Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[ktm525]

For the money it is a no risk trial. Our bike was used quite heavily at times but once the rower arrived I don't think anyone has used it. Just have to find something that works for you.

[ArticSteve]

Those two age specific Cadillacs really suit that Tennessee environment.  Each one is the perfect colour.  So weird they ended up there from the GTA, Mississauga in particular.      

[Firm]

Those two age specific Cadillacs really suit that Tennessee environment.  Each one is the perfect colour.  So weird they ended up there from the GTA, Mississauga in particular.      

They definitely fit in better down here...So do we quite honestly. Funny enough, neither of those vehicles started life in the GTA. The Escalade started in Alberta & the DTS actually started life in Tennessee (Nashville), then New Jersey, Toronto/GTA and back to Tennessee.

[BWII]

After 10.5 yrs (edit - F150)...finally hit the big 160.  Wife sent me to the store to go buy some RTM pizzas...saw it was close, and 3 blocks turned into 8 km (What took you so long!?)...and voila!  Milestone achieved!  New level unlocked!  I'm thinking it might be time for a brake job, and for a treat, maybe some Bilsteins...might even (pointlessly) take it to a carwash this weekend.

[bridgecity]

How's it been holding up BW?  I think you've had the cab corners repaired for rust, and maybe some engine (turbo?) work done?  Has it been solid since?

[warp]

So I have been driving the new Toyota Grand Highlander for about a week and compared to the Yukon it's great in that it has a smooth ride, quiet, refined, a peppy take off thanks to a good combination of the 8 speed transmission and low down torque with the 2.4 liter turbo and significantly better fuel economy even though it's just the plain gas model...no hybrid. However one aspect of the safety system, which Toyota calls Safety Sense 3.0 is really intrusive and that is the automatic emergency braking which Toyota calls Pre Collision System or PCS. It can be turned off once the vehicle is started and while you are still in Park (cannot be turned off once you are driving). But to turn it off you have to go through 3 other settings, a real PITA. And it turns on by default once the engine is shut off and re-started unlike say Lane Departure Warning which can be permanently shut off. The setting is very conservative and it is unnerving to have the vehicle brake on it's own with a lot of room ahead of you in slowing traffic, not to mention that there will be a lot more wear on brake pads. Also, you must remember to shut it off when going through a car wash as otherwise the brakes jam up and the vehicle is dragged through the car wash!! The system thinks that the vehicle is going to  collide with the car wash brushes!! I define this as the nanny state on overdrive where it is deemed the average driver is too dumb to judge braking distances!! By contrast in the Yukon, and yes  admittedly older technology, if the system sensed that the rate of closure with the object in front of you was far too rapid, there was an intrusive audio alert and a piercing red light that shone from the instrument cluster directly into your eyes to shake you out of your day dream which was quite adequate in my opinion and it was calibrated to go off when there was the real danger of an imminent collision. 

[rrocket]

So I have been driving the new Toyota Grand Highlander for about a week and compared to the Yukon it's great in that it has a smooth ride, quiet, refined, a peppy take off thanks to a good combination of the 8 speed transmission and low down torque with the 2.4 liter turbo and significantly better fuel economy even though it's just the plain gas model...no hybrid. However one aspect of the safety system, which Toyota calls Safety Sense 3.0 is really intrusive and that is the automatic emergency braking which Toyota calls Pre Collision System or PCS. It can be turned off once the vehicle is started and while you are still in Park (cannot be turned off once you are driving). But to turn it off you have to go through 3 other settings, a real PITA. And it turns on by default once the engine is shut off and re-started unlike say Lane Departure Warning which can be permanently shut off. The setting is very conservative and it is unnerving to have the vehicle brake on it's own with a lot of room ahead of you in slowing traffic, not to mention that there will be a lot more wear on brake pads. Also, you must remember to shut it off when going through a car wash as otherwise the brakes jam up and the vehicle is dragged through the car wash!! The system thinks that the vehicle is going to  collide with the car wash brushes!! I define this as the nanny state on overdrive where it is deemed the average driver is too dumb to judge braking distances!! By contrast in the Yukon, and yes  admittedly older technology, if the system sensed that the rate of closure with the object in front of you was far too rapid, there was an intrusive audio alert and a piercing red light that shone from the instrument cluster directly into your eyes to shake you out of your day dream which was quite adequate in my opinion and it was calibrated to go off when there was the real danger of an imminent collision.

