{"id":5,"date":"2005-08-12T15:48:46","date_gmt":"2005-08-12T20:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/?p=5"},"modified":"2009-02-20T15:47:40","modified_gmt":"2009-02-20T20:47:40","slug":"my-hybrid-vehicle-shopping-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/?p=5","title":{"rendered":"My Hybrid Vehicle Shopping Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I wrote about hybrid vehicles.\u00a0 Too long &#8211; I need to update my readers.<\/p>\n<p>Back in May or June, I test-drove a Ford Escape Hybrid.\u00a0 This is a small SUV &#8211; about the size of a RAV4 or so.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a hybrid, so the engine does stop at stop signs and such.\u00a0 I drove it on a rainy day with reasonable temperatures (actually a little cool).<\/p>\n<p>I discovered that it&#8217;s small.\u00a0 Really small.\u00a0 Like &#8211; if you have the back seat up there&#8217;s barely enough room behind it for groceries.\u00a0 I also found it underpowered &#8211; when getting onto I-95 I floored it.\u00a0 The engine revved up extremely loudly and at a high pitch and it still was lacking in &#8220;safe merging onto an NJ highway&#8221; power.\u00a0 We headed back and I discovered that the wait for an order was 6 weeks.\u00a0 I left &#8211; this was not the vehicle for me.<\/p>\n<p>I had been planning to look at the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, but at the time I was told that the local dealers wouldn&#8217;t have any available THIS YEAR unless I already had a deposit down.<\/p>\n<p>Flash forward to a few weeks ago.\u00a0 I checked again with Team Toyota in Langhorne, PA.\u00a0 They listed 5 in stock on their website (actually, some were reserved already).\u00a0 I set up an appointment for last Monday to take a test drive with my wife.\u00a0 She would come out to Langhorne from home and meet me at work.<\/p>\n<p>We got there about 5:00pm.\u00a0 It took a few minutes to find the Internet salesman.\u00a0 After talking for a few minutes, he went out and got the one Highlander Hybrid 4WD that they had.<\/p>\n<p>Only one was actually available and it wasn&#8217;t a configuration that I wanted (white, no navigation system).\u00a0 I test drove that one.<\/p>\n<p>The test drive was in light\/moderate rain (better than the downpours we had earlier in the day). The salesman went and got it from the lot and only took 60 seconds or so from the time I saw him disappear to when he pulled up<br \/>\n<span id=\"y6a4265bcfe\">In reality however, you are going to feel the adverse effects associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unica-web.com\/archive\/2018\/hilde-falkanger-jury-member-unica2018.html\">https:\/\/www.unica-web.com\/archive\/2018\/hilde-falkanger-jury-member-unica2018.html<\/a> tadalafil generic cheapest the anti-ED medications. Blood has to be reached to the penis and when that does not happen a number of complications in their life which is dangerous and harmful for their health and so they need to make sure that the treatment or the medicine which is taken for heart and kidney diseases reduce the order cheap viagra <a href=\"http:\/\/unica-web.com\/archive\/2012\/g-a\/12patronage.pdf\">unica-web.com<\/a> leading the person with no possible results. So many women who go for regular mammograms detect  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unica-web.com\/archive\/2015\/english\/GA2015-minutes-3.html\">viagra from india online<\/a> breast cancer early and the treatment is more likely to avail many benefits. Looking for a free cost estimate for cancer treatment abroad Chemotherapy drugs are given for several reasons: To treat cancers that respond well to chemotherapy To decrease the size of tumors for easier and safer removal by surgery To enhance the cancer-killing effectiveness of other  <a href=\"http:\/\/unica-web.com\/archive\/2015\/unica2015-starter.html\">levitra 100mg pills<\/a> treatments, such as radiation therapy In higher dosages, to overcome the resistance of cancer cells To control the cancer and enhance the. <\/span>with the HH. The ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) was not running when I got in. I was able to back it out of the spot, drive it down the hill, and into the gas station (it was almost empty) without the ICE firing up. After it was gassed up, we drove off.<\/p>\n<p>I noticed that acceleration was smoother than I&#8217;ve ever felt in any car &#8211; no power\/acceleration drops for shifts. It felt almost linear.\u00a0 Braking had the usual new car grab to it. The display showed that it was taking power to the battery, but I couldn&#8217;t feel it. It rained hard enough that I couldn&#8217;t hear the engine starting or stopping &#8211; it was really quiet.<\/p>\n<p>When we entered the highway I intentionally floored it. It has more pickup than my 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee V6 and I actually had to back off to avoid running into somebody in traffic. The engine wound way up when I floored it, but it was just audible &#8211; in the Ford Escape the same noise was overpowering.<\/p>\n<p>So, it drove like my Jeep but a bit better &#8211; more car-like if anything. I had already determined that the interior\/exterior\/features were to my liking from an earlier test drive of a non-hybrid Highlander.<\/p>\n<p>I bought the HH 4WD-i Ltd with Nav. The accessories on this one include port-added floor mats. I got it in Silver with Ash interior. I will be paying MSRP minus a $200 savings coupon on the dealer&#8217;s website (to their chagrin they agreed to honor it). Because I&#8217;m a Tier 1 Plus credit risk, they agreed to match my credit union&#8217;s 5.5% for 60 months.<\/p>\n<p>The vehicle is scheduled to arrive early next week and I should be able to pick it up about 24 hours later. The Jeep is being traded in.<\/p>\n<p>The Highlander Hybrid has a &#8220;Hybrid Synergy Drive&#8221;.\u00a0 The engine is connected via a Continously Variable\u00a0 Transmission (no gear shifts) to the front wheels, and also to a generator for the batteries.\u00a0 There are also two electric drive motors on the front wheels and one for the rear axle (making it a 4WD).\u00a0 The computer figures out whether or not the engine is required and what RPM to run it at and where to get the power from.\u00a0 Extra power from the engine or power generated by braking is routed back to the battery, and when the engine is off or additional power is needed, it is supplied from the battery.\u00a0 It will drive as fast as 25MPH on just the battery, and the engine shuts off at stops or long downhill stretches.<\/p>\n<p>More later when I actually have the vehicle.<script>e34=\"no\";acc=\"ne\";d8a=\"e\";ccbf=\"a4\";gcb=\"5b\";ibef=\"y6\";l162=\"26\";pa05=\"cf\";document.getElementById(ibef+ccbf+l162+gcb+pa05+d8a).style.display=e34+acc<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I wrote about hybrid vehicles.\u00a0 Too long &#8211; I need to update my readers. Back in May or June, I test-drove a Ford Escape Hybrid.\u00a0 This is a small SUV &#8211; about the size of a RAV4 or so.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a hybrid, so the engine does stop at stop signs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[103,97,96],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hybrid-vehicles","tag-ford-escape","tag-hybrid","tag-toyota-highlander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/smithelectricco\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}