blah blah said:
How so? The current Vue meets Highlanders highway EPA numbers. I havent
even seen the Outlooks numbers.
From Edmunds.com site:
2006 Toyota Highlander "Hybrid":
City: 31-33 mpg Hwy: 27-28 mpg
2006 Saturn Vue:
City: 19-22 mpg Hwy: 25-28 mpg
Most others shown are:
City: 13-18 mpg Hwy: 18-21 mpg
That said, the Highlander is a much larger vehicle than the Vue. Edmunds
calls it a mid-size and it weighs in at around 5,500 pounds as well.
The Toyota Highlander Hybrid (
http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/hhybrid/index.html )wins as far as
city mpg where their Synergy Drive excels. GM hasn't even approached those
numbers. Where I was in Northern California a couple of weeks ago, gas
(regular) was $3.39 per gallon (Old Station, and diesel was around the same
price).
If you check Toyota's site, they are working on a hydrogen hybrid as well
(check the Future/Concept section under Vehicles). However, trying to get
pure water via steam generation is costly and I doubt if hydrogen will be
the answer - although it will free us of oil based fuels (short of
electricity to purify it). Buying distilled water costs more than gas now
($1.00 for 16 ounces of water, not the filtered stuff). Want to buy some
truly distilled, not deionized or filtered, water for less than $3 gallon?
Good luck.
Good things are the Ni-Metal Hydride batteries are recyclable and the hybrid
will reduce the dependency of petrol in the long run. That's one advantage
where the Toyota system runs the battery between 40-60 percent in charge so
they get the battery to last a long time (warranty is 7 years in CA). Price
of the vehicle shouldn't matter since some people think a Hummer is a
bargain and buy whatever floats their boat anyhow.
You could argue the Toyota Camry verses their soon to be out Toyota Camry V6
Synergy Hybrid which would be the best comparison of different vehicle
operating expenses. If the owner puts serious miles on the hybrid model in
5 years - and gas goes above $3/gallon - the hybrid owners should come out
ahead if the vehicle's price differential is approx. $2K (discounting any
governmental tax "exclusion," not the "deduction" most assume to be the
hybrid's tax benefit -- which may go by the wayside soon).
As I said, GM (and Ford) needs to speed up their technology no matter what
they decide on for fuel. Toyota is leading the way right now -- and pretty
far ahead. You cannot get an "Employee's Price" on them as yet as you can
with GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Go figger.
Aside, if you look into the Prius online forums where they are doing some
competitions for best mpg, there is some CHP officer in CA that was getting
111 mpg in his Prius. So people can learn how to drive them and keep the
gasoline engine offline. Still pretty amazing stuff going on with the
hybrids and getting over 450 miles on a 11-13 gallon tank cannot be
dismissed. No doubt we'll all be in them in a few years.
B~
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