My Prius has this and does NONE of those things.

Quad has a new Corolla and I don't recall him complaining either. And Hannibal has a 4Runner with same system.

Odd.

[blur911]

Wife sent me to the store to go buy some RTM pizzas..

What is an RTM pizza?

[rrocket]

Wife sent me to the store to go buy some RTM pizzas..

What is an RTM pizza?

Ready To Make? (Guessing)

[warp]

So I have been driving the new Toyota Grand Highlander for about a week and compared to the Yukon it's great in that it has a smooth ride, quiet, refined, a peppy take off thanks to a good combination of the 8 speed transmission and low down torque with the 2.4 liter turbo and significantly better fuel economy even though it's just the plain gas model...no hybrid. However one aspect of the safety system, which Toyota calls Safety Sense 3.0 is really intrusive and that is the automatic emergency braking which Toyota calls Pre Collision System or PCS. It can be turned off once the vehicle is started and while you are still in Park (cannot be turned off once you are driving). But to turn it off you have to go through 3 other settings, a real PITA. And it turns on by default once the engine is shut off and re-started unlike say Lane Departure Warning which can be permanently shut off. The setting is very conservative and it is unnerving to have the vehicle brake on it's own with a lot of room ahead of you in slowing traffic, not to mention that there will be a lot more wear on brake pads. Also, you must remember to shut it off when going through a car wash as otherwise the brakes jam up and the vehicle is dragged through the car wash!! The system thinks that the vehicle is going to  collide with the car wash brushes!! I define this as the nanny state on overdrive where it is deemed the average driver is too dumb to judge braking distances!! By contrast in the Yukon, and yes  admittedly older technology, if the system sensed that the rate of closure with the object in front of you was far too rapid, there was an intrusive audio alert and a piercing red light that shone from the instrument cluster directly into your eyes to shake you out of your day dream which was quite adequate in my opinion and it was calibrated to go off when there was the real danger of an imminent collision.

My Prius has this and does NONE of those things.

Quad has a new Corolla and I don't recall him complaining either.

Odd.

Your Prius may have an earlier version of Safety Sense.
This could be due to revised calibration in Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 which is relatively new vs earlier versions like 2.5, 2.0 etc. There is a hard button which turns off VSC and if you hold it down for 3 seconds also turns off PCS, so there's that, but ideally I would like VSC to be on & PCS to be turned off and not both turned off

[rrocket]

So I have been driving the new Toyota Grand Highlander for about a week and compared to the Yukon it's great in that it has a smooth ride, quiet, refined, a peppy take off thanks to a good combination of the 8 speed transmission and low down torque with the 2.4 liter turbo and significantly better fuel economy even though it's just the plain gas model...no hybrid. However one aspect of the safety system, which Toyota calls Safety Sense 3.0 is really intrusive and that is the automatic emergency braking which Toyota calls Pre Collision System or PCS. It can be turned off once the vehicle is started and while you are still in Park (cannot be turned off once you are driving). But to turn it off you have to go through 3 other settings, a real PITA. And it turns on by default once the engine is shut off and re-started unlike say Lane Departure Warning which can be permanently shut off. The setting is very conservative and it is unnerving to have the vehicle brake on it's own with a lot of room ahead of you in slowing traffic, not to mention that there will be a lot more wear on brake pads. Also, you must remember to shut it off when going through a car wash as otherwise the brakes jam up and the vehicle is dragged through the car wash!! The system thinks that the vehicle is going to  collide with the car wash brushes!! I define this as the nanny state on overdrive where it is deemed the average driver is too dumb to judge braking distances!! By contrast in the Yukon, and yes  admittedly older technology, if the system sensed that the rate of closure with the object in front of you was far too rapid, there was an intrusive audio alert and a piercing red light that shone from the instrument cluster directly into your eyes to shake you out of your day dream which was quite adequate in my opinion and it was calibrated to go off when there was the real danger of an imminent collision.

