Toyo Kogyo, formed from a former aircraft company after WW II because Japan was not longer allowed to build aircraft, is still going strong building trucks and medical equipment. Mazda is one of its divisions, in which Ford has a major interest
mike hunt
Ray O wrote:
FWIW, without toyota having the cojones to get out there, USE the system in the prius GenI and report back so it can be improved on, NO ONE would be using it.
and as a side note, i remember being behind an escape hybrid on the 5 freeway back from san diego a couple years ago. wouldnt have thunk anything of it, except the blue michigan "manufacturer" plates made it stand out to me.
Ford had an Escape hybrid ready for market in April of 2002 but when they bought Volvo they held it up until the could use the more efficient system they use now. The system used in the current Prius is not the same as used in the previous Prius. Nissan is going to built a 2006 hybrid Altama, in Tennessee, that is more closely related to the Escape than the Prius.
Initially Ford dealers where getting over MSRP for the hybrid Escape, like the Prius. Now one can buy a hybrid Escape for under MSRP. I guess Ford buyers where smart enough to know they could buy the more powerful V6 Escape for a lot less than the hybrid and use the savings to buy ALL of their fuel for four years and need not worry about buying a battery pack for $4,000 or so at come point later. ;)
mike hunt
SoCalMike wrote:
i remember being behind an escape hybrid on the 5
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