Hi Peter,

I think it is wonderful that your goal is to obtain long service from your vehicles. That is very wise from a personal finance perspective and is also kind to the environment. I hope that you are able to achieve that goal. I also am a loyal Toyota hybrid customer, owning three.

Think about PCs for a minute. A 20 year old PC probably has an Intel 80286 or 80386 processor. Imagine trying to obtain replacement parts for this vintage PC, which had been built in 7-digit quantities. (Hint - it will not be very easy)

My point is that as the electronics content of cars/SUVs increases, and recognizing that the ECUs are customized for a given model, it will be increasingly hard to keep the vehicles running beyond 10-15 years due to lack of spare parts.

As HiHy owners, we all want our vehicles to have a long service life, either because we plan to own the SUV that long or because a demonstrated long life will increase the resale value when we are ready to trade or sell it. It remains to be seen exactly how long the economic service life will be.

Patrick Wong

Excellent insight on the comments on the 20 year old PC. I think in many cases I would agree with you in that light but the analogy is somewhat flawed in this case. I have several of the old HP 100 and HP 200's. Since you brought up the pc analogy I figured you would know about them. I have found there is a whole underground of folks that still use them and you can get parts and software for them. It is just like my HP11C. I can buy like new ones off EBAY today for more then I paid for mine now almost 30 years ago. Even my HP35 (where ever it is in my pile of junk) you can still get parts for it today if you have the money and the internet.

On the other hand, I have a 73 vintage 44 AutoMag handgun that is still and will probably always will be unfired in the box because parts are no longer available. If anything breaks I will need to pay a machinist to start with a block of steel and make it from scratch. Thus it sits unfired as a collectible.

I expect that keeping the 07 and soon to be 08 HHy going will be a problem, but not insurmountable. The question more revolves around my willingness to "putz" with it and to try and find replacement parts.

As a side note did you see the 08's are now priced? The non-limiteds are 190$ cheaper then my 07.

When will the 2008 Highlander Hybrids come out and how much can they tow? The answer is 07/28/08 and 3500 lbs with 350 lbs tongue weight.

08/15/07 Update. The hitch will be a class 3 valley hitch.

As of 08/19/07 3 weeks to the 08's. Maybe soon we can order them.

As of 9/9/07 Broke down and bought a "gas" Sport Highlander. The Hybrids are delayed till October-November and could not wait.