Maintenance & Restoration

floyd · 08-12-2017, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve dunham

We bought a new1978 Ford Fairmont station wagon , drove it for 14 years and when we traded if off it had over 180,000 miles on it. All that proves is that I was too cheap to buy a new vehicle.

I had a 1978 Squairmont sedan but the poor thing got wrecked with only about 190,000 miles on it. (purchased with 157,000)
A car that size with only 88HP... it takes a long time to get that far!

Great for my rural 30 mile car pool commute though.
Here is an example, for those who have never seen one...

steve dunham · 08-12-2017, 08:53 AM

Even though I owned a Fairmont and towed my fishing boat with it, I wouldn't recommend it as a tow vehicle.
It wasn't the fastest vehicle on the road but it got my wife and 5 kids where they wanted / needed to go.
When we traded it off the power train was fine but 14 years of Minnesota winters had taken its toll on the body.

Adirondick · 08-12-2017, 10:43 AM

Hoping there is room and patience for one more response on towing with the Highlander, here is my experience. We tow a 16' Casita Spirit SD with our 2009 Highlander Hybrid, Limited, which we bought used at 50,000 miles. We just completed a 3,750 mile trip to Newfoundland from northern NY State and are just under 149,000 miles. Three years ago we did an 8,000 mile trip from TX to the west coast to WA, and home to NYS. Including the distance from our home to our then winter stay in TX, it was 10k. Probably 3/4 of that while towing. When the car is full of stuff for the winter we use a WDH but have done a lot of traveling w/o the WDH. After some hydroplaning incidents on the rutted roads of QC and NB, we will just use the WDH from now on to put more weight on the front wheels (FW drive). Our towing mileage is very dependent on traveling speed, not so much on the load and the hills. Typical is 16-17 mpg towing, 24-25 not towing. The car has enough power for all hills, but it approaches maxing out on the worst, longest hills. I have slowed enough to use the flashers. We have found that our Casita is very sensitive to weight distribution, so I've taken to emptying the fresh water tank and the hot water tank each time there is a significant mileage to cover. The car has been very dependable, and the hybrid feature is absolutely great where there are long waits for construction on the road, towing, and for city travel at any time. As I wrote, we bought used. The car was set up for towing but had an aftermarket receiver. After ruining two batteries from running the 'fridge on 12v, we found that the car had never been equipped with a power feed to the 9 pin connector, but that's been fixed. The Limited version is really luxurious (my previous TV was a Frontier), so of course we've gotten spoiled. We do think we are nearing the end of the years when we can just trust the car's reliability, even though I use full synthetic on changes and change at 3k miles after lots of towing. The bigger of two beefs with the Highlander is that the mid seats don't lie flat for more storage and that the front seating area doesn't have a shelf for the stuff that is nice to have while traveling. The four drink cup holders sometimes are so full of pens, sunglasses, keys, and so forth that we have to shuffle stuff to place a cup where it's supposed to be. I do like and recommend the Highlander, but I also very much liked my Nissan Frontier, too, and the Frontier's camper shell had oceans more storage for all the things we used to take to Texas, such as kayaks, bikes, guitar, art supplies--oh god, way too much stuff. I agree with those who have said there is too much brand loyalty on this forum, but at least it's been very true for us that the Casita 16 Spirit SD and the Highlander Hybrid Limited have been a wonderful team.

Mike Magee · 08-12-2017, 05:54 PM

Personally, I have tended to be brand-loyal to whichever brand I was driving!

My first car was a Chevy, then a Mazda, then Chrysler products through the '80s and mid-'90s, followed by Ford products until 2008, when I bought the HL. Now driving a Lexus (close enough to Toyota not to matter). I thought the Chrysler stuff was pretty good, until I got a '96 Windstar, then a 2000 Merc Mountaineer, and discovered that my repair incidents declined substantially. Same thing happened with the Toyota, less repairs than the Fords.

(I should add that my wife still happily drives the Mountaineer.) Maybe they all got better over time, dunno, but experience tends to wield a strong influence on outlook.

War Eagle · 08-12-2017, 08:17 PM

We also have a 2002 Highlander Limited with the 3.0L V6, 2WD and towing package. We bought it new, and it currently has 170,000 miles. It's still a daily driver for us, and still gets 22-23 MPG combined hwy/city when not towing. When towing our 2010 17' EggCamper, we average 15 MPG on the flat, 13 MPG over rolling hills. All on regular 87 octane. There is something special about the 2002 Highlanders. They just keep going....