My Prius has this and does NONE of those things.

Quad has a new Corolla and I don't recall him complaining either.

Odd.

Your Prius may have an earlier version of Safety Sense.
This could be due to revised calibration in Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 which is relatively new vs earlier versions like 2.5, 2.0 etc. There is a hard button which turns off VSC and if you hold it down for 3 seconds also turns off PCS, so there's that, but ideally I would like VSC to be on & PCS to be turned off and not both turned off

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

If it's going off all the time, it's not working right.

Or do you mean the braking in the adaptive cruise control?

Seriously..go read some reviews. People would be losing their mind in the reviews if it operates as yours is.

[warp]

So I have been driving the new Toyota Grand Highlander for about a week and compared to the Yukon it's great in that it has a smooth ride, quiet, refined, a peppy take off thanks to a good combination of the 8 speed transmission and low down torque with the 2.4 liter turbo and significantly better fuel economy even though it's just the plain gas model...no hybrid. However one aspect of the safety system, which Toyota calls Safety Sense 3.0 is really intrusive and that is the automatic emergency braking which Toyota calls Pre Collision System or PCS. It can be turned off once the vehicle is started and while you are still in Park (cannot be turned off once you are driving). But to turn it off you have to go through 3 other settings, a real PITA. And it turns on by default once the engine is shut off and re-started unlike say Lane Departure Warning which can be permanently shut off. The setting is very conservative and it is unnerving to have the vehicle brake on it's own with a lot of room ahead of you in slowing traffic, not to mention that there will be a lot more wear on brake pads. Also, you must remember to shut it off when going through a car wash as otherwise the brakes jam up and the vehicle is dragged through the car wash!! The system thinks that the vehicle is going to  collide with the car wash brushes!! I define this as the nanny state on overdrive where it is deemed the average driver is too dumb to judge braking distances!! By contrast in the Yukon, and yes  admittedly older technology, if the system sensed that the rate of closure with the object in front of you was far too rapid, there was an intrusive audio alert and a piercing red light that shone from the instrument cluster directly into your eyes to shake you out of your day dream which was quite adequate in my opinion and it was calibrated to go off when there was the real danger of an imminent collision.

My Prius has this and does NONE of those things.

Quad has a new Corolla and I don't recall him complaining either.

Odd.

Your Prius may have an earlier version of Safety Sense.
This could be due to revised calibration in Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 which is relatively new vs earlier versions like 2.5, 2.0 etc. There is a hard button which turns off VSC and if you hold it down for 3 seconds also turns off PCS, so there's that, but ideally I would like VSC to be on & PCS to be turned off and not both turned off

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

If it's going off all the time, it's not working right.

Or do you mean the braking in the adaptive cruise control?

Seriously..go read some reviews. People would be losing their mind in the reviews if it operates as yours is.

Adaptive cruise is different. I tried it on the hwy and it works fine. This is PCS with a very aggressive setting. In the GH there is an optional red light bar in the instrument cluster (don't know if it's there in other Toyota models) which can be set in the ON position if you want to verify that your brake lights are illuminated...this light bar comes on when the brake lights come on, even when PCS is doing it's automatic braking. In theory PCS is supposed to not work at speeds below 10 kmph so the car wash thing maybe was a glitch, it happened once out of the two times that I have car washed the GH, did not happen the first time, the second time I felt it being dragged when the brushes were doing their thing and once past where the blow dryers operate the wheels turned normally. Some other forums with GH owners have reported this car wash issue with some advising others to use touchless car washes or use car washes where the vehicle is at a standstill and the brushes move around it!! Ridiculous!!. If this is a serious issue Toyota needs to do some OTAs. Let' see how it pans out, I will experiment with the PCS car wash issue the next few times. Other than this, the vehicle is great!!

