 AWD RX's performance in snow.
But the RX and the HL will forever remain primarily FWD, meaning forever hazardous to handle in ice and snow, treacherous conditions. While it clearly does have some rear drive functionality at 90/10 F/R native torque ratio that can never justify the additional cost and weight penalty.
IMMHO Toyota has finally got it right!
In native mode the new AWD/4WD 2003 4runner is primarily RWD torque biased, never goes beyond 53% torque to the front and will substantially increase the torque to the rear above 50% if necessary.
You gotta love those guys.
Just stopped by the Toyota store to look at the 03 4runner and pick up a sales brochure. I'll take back any statements I have made about the 4runner vs the HL or RX, the 4runner is just plain too damn big and bulky.
But.
From the brochure on the TORSEN limited slip diff'l:
"For example, when the vehicle is traveling straight, 40% of the torque is distributed to the front wheels, while 60% is allocated to the rear (40/60), providing the driver with a feel typical of a rear-wheel drive vehicle."
WHEN THE VEHICLE IS TRAVELING STRAIGHT ????
Is it entirely possible that Toyota has figured out how to design a truly excellent AWD vehicle?
The statement implies that the torque to the front wheels might be something other than 40% if the vehicle is turning. I have always firmly believed that it is wrong to have driving, motive, force to the front wheels while turning.
Motive forces, acceleration or deceleration, to the front wheels should be reduced altogether when turning, or as a function of the level of need from tractive adhesion to be allocated to directional control.
Maybe, we can hope, Toyota has arrived at the perfect AWD solution.
40/60 normal, 29/71 w/front slippage, 53/47 w/rear slippage, AND 29/71 (5/95 severe turn??) when turning.
Now, can I have an RX with this feature next spring?
Or even an HL??
I think I'll wait for the 04 RX and HL just in case.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
And.
The 4runner is already quite throughly differentiated from the HL and RX by the very fact of it's size and weight, it's too damn BIG!
Question. Other than size, weight and AWD capability, what does differentiate the runner for the HL and the RX?
Or do we call that the Murano.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
All modern gasolines have detergents and cleaners in them (Techron by Chevron is one example....these are basically variations of Stoddard solvent or the like). It is VERY unlikely that you need any fuel injection service at only 15K miles, and what the hell is emission service?(the feds require the emission system to be warranted for 50K miles anyway, regardless of mfgrs. other warrantees. These are scams that dealer use to add bucks to their bottom line. You can buy Techron for $5 at any parts store...they use something similar and direct connect it to your fuel rail and run the car til it stalls out and uses up the can of cleaner. Save your money til you have some reason to believe an injector is dirty, sticking or leaking etc. I bet they charge a $100 for this ripoff.
I have 24K miles on my HL and it's time for me to start looking for new tires.
I would like to hear recomendations!
has anyone dare to put a lower profile tire like a 235/60/16, or maybe even 225/60/16
I would appreciate any comments
Just premium fuel.
All three are running perfectly.
awchan - I have Pirelli Scorpion S/T's (235/70-16). A/T's would look sweet.
http://www.goodyeartires.com/catalog/products/FORTERA.html
What size tire were you looking for?
I would swear that when I did the research on the Fortera that the Highlander tire size was listed.
I'm sorry for the above posting #6637, my error in not rechecking my information before posting.
Best regards, Philip
but the 235/70/16 also sound good.
any clearance problems with the shocks?
since the 70 means 70% of the 235mm width?
that would make it a taller tire, right?
anybody have experience with how the Bridgestone Dueler A/T's compare with the Pirelli Scorpion A/T's?
My '01 H/L had excessive brake pedal travel and my dealer bled the brakes and that helped.
My '02 H/L the brakes are great with short pedal travel and excellent stopping.
Best Regards, Philip
We went to buy a '02 Explorer but wanted to drive all in the class before buying. When she drove the HL (which we'd not even considered before that because it looked like a station wagon in the Consumer Reports article) our purchase was sealed, although we still spent the rest of the day driving other makes. This car replaced an aging Taurus wagon with over 200,000 miles on it.
I keep my cars for a long time. I'm considering getting the 84 month Platinum warranty from toyotawarranty.com but am curious if my dealer will give me any grief to honor it since we didn't buy it from them (doesn't seem so, but you people here would know if that problem ever comes up). Of course, due to my salesperson being young and new, we weren't even offered an extended warranty by them.
In the past 3 weeks I've read through all of the back postings on Highlanders here and not seen very much mention of extended warranties.
The other thing I've seen nothing on is: How does this Variable Valve Timing w/intelligence actually work? I've always been my own mechanic and although I won't be doing much on this car, I'd still like to understand what is happening, how and why.
Typically in a Lexus or Toyota the glove box light doesn't work unless the exterior lights are on. Another T/L conundrum.
Finance manager is usually the one to sell extended warranty and get the 50% commission.
The coverage description for Toyotawarranty.com platinum seems to be exactly the same as the Toyota company warranty.
I was considering getting a Toyotawarranty but my dealer gave me a price almost exactly the same as the official Toyota warranty so I went with the Toyota warranty because I had the same concerns as you. I think it was only $25 more.
Others have posted that they had good luck with Toyotawarranty.com, however.
Did you try to negotiate the price of a Toyota warranty with the dealer? They seem to have a lot of leeway on pricing.
I'm not sure of this but I think you can buy your official Toyota warranty at any dealer. If so you may want to call the dealer I bought from, Autofair Toyota in Manchester NH. I researched prices and they had the best prices in the Northeast that I could find and were very easy to work with. I didn't even need to negotiate hard on the warranty price. I mentioned Toyotawarranty.com as a possibility and was then quoted a price for the official Toyota which was almost the same. They must know Toyotawarranty.com's prices.
Good luck.
Eddie
And Wwest -- thanks for the glovebox light info (I'll try it tonight to make sure). Guess I'm too used to American cars where the button turns it on, not this complicated HL where it sounds like even the glove box light has more engineering than other cars I've owned. Of course, that also means that in 3 weeks I've been unable to find even one little problem, unlike every other car I've bought in the last 35 years.
Now.... can't anyone point me to a website that explains the VVT-i engine in detail (like the nearby thread that explains the 4WD systems that Toyota uses on this Highlander)?