Drew Dowdell

OMG! Win!

I've been looking through the site logs a bit and we have a good number of people who log in but never post. How about some of you lurkers stop by and say "Hi"? We can't be *that* scary.

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Just have to get good gin. Hard to make a proper martini without good gin. tanqueray 10

Gin is good. Too much goodness can be bad.

It's only a matter of time before one of the states starts implementing those same pedestrian laws.... so might as well get ahead of the game.

Never had any problems running Ubuntu on Virtual PC2007

Cadillac seems to be updating theirs to the logo on a grey/silver pillar

I've run virtual machines on a lot less than that.

What Toyota covered up is less relevant to me than the fact that they did. The engine sludging problem in their 4-cylinders killed no one.... but that didn't stop Toyota from covering up, deflecting, and denying. The transmission problems in the Camry and Avalon killed no one.... but that didn't stop Toyota from covering up, deflecting, and denying. The frame problems in the Tacoma, Tundra, and FJ Cruiser killed no one.... but that didn't stop Toyota from covering up, deflecting, and denying. It's the pattern of bad behavior that I'm concerned with.

Yet again, you miss the point entirely. This is about Toyota's coverup.

Wait.... did you just suggest a punitive tax?

I do accelerate more gently, but I still do my typical 5 over the speed limit unless the limit is 45mph. At 45 mph you can run in EV mode for a while if the road is level.

Tach? There is no tach.

Well regardless if they charge for personalization ability or not, they should at least have a default bootup sound so that there is audible feedback that the car is ready to go.

Post pics!!

Should just be part of SYNC

Oh yea, trip home: 9.3 miles, 38.3 mpg, .3 gallons used mostly uphill, stop and go traffic with the heated seats on.

Don't you have a Miata?

I have not. Two suggestions I would make to Ford: 1. Make a boot up sound. Since I still have to crank the key to "start" the car, give me some more feedback than the small green light on the lower right dash. Extra points if you make the bootup sound programable so I can copy any .WAV file I want and assign that to the boot up sound. 2. Maybe I haven't found it yet, but a button to put all the LCDs into nightime minimalist mode without scrolling through menus would be nice.

Running the accessories doesn't effect the behavior of the car. I haven't run the battery down low.. .it's consistently above 50%. I'll have to get back to you on this one.

I plan to update the fuel economy using the car's trip summary as much as possible. You can drive in all electric mode up to around 45mph, but even the slightest of upward slopes will kick the gasoline engine on. I really feel like Ford could have tuned the hybrid less conservatively and allowed it to run in EV mode longer. However, it is made up for by the fact that even the slightest downhill slope will start recharging the batteries again. That said: There is a stretch of fairly level 2 lane highway that I ran on last night at 45mph. I was in pure EV mode most of the time, with exceptions being when going up slope or accelerating from a stop light. I was getting a ridiculous 60mpg according to the instant readout. The steering does have that weird feeling most people complain about with electric power steering, but since you're not going to be street racing the car it probably won't matter to most people. Fit and Finish seems fine from an initial view, but I still want to crawl around the car for a closer inspection this weekend.

On the highway. In city, the roles are reversed. Gas is predicted to go over $3.50 again this summer. You'll see hybrid interest perk up around then.

Ya know, I'd be ok with that if it meant that China was buying raw materials from us, fashioning them into something and then selling the finished product back to us. That's trade. Right now, our biggest export is dollars.

I'm sure they are segregated with separate but equal UPC codes....