[rrocket]

So every time you're driving in traffic the emergency PCS braking comes on?

In other Toyotas I've driven (and other cars), a big, red BRAKE! sign (or similar) with buzzer warning comes on. If you ignore it, then the car automatically brakes.

And in the car wash, I think what was happening was the ultrasonic parking sensors were going off?  For example, when at parking lot speeds (ie creeping along) the car will stop itself from hitting something in front/behind.

Also..the PCS sensitivity can be adjusted. When turning the system on/off, long hold the bottom for options.

[PJungnitsch]

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

That's how our RX works, pretty seemless so far. Is an earlier gen system however

As you mentioned, looks like you can adjust the PCS aggressiveness with the 3.0 system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nNOqGJkm1aM

[warp]

So every time you're driving in traffic the emergency PCS braking comes on?

In other Toyotas I've driven (and other cars), a big, red BRAKE! sign (or similar) with buzzer warning comes on. If you ignore it, then the car automatically brakes.

And in the car wash, I think what was happening was the ultrasonic parking sensors were going off?  For example, when at parking lot speeds (ie creeping along) the car will stop itself from hitting something in front/behind.

Also..the PCS sensitivity can be adjusted.

I think that in Safety Sense 3.0, the red brake sign and buzzer warning have been dispensed with and it goes straight for emergency braking and that too very early and aggressively when there is a ton of room to spare. In parking lot situations Rear Cross Traffic Alert is a real god send, it's there on the VW GLI, GTI and is also there on the GH, it automatically brakes and that is fine. This is the base XLE and does not have park assist as far as I have been able to determine. No beeps and no visual indicator that the vehicle is close to anything while parking. So the PCS is the only thing likely intervening in the car wash......

[warp]

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

That's how our RX works, pretty seemless so far. Is an earlier gen system however

As you mentioned, looks like you can adjust the PCS aggressiveness with the 3.0 system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nNOqGJkm1aM

It's early days for me with the GH and so far I have not adjusted the PCS sensitivity so maybe by default it came from the factory in it's most aggressive setting. I will experiment with it and see how the different settings work, maybe try for the lowest possible sensitivity.

[Bubba]

After 10.5 yrs (edit - F150)...finally hit the big 160.  Wife sent me to the store to go buy some RTM pizzas...saw it was close, and 3 blocks turned into 8 km (What took you so long!?)...and voila!  Milestone achieved!  New level unlocked!  I'm thinking it might be time for a brake job, and for a treat, maybe some Bilsteins...might even (pointlessly) take it to a carwash this weekend.

Congrats!  I'd say it's time for new one, but the quality is suspect on the latest models, so keep your current ride.

[warp]

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

That's how our RX works, pretty seemless so far. Is an earlier gen system however

As you mentioned, looks like you can adjust the PCS aggressiveness with the 3.0 system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nNOqGJkm1aM

So on a scale of three I adjusted the PCS to least aggressive and went for a drive in the neighborhood & discovered that in city traffic I can do one pedal driving!! So I am driving at 50 kmph and a redlight is a few hundred meters ahead with a line of cars waiting. I take my foot of the accelerator and start coasting and then just before I hit a point where I would have started braking on my own, the PCS system takes over and brings me to almost a full stop!! Like an EV with regen braking!!

I think that driver's are misusing this system not only with Toyota vehicles but other manufacturers with similar systems such as Subaru's Eyesight. A few weeks ago before taking delivery of the GH I was on the QEW with it's usual cohort of aggressive drivers and the vehicle directly in front of me was following the vehicle in front of it rather closely...tailgating. The brake lights of this vehicle were flashing on literally every 15-20 seconds and my thought at that point in time was, "what a d**khead of a driver and a nervous nellie as well." Now that I have this GH I think it is possible that the driver had his foot on the accelerator all through and the collision avoidance system was braking every few seconds almost like the vehicle was hitting a force field and bouncing off only to charge back in again. If that was indeed the case these systems instead of acting as a safety net are in fact encouraging aggressive driving with the driver blissfully aware that the collision avoidance system would ensure that he will never crash into the vehicle in front of it, no matter how closely it is followed.   

