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Taking The Plunge

-- Pete -- 11/08/2008

We took the plunge in 2006. It wasn’t easy but we felt we needed to put our money where our mouth is. We have kids and we are concerned about the world we are leaving them. I’m talking about buying a hybrid. With two kids we needed the space of an SUV so thank goodness Toyota built a hybrid Highlander. It has been a great experience but not perfect.

The mileage was advertised at 38 miles per gallon which is great for that size of car. Unfortunately, that was a bit of an overstatement and 30 mpg’s is more accurate. To get 38 mpg’s you would have to drive about 20 miles an hour under the speed limit and risk getting a ticket for going too slow, not to mention getting shot at by the people behind you trying to get somewhere.

As it is, you have so much information at your fingertips about how you are doing on gas mileage it becomes a game. For the first week after we bought it we hardly looked up. I want to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone unfortunate enough to be driving near me at that time.  

During the last year, with gas shooting up over $4 a gallon it was a life saver to get 30 miles a gallon. It still cost $50-$60 to fill up but you didn’t have to fill up quite as often.

The best part of the hybrid is the fact that there is a sticker on the window that says, “This is a SULEV” This means that we are driving super-ultra-low emission-emission- vehicle. and that feels pretty good. The sticker was designed to come off soon after you buy the car. The sticker is staying.