After months of thought and advice from this forum I purchased a 2007 FEH tonite. It is vista blue (a REALLY bright color) with the appearence trim. I wanted the premium package, but for some strange reason it isn't available for the blue color. My wife insisted on blue, and none of the other colors appealed to me as well (well maybe red but for the wife that was right out). Other things I wanted, leather, safety package were on the car. I really wanted a moon roof, so I purchased that aftermarket as well as the backup sensors. I guess I'll do without the nav package. I could have bought a aftermarket one for $2300, but that was not going to happen. I haven't driven it much other then test drives. The salesman let me take it to get some dinner. I did enjoy driving from the food joint back to the dealer with the engine off the entire time. I'll post the mileage numbers after a while. It is my wife's car and it will be interesting to see if she modifies her driving habits to get better mileage. Thanks to members for posting about their experiences (especially in hot climates).

Jay

IMHO, you are better off.

I wouldn't worry about the NAV too much, the factory NAV/GPS is an antiquated POS IMHO. Granted, the Hybrid display is kinda cool but it really doesn't do anything & if you want a good NAV setup there are plenty of MUCH better units available.

I recently installed an Eclipse(same as the factory Acura units) GPS/NAV in dash double DIN unit in my 05 FEH. The Eclipse does not need a stack of CD's for mapping, has a gorgeous 6.5" screen, plays MP3's & DVD movies & cost me less than $1000.

~John

From my own experience, you made the right decision. I bought my car a couple of weeks ago. When I went to the dealer, I was expecting to only test drive the bare bones FEH, and then get a Nav package equipped one from one of the other four dealers that I found on Ford's website. But, those cars were already sold by the time I talked with the dealer, although I searched the database the night before!

I have used a $700 Garmin navigation system that I've used for the last year and a half, and it gets me where I need, even on roads I haven't traveled before (although I've gotten a little suspicious of the restaurant database after it lead me to a neighborhood instead of a Thai restaurant!)
At first I was a little disappointed. I rode in a Prius a fair amount before buying my car, and thought the screen diagrams of where the energy came from were great. I was a little disappointed to not have this, but found that if I didn't act soon, I wouldn't get a Hybrid -- they were going like hotcakes.

After driving my FEH with the standard screens, and reading several posts here and on other hybrid sites, I found that the standard dials gives all you need for good FE. The battery dial on the far left is great. I can tell when I'm in neutral battery (no charge or decharge.) I can also tell instant fuel economy, mpg to date (average of the last few drives,) how many miles until empty, the state of my battery, oil change, and more. By using the battery guage and the instant FE savings, I've been able to increase my FE as I drive. I don't think I could do better by paying $2000 more for the Nav package.

30+mpg vs. 20+ mpg with a minimal decrease in cargo-room -- why should someone consider a nonhybrid?

You could always buy a scangauge to get all the MPG info.

First 4WD Hypermiler

Have you read the FEH FAQ?

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Read My Automotive Blog at Rich Rambles

Which Model Eclipse did you put in - I bought a 5500 - had it put in a 04 TBird - cost me 2,000 installed - am thinking of putting it in my Mercury Mariner Hybrid, but am concerned with the electronics - simple plug and play or does it require a lot of work ? I agree with you - that the Eclipse is a great unit - One CD for everything -(the whole country - not the 10 discs that Ford gives you - also the MP3 - you can put all your Music on one CD and play it - no need for multiple CD changer under the passenger seat anymore -

PHIL

Here's my experience after 3 days of ownership.
We've already have almost 500 miles on the car. It had 223 when we bought it 'cause the only blue one in the state was in Parker, near Lake Havesu. It showed 22.3 MPG when we took ownership.
This weekend we went up north to beat the heat. It now shows 26.3 MPG, so using some of the tips from here really work. Where we were staying is about 2 miles from town center. I was able to drive back from town on the back roads, all 25-30 miles per hour limits, entirely on EV mode, very cool. I quickly got used to using the gauge and tach to kick it into EV mode and watch charge, assist. I guess the hybrid part of the Nav system is pretty well covered by what I've learned already. There is a pretty steep hill coming home and with the speed control on I could see that the computer was using charging braking and electric assist to try to maintain speed down and up hills.
There were unexpected bonuses of not getting the Nav, the radio has a 6 CD changer and plays MP3s. All in all I'm impressed with the technology of the hybrid drive. It's fun to drive, seems a lot more responsive then the Explorer, and my wife loves it.

Jay

I used a 5435 & it is awesome but it was definitely not plug & play. I had to open up the dash opening slightly at the top to fit it in & then I cut off the factory plugs & spliced all the wiring in. The Eclipse needs to tap into the vss wire & it took me a while to figure out which wire this was.

The 5435 is exactly the same unit that comes in a Lexus with NAV(Toyota/Lexus owns Fijitsu 10 who makes the Eclipse) but Lexus charges $4100 for it..........

~John