Just received a 2008 toyota camry, any tips on using this hybrid car?
August 29, 2010 by admin
Filed under Car Maintenance and Repair
1. My main question is, while i’m driving does this hybrid car use half gas half electric at once?
2. If the car needs maintenance do all mechanics for the most part know how to handle a hybrid car or do I have to go to special places for electric car maintenance?
3. Whoever owns a ’08 camry hybrid, there’s a Engine Starter button you press to turn on the car, 1st click of button shows “hybrid synergy drive” on screen, 2nd push of button, shows Eco-drive blah blah. I dont understand this can someone explain to me?
And you wonder why theres more import car sales than american…lol.
I hope you freeze in the winter…. didn’t think about that eh? Yeah, real cold in the winter when the engine runs only part of the time. LOL Should hae gotten a regular american car. Also sounds like your salesman just wanted your money and just pushed you out of the door without explaining anything. At least he Saturn dealership (which also has lots of hybrids) will explain everything to you before you leave. I hope you enjoy knowing you paid way too much for your Toyota, and when it comes time to replace all those batteries….LOLOL
Pity the other answerer has no clue what he is talking about, especially since you have already got your car and it is a little late to go looking for a Saturn or anything else. Also a pity that he piped in if he can’t answer your question in the first place! The Saturn hybrid, if you can call it that, is what is called a “light hybrid” and that is pretty descriptive – and there aren’t that many of them out there at this point, despite his claim. The Camry, and all Toyota/Lexus hybrids are full hybrids, a totally different animal.
1. The Camry Hybrid (I’ve owned one since June 2006) can run in three different basic states, which is what makes it what is referred to as a series-parallel hybrid. First state is all electric, second state is electric plus gas, and third state is gas only. In other words, it can use any single source of power, or any combination of power available to it. That is unique to the Toyota/Lexus and Ford/Mazda/Mercury hybrids.
2. The vast majority of maintenance on the Camry Hybrid can be done by any qualified Toyota technician. The only time you need a specially qualified hybrid technician is when you have a specifically unique hybrid problem or issue. Normal maintenance is just like every other car in the world. Almost all – if not all of them – U.S. Toyota dealerships have at least one hybrid-trained technician. My brother is a hybrid-trained Master Technician, and he says that Toyota is VERY particular about who they allow to take the hybrid training. You have to be fully qualified elsewhere. I change my own oil/filter, as well as my engine and passenger compartment air filters, and rotate my own tires. Until you get up into the 100,000 mile range, that is the only scheduled maintenance that will be required. The whole hybrid system is warrantied for 100,000 miles, unless you are in CA, where it is 150,000 miles due to their clean air provisions. They have proved to be quite reliable as the hybrid system has been sold by Toyota since 1997, with minor improvements and changes.
3. All of the starter button modes are spelled out in excrutiating detail in your owners manual. I would STRONGLY encourage you to read it as this is a very sophisticated car with features that very few cars in the world have.
a. With your foot OFF the brake, the first button push, the car goes into Accessory mode, so that you can play the radio, etc. This is the same as the Acc mode on a car with a key. This runs off the small 12v accessory battery.
b. With your foot OFF the brake, the second button push puts the car into On mode. This is the same as turning a keyed car to “On” which allows you to do everything (electric windows, wipers, A/C fan, etc.) without actually starting the engine. This runs off the small 12v accessory battery, so you don’t want to do this too long if you are running many accessories.
c. With your foot OFF the brake, the third button push returns it to the normal OFF position.
d. With your foot ON the brake, the first button push starts the hybrid system and puts it into the Ready mode, allowing you to drive off. This is the only thing that turns on the hybrid system. The next push of the button, whether your foot is on the brake or not, turns everything off. This is the only state in which the high voltage battery is turned “on.”
e. At any time during a, b, or c, if you put your foot on the brake and push the button it will go to d, and the hybrid system will start. This overrides the other modes.
I hope that this answers your questions.
How & where did you get a 2008 Camry Hybrid? I didn’t think there was any information on those yet.
Have they even made the 2008 yet? I got the 2007 LE last march but the 2008 is not even on the website.