Prius Station Wagon??

That'd make for an interesting version of the Prius if it were released as a wagon!

Maybe that's what the badge needs - a wagon variant of the sedan. As time goes on, though, I imagine that there will be many other hybrids in Toyota's lineup.

Still, nice car! Did you get a lose look at it? Did it have the HSD?

Also, where at in Italy were you, if you don't mind me asking?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(walt @ Apr 28 2007, 03:56 PM) [snapback]431789[/snapback]</div>

The Prius "Station Wagon" is really the Toyota Highlander. My father purchased one of those and he recently turned it back.[attachmentid=7734]

Perhaps my father is in a particular situation or has a unique problem but this story should be related concerning Toyota's four-wheel drive hybrid vehicle "with off-road capability."

My father lives in Colorado. He's west of Fort Collins and probably dealt with the Toyota dealer in that area. He purchased the Highlander in the spring of 2006 and I believe he got a serious reward for doing that on his federal income tax. He waited about six months for the vehicle and he was fine with that.

He lives in hilly country and the driveway to his home is a 20% grade that is a gravel road. He had very good experience with a Lexus 4 wheel drive SUV on that road and has used 4-wheel drive vehicles on it since moving there. When it snows on his driveway, it can be a little dangerous and a 2-wheel drive vehicle tends to not be able to safely make it up the hill.

He was pretty happy with the Highlander until winter hit. Then he took it up his driveway after the first snow and got stuck. But he did not get stuck in any manner that one might normally figure one might get stuck. The Toyota Highlander has a traction control system that prevents skidding on wet or slippery pavement. And that traction control system will not allow a wheel to spin or slip on any surface. Instead, it brakes the wheel.

When you're climbing a 20% grade in snow, you're going to spin and slip. That's part of getting up the hill. Since the traction control shuts off wheels that do that, the Highlander would take a wheel out of the equation, then another (making 4WD into 2WD) then very quickly lose all traction and control on the hill. There was simply no way to go forward. My father told me he would floor the throttle and not one sound would be emitted from the car. The only thing he could do was either walk up the hill the rest of the way, walk down the hill or try to back the Highlander down—something he did not do during the nighttime hours.

The next day, he would back the Highlander down, which generally meant he'd inch back about a foot and slide four to ten feet. The slide was always uncontrolled and his truck could go in any direction, including towards the cliff face. Several times, my father tried to get up his hill and each time there was any snow or ice (and this last year, there was lots in Colorado as everyone in the US will recall) and each time, the car would get stuck due simply to its anti-skid mechanism.

He took the Highlander to his Toyota dealer. The first thing they recommended was to slit the tires horizontally on the treads to see if he couldn't get traction. They also recommended studded snow tires but he won't use them on the principle that he did not need them on any of his other 4X4 cars or trucks. They also destroy roads and part of the reason why he purchased a hybrid was to go easier on the environment. He has a 1980s 4 wheel drive Camry that will make it up the hill without studs (or slitted tires) as long as it doesn't get high-centered. This was the only year the Camry was delivered in 4WD.

He had the tires slit by a professional. Tried the hill. No dice. I urged him to take a photo of the Highlander stuck on the hill in to his dealer and talk about the possibility of a wrongful death lawsuit were he to slip off the cliff due to their 4WD drive getting stuck due to a poor design. Other 4WD vehicles have a switch that will turn off the anti-skid mechanism.

Finally his dealer's service department decided to take the matter into their hands. My father delivered the Highlander to them and they took two weeks to try to wire up a switch that would disable the anti-skid system. They couldn't do it!

Apparently, if you turn off that system, you turn off other safety mechanisms as well and you may turn off vital parts of the synergy drive. This is a bone-headed design.

I should say that there may be an issue with the amount of torque that an electric motor can generate. This may cause the design engineers to not trust the ability of a motorist in controlling a vehicle on a slippery surface with that kind of torque. But I would say that I have learned how to go gently with torque on my Prius as well as other vehicles. And my father certainly knows about high-torque engines as he regularly operates a tractor (the big kind).

My father refers to the SUV as a Flatlander. Does just fine on flat roads. Useless for off-road. He turned the "Flatlander" back in to the Toyota dealer and purchased a Honda 4WD SUV with an anti-skid mechanism that can be turned off. It works perfectly on the hill, gets worse gas mileage and is not as nice on the environment.

Consumer Reports likes the Highlander. I think they should try my father's driveway.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Apr 28 2007, 06:19 PM) [snapback]431834[/snapback]</div>

My dad had snow/offroad tires. And his driveway, being a well-done gravel road (not a track) albeit with a 20% grade is not "off-road." Hence his nickname for it, "Flatlander."

I suspect that Toyota may have modified their owners manual due to my father's complaints as well as those of others who were trying to use the 4WD Highlander Hybrid in a dicy situation. He won't run studs. Says they tear up roads and he may be referring to metal ones. But he worked with Toyota to get the right tire combination and even had them cut to follow the directions from the dealership. He really loved the idea of being greener in a car and he is very displeased with the end result. Toyota did have a chance to "make good" and they did offer him lots of advice. And he got stuck on his driveway each time he took the advice of the dealership and changed something to help them test the capabilities of their vehicle (on his dime). He really wanted to keep the car.

Due to his experience, I fear my Prius' traction control in the snow but we do have a 4WD Honda CR/V in the family.

 

[
hehe

yep its the Verso,,, the Avensis is bigger , and the new Corolla is named Auris

the Verso diesel 1.4 D-4D is fuel efficent , ca 5L/100km mixed driving and CO2 is 132G/km not bad .-)

Cheers
Andreas



quote name='walt' date='Apr 28 2007, 09:56 PM' post='431789']
But it turned out to be a Toyota Avensis (ie, Corolla) Verso.
But it got my pulse rate up for a few seconds!

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