Wait for an 07 Hybrid?

[fasbird]

Hi Gang,

I suppose this is just public hang wringing, but our 06 Avalon convinced my wife to give up her 04 Forester and go to a Highlander for the room. Maybe an AWD Hybrid if I can pick up one of the good CA deals. Now I see hints that the 07 will have more room and likely use the 3.5L V-6. Toyo seems to have their electronics down pretty good so mileage would like stay up, but discounting will likely be down. Any opinions?

Fasbird

[MMitsock]

My wife has an '03 Highlander 4WD 3.0L V-6. From what I've read the next generation Highlander may be more station wagon/minivan like, hard to say how close to the concept vehicle it will be.

You really pay a large premium for the hybrid option, I think the base price goes up by about $3500. That would take a lot of time to pay off with just slightly better gas mileage.

Although I have to pry my wife out of a vehicle (she gets emotionally attached to them) if I were looking for something now that is Highlander like but with better mileage I'd look at the new '06 RAV4. It can be bought with the same 269 HP v-6 as is in our Avalon's and it still is rated 22/28. Our 3.0L is rated 18/21 and is no where near as peppy as my Avalon. The new RAV is almost the exact same size as the current Highlander which leads me to think the new '07 Highlander will be bigger to fill the gap between the RAV and the Sequoia.