Lynn Eberhardt · 08-14-2017, 09:23 AM

A little late with a reply but we tow our '06 Scamp 16, loaded weight 2350#, with our '08 Highlander Hybrid. The TV has a stated towing capacity of 3500# and the Braking selection on the shifter provides excellent control on hills. The car currently has 185,000 miles on it and we're about to head out with the trailer again.

Lynn and Pam

Carlc · 08-15-2017, 06:08 AM

Thanks for all the informative comments! I don't have a trailer yet but bought my 2017 Highlander XLE in anticipation of getting a trailer soon. Thinking about Casita 17 or possibly Escape 17 or 19. Have never towed before so it will be a learning curve I'm sure.

Wayne Collins · 08-15-2017, 08:02 AM

As it turned out, the lady we sold our 2000 Scamp 16 DLX to had never towed any kind of trailer before. I was able to take her to a large parking lot and show her how to back into a space. Get yourself a tutor, who can show you the finer points of towing. If possible, try it with a garden tractor and utility cart first.
Rule of Thumb. when backing, if you want the rear of the trailer to go left, move the bottom of your steering wheel left.

frankcfx · 08-15-2017, 10:16 AM

My RAV4 owners manual lists towing weight at 3000#. It is a V6 and works well with my 17' Casita

Glenn Baglo · 08-15-2017, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankcfx

My RAV4 owners manual lists towing weight at 3000#. It is a V6 and works well with my 17' Casita

My 2008 RAV4 V6 with tow prep package lists weights as 3,500 tow and 350 lb. tongue max.

Carl V · 08-15-2017, 10:55 AM

'06 Highlander AWD V6 here. 144K miles. Bought used in '11.
Still runs and rides like new.
Apart from regular maintenance (fluids/filter change, brake pads) I had to replace the front shocks and 2 rear wheel bearings, that's it.

A friend of mine recently went through this, said he was disapointed by the current Highlander due to the soft or mushy ride. He test drove the Grand Cherokee V6 and liked it, but said he felt something wasn't quite right on how the 8-speed transmission behaved, so he wrote it off his list, considering the reliability history of many FCA vehicles. He ended up getting an Explorer V6 and so far he's happy about it.
I have not driven any of these vehicles myself.

I'll be looking to replace my current Highlander in a year or two.
Looking at a low mileage late 2nd generation Highlander (2012-2013), or I might take my chance with a Grand Cherokee/Durango V6.

Penney H. & Mike E. · 08-16-2017, 06:40 AM

Hello all. We purchased the Highlander, a 2015. Hopefully we will be as happy with it as those of you here who shared your Highlander experiences have been. We did test drive a Venza, which I thought was a very cool car, not as boxy as the highlander, but it did not have the leg room I need, which is one reason the Sienna was no longer working (never did work) for me. As a tall person with physical challenges, when I'm the passenger I needed more comfort. We have to take the Highlander back for the tow package as soon as the parts come in, hopefully it will be done by a planned for camping trip early Sept.

Thanks again to all those who shared their Highlander experiences, it gave me some confidence to go for it!

Wayne Collins · 08-16-2017, 08:26 AM

Unfortunately, todays cars are designed around a fictitious "Average" person.
The range of adjustment of the seats is limited to accommodate, perhaps, a range of sizes from the 10th to 90th percentiles of body sizes. That leaves the very small and very large people out.

Do you remember the Kaiser Manhattan made in 1950? The front bench seat went back so far that even my 6' 1" long legs couldn't reach the pedals. And there was still plenty of room in the back seat.
Then we had a 1965 Plymouth Fury III that had extra adjustments where the seat bolted to the floor. You could loosen four bolts, and move the entire seat up and back or down and forward. Then it still had the fore-aft sliders.

floyd · 08-16-2017, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Collins

Unfortunately, todays cars are designed around a fictitious "Average" person.
The range of adjustment of the seats is limited to accommodate, perhaps, a range of sizes from the 10th to 90th percentiles of body sizes. That leaves the very small and very large people out.

Do you remember the Kaiser Manhattan made in 1950? The front bench seat went back so far that even my 6' 1" long legs couldn't reach the pedals. And there was still plenty of room in the back seat.
Then we had a 1965 Plymouth Fury III that had extra adjustments where the seat bolted to the floor. You could loosen four bolts, and move the entire seat up and back or down and forward. Then it still had the fore-aft sliders.

Very true! There has never been a time of more potential for choice than now... combined with less choice.
Remember something called "options"?

Now its only "apps"!

Enjoy it though...
Soon it will be just a "Trabby" and a seven year wait.