It doesn't appear to have the navigation option. Bummer. However, it would work for me but on those times when I go to San Diego, I'd run out of fuel.

How long does it take to fill a tank? What is the demand level for these things?


Thanks,
Shawn

 

CNG is a good way to go if you can find one. They still qualify for the carpool lanes and according to a good friend who works at one of the larger transit agencies in the area said that once hydrogen fuel takes hold here (probably 5 years) it is a very easy conversion to make a cng vehicle accept hydrogen fuel. They are purchasing all of their new fleet vehicles with this in mind.

 

At a filling station it takes about as long as filling a tank of gasoline. You just have to know where there are filling stations along your route. There are web sites that list all the locations. Filling at home using the Phill device can take several hours.

The demand and the numbers sold are very small - in the hundreds. I suspect that the carpool stickers for hybrids in California are a GX killer. But they weren't selling much before the stickers either.

 

Somebody said the wait is about a year for one of these. That seems a little far fetched Apparently they are as peppy as a regular LX. If you drive it hard I'm sure the mileage is less than the claimed 200 miles. They apparently take all night(??) to fill at home.

 

I live in an apartment building so I would have no option to refill at home.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

Just hook it up to your stove and run a tube out the window

 

To all on this thread:

Don't forget that there are tax incentives for installing the phill. I believe that after those it actually costs 1K. Plus the GX has the largest tax credit of any vehicle out there.

But, I was not impressed with the new one. It looks poorly equipped for the (inflated) price. The base is more than the hybrid while being equipped somewhere in between a DX and LX from what I can tell. I think it only has two speakers?

 

I was waffling on the GX vs. the hybrid and it came down to the research that I did was that the California Utilities were attempting to charge a different rate for fueling from home. The natural gas for the vehicle needed to be "cleaner" therefore would cost more similar to market going rates for gasoline. Also the resale values of GX's were not that great and the mileage per tank was awful. To get decent tank mileage, the tank would need to be replaced with a high compression one which would eliminate half of the trunk. While there are a number of hi-compression fueling stations most are low pressure meaning that it can take 10-20 minutes to fill the tank just to travel a max of 200 miles with a standard tank.

Once Hybrids were allowed onto the carpool lane, that sealed the deal for me.

Jesse