+- MacResource (https://forums.macresource.com)
+-- Forum: My Category (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Tips and Deals (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: My sister's hybrid Highlander. (/showthread.php?tid=24470)
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - elmo3 - 12-19-2006
[quote spearmint]She drives fast and has for forty years. Why should she have to change for a hybrid? The savings were not supposed to be dependent on changing your driving habits.
All you said was:
"The mileage is 23-26 mpg a lot less than promised."
Think about this for a moment. I'll wait.
OK, so you still don't get it, do you. I'll go ahead and explain, and will attemp to do so in words you can understand.
On the one hand you are complaining that her car gets less than what is promised. But then you tell us that she drives like the gas pedal is an on/off switch, fast and jackrabbity and so on.
But--now here's where it gets tricky, hang on--the "promised" gas mileage is NOT derived from driving anywhere NEAR how she drives. So you CANNOT compare the "promised" gas mileage with what she gets in any way, shape, or form.
All you can do (still with me?) is compare what HER driving would give in a non-hybrid against what HER driving gives in a hybrid. Period.
I would expect that if the sticker mileage of a hybrid is 20% better (for example) than the sticker mileage of a non-hybrid of the same vehicle, then your sister's driving of a hybrid would give 20% better mileage than her driving of the same car in a non-hybrid form.
Are you still with me?
In other words, it was idiotic of you (and her, presumably) to look at the sticker mileage and assume she, with her driving habits, would achieve the sticker mileage.
You're right--you don't have to change your driving habits TO GET THE BENEFIT OF DRIVING A HYBRID. That is, she will get better mileage driving the hybrid than she will driving a non-hybrid.
Your stupid mistake was in assuming that YOUR SISTER with HER HORRIBLE DRIVING HABITS would EVER get the sticker-rated mileage.
Tell us again what your beef is? Oh, yes--you were complaining that physics works. Well, darn the universe.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - Spiff - 12-19-2006
elmo3 has a good point, and, errr, well articulated. However, I don't think that 'mint had an actual beef, but that the thread got inflated to such. Just my thought.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - Dick Moore - 12-19-2006
My '02 Highlander is V6, full boat with everything including 4wd. My current two-year long-term average is 21.5 mpg, and i do relatively little stop and go city driving. Most of our long trips invlove high speeds on lonely roads, and I can double-damn guarantee that you don't get the highway EPA rating when you're driving over 70 for hours on end or making good time through the mountain passes of the Cascades and the Rockies.
The previous observation about improving performance as opposed to greatly improving mileage is right on for the Highlander. Take the same V6 engine and add all the hybrid stuff's extra weight, and the mileage improvement for leadfoots will not be dramatic. Nevertheless, I'll bet Minty's Sis is getting at least a 15-20% improvement over the conventional rig, and gets a lot more performance to boot.
I want my same Highlander with a much smaller V6 or the existing somewhat rougher-running 4, with the hybrid added. I'm perfectly happy with the existing performance of my 200+ hp engine. The 4 with hybrid tech should yield about the same go power with significantly improved mileage -- perhaps 30-35% real world. Or perhaps, if I can actually get in one, the new RAV4 as a hybrid, same reasoning
Come on Toyota!
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - incognegro - 12-19-2006
so what family size car/truck can fit half-sheets of plywood or long boards? count out all those Civics/Corollas/Yaris/Prius econo-cars.
this past summer we brought 3 or 4 loads of flagstone for our back yard "patio" area. you should have seen the back end of the 1997 Grand Cherokee! i can't imagine how many trips to & from the stone yard it would have taken in a small or medium-sized car. even in a Forester, how much can you load up the back?
sometimes you need a big vehicle to bring home stuff like that from Home Depot and places like that... not to drive 1 kid to school, or yourself to work. if you have to have 1 vehicle, it's got to be one that does everything you need.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - mattkime - 12-19-2006
>>if you have to have 1 vehicle, it's got to be one that does everything you need.
isn't there government assistance for families like that?
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - incognegro - 12-19-2006
[quote mattkime]>>if you have to have 1 vehicle, it's got to be one that does everything you need.
isn't there government assistance for families like that?
i think this was meant to be a joke...?
if you want government assistance, you need to be a big corporation or a farmer.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - elmo3 - 12-19-2006
[quote Spiff]elmo3 has a good point, and, errr, well articulated. However, I don't think that 'mint had an actual beef, but that the thread got inflated to such. Just my thought.
well, he did say:
Leaves me with the feeling if I drove a lot and wanted to save gas consumption I would get a nice small car with good mpg like a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic.
which means he thinks that gas saving is solely the responsibility of the car and not at all that of the driver.
He thinks that if the car is rated at 30mpg, therefore his idiot sister whom he admits is a lousy driver who drives fast and can't keep herself from treating the gas pedal like an on/off switch should get--the rated 30mpg.
He concludes that since SHE doesn't get the sticker rated mileage, he "gets the feeling" that saving gas means getting a small car.
His sister could drive a Yaris or a Fit and get 20mpg. And mint doesn't get it in the least.
mint is not one to get things, apparently.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - elmo3 - 12-19-2006
[quote incognegro]sometimes you need a big vehicle to bring home stuff like that from Home Depot and places like that... not to drive 1 kid to school, or yourself to work. if you have to have 1 vehicle, it's got to be one that does everything you need.
....which is why Home Depot rents trucks by the hour.
It takes A LOT of Home Depot $20 rentals to make up for the gas, maintenance, and purchase price of the big vehicle you bought just so you *could* occasionally bring home a load of stone.
You don't buy your car based on the single largest project you're ever likely to have.
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - Carnos Jax - 12-19-2006
Damn...where's the love anymore...
Re: My sister's hybrid Highlander. - Seacrest - 12-19-2006
[quote incognegro]so what family size car/truck can fit half-sheets of plywood or long boards? count out all those Civics/Corollas/Yaris/Prius econo-cars.
this past summer we brought 3 or 4 loads of flagstone for our back yard "patio" area. you should have seen the back end of the 1997 Grand Cherokee! i can't imagine how many trips to & from the stone yard it would have taken in a small or medium-sized car. even in a Forester, how much can you load up the back?
sometimes you need a big vehicle to bring home stuff like that from Home Depot and places like that... not to drive 1 kid to school, or yourself to work. if you have to have 1 vehicle, it's got to be one that does everything you need.
Too bad there aren't really cheap rental trucks available for that kind of thing.
Especially convenient ones, right at the HD.