July 2014 HybridCars.com Dashboard

[hybridbear]

http://www.hybridcars.com/july-2014-dashboard/

[Hybrider]

Thanks for sharing!

[acdii]

Still can't believe people are buying the outdated Camry over the Fusion. Guess some people like driving a dishwasher.

[lolder]

Toyota hasn't had to lower their mileage claims !

[acdii]

They don't artificially raise them either. When it comes to EPA ratings Toyota has always been spot on, give them Kudos for that. Even prior to the EPA changing it up when the 07 Prius was rated at 50-60 I was seeing that kind of MPG in it. Though it was the opposite of what was stated, I got 60+ highway and 50 something city. The Camry was rated at 34 and I did much better than that, I did 38, in winter it was 34. Neither of the Ford Hybrids were as accurate as the Toyotas. That is probably why they sell more, their EPA is spot on, their reliability is always good, they just feel and look cheap and plain. To me they aren't as comfortable to drive as the Fords are, nor do they handle as well.

[darrelld]

They don't artificially raise them either. When it comes to EPA ratings Toyota has always been spot on, give them Kudos for that. Even prior to the EPA changing it up when the 07 Prius was rated at 50-60 I was seeing that kind of MPG in it. Though it was the opposite of what was stated, I got 60+ highway and 50 something city. The Camry was rated at 34 and I did much better than that, I did 38, in winter it was 34. Neither of the Ford Hybrids were as accurate as the Toyotas. That is probably why they sell more, their EPA is spot on, their reliability is always good, they just feel and look cheap and plain. To me they aren't as comfortable to drive as the Fords are, nor do they handle as well.

 

Its amazing how many people bought the Camry prior to Jan 2014 with such terrible small offset crash ratings.

 

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/toyota/camry

[acdii]

WHOA thats not very good. I can tell you from experience the overlap on the Flex is outstanding.

[darrelld]

WHOA thats not very good. I can tell you from experience the overlap on the Flex is outstanding.

 

 

I think a large number of Camry drivers never check those crash ratings. My coworker leased a Camry last year to shuttle his kids around in. After I pointed him to the IIHS ratings for the Camry he said there was no way he would have leased a Camry had he known those results.

Edited August 8, 2014 by darrelld

[acdii]

A large number of people buy based on reliability ratings, not crash protection. It is not something one thinks of when buying a car, they are more concerned on how much will it cost years later when it breaks, so the less it is likely to break, the better chance people will buy it.

 

I bought on the reason that the Toyotas are reliable, and thinking they must be well made, and found out, that is not the case. They are reliable, but not well made. The Prius felt CHEAP! the Camry was CHEAP! the material quality in both was far below what you get in a base Fusion S. To get in a Toyota what we have in our Fusions, you need to buy the Lexus model. Its as simple as that.

 

One other factor that push people to Toyota, their infotainment system is not as sophisticated as the MFT, so fewer complaints on the ability to use it. They read articles on how bad MFT is, and don't even bother about the rest of the car. Hopefully now that most of the bugs are gone in MFT, this will change. With my cars, the real MFT issues are not with MFT but with my iphone. It worked fine prior to the last two updates.

[hybridbear]

I think a large number of Camry drivers never check those crash ratings. My coworker leased a Camry last year to shuttle his kids around in. After I pointed him to the IIHS ratings for the Camry he said there was no way he would have leased a Camry had he known those results.

Car companies often do commercials bashing their competitors. Ford should do a commercial bashing the Camry for bad crash test scores and the safety features it doesn't offer that the Fusion does.

 

Crash test scores were one of the reasons we chose the Focus Electric over the Nissan Leaf. The Ford performs much better in crash tests.

Edited August 8, 2014 by hybridbear

[acdii]

That and their gas pedals don't stick

 

Kind of low wasn't it. :)

[darrelld]

A large number of people buy based on reliability ratings, not crash protection. It is not something one thinks of when buying a car, they are more concerned on how much will it cost years later when it breaks, so the less it is likely to break, the better chance people will buy it.

 

I bought on the reason that the Toyotas are reliable, and thinking they must be well made, and found out, that is not the case. They are reliable, but not well made. The Prius felt CHEAP! the Camry was CHEAP! the material quality in both was far below what you get in a base Fusion S. To get in a Toyota what we have in our Fusions, you need to buy the Lexus model. Its as simple as that.

 

One other factor that push people to Toyota, their infotainment system is not as sophisticated as the MFT, so fewer complaints on the ability to use it. They read articles on how bad MFT is, and don't even bother about the rest of the car. Hopefully now that most of the bugs are gone in MFT, this will change. With my cars, the real MFT issues are not with MFT but with my iphone. It worked fine prior to the last two updates.

 

I fell for the Toyota marketing too when I purchased my 2006 Lexus IS350, major recalls, mechanical issues, and safety problems. My Lexus had the unintended acceleration issue early on and fortunately I was able to bring it under control by smashing my foot against the accelerator pedal multiple times to unstick.

This family wasn't so fortunate;

 

 

My previous VW Passat TDI was at the dealer for service only a fraction of the number of Lexus dealer visits.