You gotta be kidding! You poor baby. I thought that the VIN was always stamped in metal somewhere on the car. (But what do I know? I am basically car knowledge impaired.) You must have really ticked them off. Have any of the rest of y'all ever heard of such a thing? <br><br>I read your earlier post and it sounds like you had a rough time. Maybe it was because of YOU the salesman told us that once we ordered the car that we would hear nothing else from the dealer or Toyota until the car was delivered and they gave us a call to pick it up. ;-)<br><br>Now, this is a really stupid question. Is the 2001 Prius the first Prius being offered in the U.S.A.?

Well VIN etching adds the VIN to all of the windows of the car. This, in theory, makes it less attractive to car thieves, since they would have to replace all the glass as well as destroy the VIN on the frame. However, to steal the Prius you either have to hijack it, steal the key first, or tow it, so I don't think that VIN is worth a buck on this car. Plus, you can get aftermarket do-it-yourself VIN etching kits for $50-75. $199 inludes some sort of insurance policy guaranteeing return of your car within a specific time frame and under specific conditions.<br><br>I hope that my negative experience has resulted in modified behaviour by Toyota. However, if you included your email address as part of your order, you should get several emails along the way to provide you with some minimal status information. The most important being one that says "your car will be delivered in 2-4 weeks." Shortly after getting that email, your dealer CAN establish the precise location of your car (before that email, "your car" is one of many possible cars on the way...after that email, "your car" is specifically tied to a VIN).<br><br>2001 is the first model year Prius to be offered in the US. There were a few Japanese version Priuses in the country last year, being used for promo, magazine reviews, and a few lucky families got to have extended test drives. The result of those vehicle's performance resulted in the US version having a larger ICE, beefier MG, and higher-capacity (and prismatic rather than round-cell) NiMH.<br><br>p

"ICE, beefier MG, and higher-capacity (and<br>prismatic rather than round-cell)NiMH"? What the hail are<br>you talkin' about, boy? I really was thinkin' that<br>they did some decorative etching around the VIN so you<br>could see it better.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Hey, I bought the car cuz<br>it's pretty and I like the color aqua. (But really,<br>what is that other stuff?)

Sorry.<br><br>ICE=internal combustion engine<br>MG=motor/generator<br>NiMH=Nickel Metal Hydride (battery pack)<br><br>The original Japanese model was tested on the desert flats by, I believe, Motor Trend. After a short time with the accelerator floored, the vehicle's "turtle" light came on, and the car's performace was reduced. The turtle light indicates that the NiMH battery pack has reached a very low SOC (state of charge), and this basically results in the MG being switched from Motor mode to Generator mode to recharge the battery pack.<br><br>So far, despite some pretty creative attempts (driving up the continental divide with the pedal to the metal), no one has been able to get the "dreaded turtle" to appear.<br><br>According to the O/M, the turtle will also come on if the batteries are too cold. NiMH batteries can be damaged by extreme use when they are too cold. The battery compartment has a heater that will bring the batteries up to operating temperature, but no one has reported experiencing this phenomenon, yet.<br><br>Perhaps we should start a TLA database on the egroups site (www.egroups.com/groups/toyota-prius). I was a technical writer for 10 years, and even wrote an early version of our style guide. One of the rules I included was "Avoid TLA's."<br><br><br>(Ok, ok, TLA=three-letter acronym.)<br><br>:?<br><br>p

YMBRAT (you may be right about that)