[rrocket]

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

That's how our RX works, pretty seemless so far. Is an earlier gen system however

As you mentioned, looks like you can adjust the PCS aggressiveness with the 3.0 system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nNOqGJkm1aM

So on a scale of three I adjusted the PCS to least aggressive and went for a drive in the neighborhood & discovered that in city traffic I can do one pedal driving!! So I am driving at 50 kmph and a redlight is a few hundred meters ahead with a line of cars waiting. I take my foot of the accelerator and start coasting and then just before I hit a point where I would have started braking on my own, the PCS system takes over and brings me to almost a full stop!! Like an EV with regen braking!!

I think that driver's are misusing this system not only with Toyota vehicles but other manufacturers with similar systems such as Subaru's Eyesight. A few weeks ago before taking delivery of the GH I was on the QEW with it's usual cohort of aggressive drivers and the vehicle directly in front of me was following the vehicle in front of it rather closely...tailgating. The brake lights of this vehicle were flashing on literally every 15-20 seconds and my thought at that point in time was, "what a d**khead of a driver and a nervous nellie as well." Now that I have this GH I think it is possible that the driver had his foot on the accelerator all through and the collision avoidance system was braking every few seconds almost like the vehicle was hitting a force field and bouncing off only to charge back in again. If that was indeed the case these systems instead of acting as a safety net are in fact encouraging aggressive driving with the driver blissfully aware that the collision avoidance system would ensure that he will never crash into the vehicle in front of it, no matter how closely it is followed.

PCS is not for that...

Dynamic cruise control is what you want.

Do you have dynamic cruise?

[warp]

The only time the PCS should come on is if the system detects imminent collision. There will also be a red warning that says BRAKE!!

That's how our RX works, pretty seemless so far. Is an earlier gen system however

As you mentioned, looks like you can adjust the PCS aggressiveness with the 3.0 system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nNOqGJkm1aM

So on a scale of three I adjusted the PCS to least aggressive and went for a drive in the neighborhood & discovered that in city traffic I can do one pedal driving!! So I am driving at 50 kmph and a redlight is a few hundred meters ahead with a line of cars waiting. I take my foot of the accelerator and start coasting and then just before I hit a point where I would have started braking on my own, the PCS system takes over and brings me to almost a full stop!! Like an EV with regen braking!!

I think that driver's are misusing this system not only with Toyota vehicles but other manufacturers with similar systems such as Subaru's Eyesight. A few weeks ago before taking delivery of the GH I was on the QEW with it's usual cohort of aggressive drivers and the vehicle directly in front of me was following the vehicle in front of it rather closely...tailgating. The brake lights of this vehicle were flashing on literally every 15-20 seconds and my thought at that point in time was, "what a d**khead of a driver and a nervous nellie as well." Now that I have this GH I think it is possible that the driver had his foot on the accelerator all through and the collision avoidance system was braking every few seconds almost like the vehicle was hitting a force field and bouncing off only to charge back in again. If that was indeed the case these systems instead of acting as a safety net are in fact encouraging aggressive driving with the driver blissfully aware that the collision avoidance system would ensure that he will never crash into the vehicle in front of it, no matter how closely it is followed.

PCS is not for that...

Dynamic cruise control is what you want.

Do you have dynamic cruise?

I do have dynamic cruise control and I know that you get the proper 1 pedal experience with it, but the PCS does a pretty good imitation of at least the braking portion. 

I also discovered that the Rear Cross Traffic Alert is just that, an alert, an audio and visual alert, and does not result in emergency braking if it detects an obstruction behind the vehicle, unlike the VWs where emergency braking is bundled with RCTA. In the GH to get RCTA with emergency braking you have to opt for the higher trims i.e. Limited or Platinum