Yes, they are on vacation. Call back and ask for Debbie. She went out of the way to help me out. She researched my order and called me back later in the day.

 

The dealer called me today and said it was shipped out on the 26th. If you don't mind me asking, what state are you from. We can quickly determine when it will arrive about....I am from NC, Durham/Raleigh area.

-Chris

 

Hi Hexzero:

___I know you are concerned about the price of your MM HEV but you do know about the upcoming Credit in just 4 weeks vs. the $2K deduction if you purchased now, right? There is a big difference in OOP if you can wait another 3 + weeks.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

I don't have a choice really...

It is on the truck and ready to be delivered. What is the credit supposed to be like in tax year 06? From what I have been reading, it may not be as good as the 2K now... Although that is unconfirmed. I am probably sure I can push the dealer off until January, but they probably want to get it on the books for this year as far as sales goes....

 

 

Chris,
I'm in NJ.

Rich.............

 

Well, I just picked up my MMH... The dealer called today and I whisked in to get it.

I will post more about it tomorrow, but I am a bit fustrated right now. I sat in the garage checking out all the great features for about 25 minutes. Slowly I moved through the manual, looking at each new button to push. Yeah, I did push most of the buttons before hand, but sometimes the symbols don't give it away. Anyway, I got down to the heated seats and noticed that my button didn't work on the driver side. Over to the passenger side I went, and the the button worked fine with the seat heating up in 30 seconds... Went back to the driver side, popped the button off the seat and noticed there was no mechanism underneath the button. Yep, thats right; there was no toggle switch that would trigger the element. Somehow this piece was skipped apparently. To late to call the dealer.... Grrrrr I will take pictures and post more about it tomorrow.
(I had to follow my wife home.. She has a lead foot, so I was only getting 22 mpg on my first trip.)

 

Chris and others interested in the MMH ... well, I also have a little frustration with my MMH which I got almost exactly one month ago. No problems with the heated seats though :-) Actually, my husband and I were commenting last night about how nice they are (Chris - hope yours gets fixed quick!). It's getting colder all the time here and they're a nice luxury.

Anyway, I'm generally very happy with the MMH. But, I am still disappointed with the MPG I'm getting. I have made some pretty dramatic changes in my driving style - I used to be the one passing everybody - from stops, on highway, just about everywhere - you know the style. Now things are very different - I'm accelerating slower, coasting to stops, not going as fast on highway, etc. I even was complaining to my husband last night as he was driving b/c he didn't coast to a stop - he could hardly believe that I was saying such a thing.

Back to the MPG - I've now got a total of about 2300 miles on the MMH. After it hit just about 1000, we went on a long trip for Thanksgiving - about 1100 miles round trip (which, BTW, seemed to be OK according to owner's manual and my inquiry to dealer). On a trip that far (Kansas City to Memphis), a lot of our highway travel was at a less than optimal speed for maximizing MPG. But, still we managed to get around 27-28 MPG which I didn't think was too bad.

Now, however, I'm seeing a decrease since we got back home. On our trip we were watching the computer readouts a lot. I decided after I got back to not obsess about it for a while and see what happens. I've still been careful about the way I'm driving ... just not looking at the A/N system constantly. Then today I decided to look again. My MPG was less than 24 - ugh! Now that it's more broken in, I was expecting to see some improvement, not worsening. I realize the cold temperature here may be a factor (about 17-20 lows) but, come on, it shouldn't make that much difference should it? I park in semi-heated garages both at home and work.

What really bothers me is whether I made the right decision to get an SUV hybrid if the mileage isn't any better than this. I never had an SUV before and justified the decision b/c this is a hybrid. But now I wonder .....

 

2300 miles is not very broken in yet. Hang in there, it should get better.

 

Well I finally picked up my MMH (AWD + Nav). Five day delay, salesman was on vacation and backup failed to cover him. Here are my obsevations.
I have 90 cold climate miles (NJ) on her so far. I'm getting 24.8 combined. My commute is about 2/3 city and 1/3 highway. I'm impressed with the highway milage. It appears that I could get over 30mpg on highway travel. As of now, it's fairly difficult to get her to kick into EV at slower speeds. I'm sure the cold weather doesn't help. I've been using the fake shift and it appears to be very effective. Funny thing is, as a kid I had a Heald Bronc minibike with a variable shift transmission. Don't laugh, but the concept was the same as the MMH tranny. We would make it speed up faster by letting off the throttle and allowing the belt to slip to a lower ratio, much the same way as the "fake shift". Anyway, I don't seem to be able to master the double tap technique that allows it to drop into EV. All in all I think the hybrid system is pretty amazing. I do have some qualms with the rest of the vehicle. They are:

1. Mediocre stereo, certaintly nothing special.

2. No auto headlights. In the manual it states "if so equipped". Is this only available fo non hybrids?

3. No outside temperature. Are you kidding? At this price!

4. Doesn't ride as "heavy" as I expected. With the added weight of the hybrid (4000lbs) over the standrd MM, I wonder how much different the suspension is.

Rich...........