Noticed the local dealer is no longer that tough on 2006 Highlander Hybrid recently. Probably there is an $1000 from Toyota. I am wondering if I should wait for the new 2007 Highlander--it will be a total new style with much more HP @280
Hybrid tax incentive is going to end at the end of year but I still can not justify the extra cost of $5000 to $7000 just because it is HOT at this moment. Why government are spending our tax dollar to promote car manufactures and dealers to rip/charge us much more? I don't get it. Even with the tax incentive, I will say the dealer and car manufacture are making all the money. Look at the MSRP difference between similarly equipped car/suv, $3000 becomes $7000 in real selling price...
I like the concept of hybrid, but the execution is a bit lacking. You know when the battery warranty expires, it will be 10 years old requiring a $2500 or more high tech battery?
I thought, and I may be wrong, that the tax incentive only went to specific vehicles that got better than 40-45 mpg? If so, that leaves the Highlander Hybrid out of the tax equation as it gets far less than that. Same for the Lexus SUV hybrid and their non-hybrid model.
The mileage between the two Highlanders isn't all that great, maybe 5 mpg. My salesman told me they had expected it to be better than that for the cost difference. However, the hybrid model is touted for better performance and not touted for any mpg savings if you watch any of Toyota's ads.
The primary reason was to get us out of the gas guzzlers, but then look what happened. The U.S. automakers got caught with an abundance of guzzlers sitting in their lots and now are crying that they are losing money (to Toyota and Honda who make more efficient gas engines (hybrids) and whose sales went up.
So the gas prices dramatically fall so the U.S. car dealers can peddle off their guzzlers, already discounted heavily (Dodge Ram ads are still running on TV for $15,000+). Fwiw, even the non-discounting Toyota dealers discounted their guzzlers at the time - not by much - as well and placed a surcharge of $3-4K on their Prius model to offset the loss on their non-movers - and because they could!
Those owners of the guzzlers took a hard depreciation hit on ownership. Used car lots are loaded up with SUVs and pickups. However, stagnant sales of the lot sitters are beginning to move again as the fuel prices are low. What happens next summer will be interesting, especially if the U.S. automakers get caught again without bringing more efficient vehicles to market.
In the meantime, the oil companies are still making money by shifting the cheaper gasoline that is subsidizing he U.S. automakers to that of natural gas. Damn home heating bill seems to have tripled in the last month!
Soon, we'll all be assimilated into some sort of hybrid.......
I added additional R-19 to attic in August. October NG bill 32, Nov it was 122, this one for Dec is 251~!
Our situation is bad as father in law has all kinds of ailments so can't keep house much below 72 even at night.
This still pretty good gas bill when usage is about 20% lower than last year/same period
I am seriously going to look at new RAV4 when they get 3.5 V-6 in it in Feb.. It has pretty good MPG ratings compared to Highlander currently.
We have Highlander (02) and Avalon Limited with 3.5 and it is FAST and seems quite a bit better than the 02 Avalon with same engine the Highlander has.
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