Baby Brother Joining our Family

I bought a CT 200h this evening. It will arrive in port around friday, and might be home a week or so later.

I'll report more after I have driven a few weeks, but I think the most immediate interesting story is the car I did not buy. I found a 200h in California that matched my preferences and was priced aggressively -- about 3k under MSRP for a used car with 4k miles on the tyres. CA dealers have a problem, though: they are required to collect sales tax, including from out of state buyers. Since my local tax is quite a bit less than CA this idea of buying in CA seemed stillborn, but the dealership had figured out a way to circumvent the issue: they drive the car to either AZ or Nevada and conclude the transaction through a local notary!

In the end I decided to buy local to avoid the trip, since I was not enamored of the idea of paying for the car sight unseen, or traveling to the dealership first to check out the car. Still, I appreciated the creativeness, and given the stellar reputation of Lexus dealers the chance that the car was misrepresented would be really low.

 

Hi Tom, I would like to know too

I think the garbage link is introduced when I edit the post, but I have not pinned down the specific action yet. Even more odd, once the link is part of my post I am unable to delete it, although Daniel reported success.

Does the code look like a hex representation of an image to you ? That would be a juicy hint if true and we could see what it is.

Thanks for the interest !

 

Heya Justin

I have become a luddite in my old age, and realized my rather simple priorities were:

A great seat and nice quiet ride
The HSD drivetrain (for fuel economy, emissions, and reliability)
Room to stretch out and nap in the back

I was favoring the base (29k) model but my wife wanted a back-up camera, and I took a liking to the moonroof, so we ended up with the (I gather) relatively unpopular package that has moonroof, 'premium' audio, and backup camera seen in the rear-view mirror. I put premium in quotes because I gather it is the same system as the base, with another speaker or two added.

 

That would be sweet :rockon:

I think most of the difference in the city EPA ratings between the CT and the G2 Prius can be explained by the tyre difference -- the CT has 215 mm width, while the Prius is 195. When the OEM tyres are done I'll think about a skinnier tyre.

As for highway MPG, the CT has a bigger ICE allowing lower rpm, but suffers from a higher Cd. I am not sure about frontal area. Perhaps less than the case with city driving, but I still pin hopes on a more fuel economical tyre closing the gap.

 

Thanks, Dennis.
Yep, '04 stays. My conscience would not be clean if she left before age 18

 

I took my loaner CT out for a short spin on a warmed up ICE and averaged 68.3 mpg on the display. This was a ~ 7 mile round trip with elevation changes of about 400 feet down and then up at the end. If the CT has the same 6% over-estimation of mpg that G3 Prius drivers are reporting, actual was 64 mpg. Unfortunately, I did not think to check the traction battery SOC at the start.

I'm gaining more confidence as I drive this car that I will be happy with it's fuel economy. The other aspects of the car are wonderful.