Rx400h Fuel Economy, Or Lack Of...

[jaroph]

Hybrid owners !

I have been reading the posts for a while and never really contributed before - its all very educating. I have also been an avid reader of the US site, where owners seem to be unhappy with the mpg figures they are getting from the RX400h. I am astonished that some owners are getting sub 22mpg.

I run an RX300 and have ordered the hybrid. I have had the RX300 for 2 years and covered nearly 40,000 miles. Daily commute to work is 40 mins to cover 13 miles but I do travel around a lot, including long runs on the continent. My average mpg has never been below 21mpg, not even in the previous car - a MK1 Rx300. And its not due to driving at snail's pace, I just naturally avoid harsh acceleration from standstill, and unnecessary ghasts of power that cause the car to change down two gears!

I would very much like to hear from UK hybrid drivers - how are you finding the fuel economy on the RX400h? Is it really as awful as some of our American friends would have us believe? The power is impressive but without the promised economy, I'm beggining to wonder if its worth me handing over my RX300 !

Many thanks in advance

By the way the best average MPG the RX300 recorded was 26 - admitedly 200 miles were recorded on the M4 !

[ColinBarber]

Remember to convert any US figures so you can compare with the UK. Divide a US mpg by 0.83. As an example 22mpg in the US would be 26.5mpg here.

We use real gallons here in the UK which are based on real pints ;)

[JohnRX400h]

We are getting about 28mpg and used to get 19mpg in our RX300 (Mk 1 and Mk2)

Driving style has not changed and car spends most of it's time tootling around Edin and up and down the M6 to Chester.

It is definitely better MPG but don't buy it to save petrol money, it will take too long to pay back. As for your decision it is just that - let us know what you decide.

[JohnRX400h]

Just looked and it is sitting at 30.4mpg for last 600 odd miles

[TopSec]

29.6 for the last 800 miles. Have had it up to 33 and down at 25 at times.

Recent journeys have been South Coast to Yorkshire doing about 80-85 on motorways. My commute to work though is 5 mins rural and 5 mins motorway which isn't too good for the economy as the engine doesn't really get time to get 'warmed up'

[TopSec]

BTW, I read a very good write up of it yesterday in my Fathers Farmers Weekly!?!

[Parthiban]

I'm guessing that people who do most of their driving at speed, will have worse fuel consumption than an RX300, simply because of the bigger engine?

[m'ladys husband]

Hello all,

Having driven a loan 400h for two days I thought the fuel consumption of 27.8mpg overall was an inmprovment on the 23-24 we get in the 300 we have already.

I am sure we can easily get it to 30 or 30plus by being sensible

BUT

the car was being driven as a test over the two days so it had some slow, some fast and some downright harsh acceleration given to it.

We drove it locally in town, in the cpountry and on a longish run on the motorway at just sensible motoreway upper limits!

We thougt its a really good car and particularly liked the top end torque for overtaking and that seemingly endless power curve....lovely.

I have to say I wish we had not bought the second mark 2 300 but had waited for the 400h.....some you win and some you lose!

M'Ladys Husband.

[hucklewoo]

On easy drives going at 70 mph I can happily get around 33 mpg. My average (bearing in mind i'm driving in London) is around 31, so I'm really pleased. The killer is if you push the speed beyond 70 mph then mpg quickly drops....

[Guest Ado]

After two weeks I am totally unimpressed with my 400h's fuel economy - city or motorway and being obsessive about not driving the car hard - it sux. First tank 21.6 mpg and so far on this tank 26-ish mpg. Sent it back to Lexus for it to be checked - they drove it for 43 miles and claimed 31mpg combined environment driving. By the time they returned it to me (another 9 miles) the mpg was down to 26.7 mpg. Hard to believe that scored 31 mpg (or the driver has a great time thrashing it).

This estate car dressed up as an SUV is way mis-advertised! :yack:

[spwolfx]

After two weeks I am totally unimpressed with my 400h's fuel economy - city or motorway and being obsessive about not driving the car hard - it sux.  First tank 21.6 mpg and so far on this tank 26-ish mpg.  Sent it back to Lexus for it to be checked - they drove it for 43 miles and claimed 31mpg combined environment driving.  By the time they returned it to me (another 9 miles) the mpg was down to 26.7 mpg.  Hard to believe that scored 31 mpg (or the driver has a great time thrashing it).

This estate car dressed up as an SUV is way mis-advertised! :yack:

←

and what exactly did you expect? Its car with V8 power, not some 4cly diesel. Plus, you will need to learn how to drive it to get the best mpg (just look at the screen), and your mpg will improve with time... It also does not like short trips during cold days, which usually bring down mpg by 10%...

[spizz oil]

We get around 29 mpg in town driving. To put that into context, we got less in our Golf 1.6 FSI which it replaed. My Mini Cooper S JCW gets 28.2. S, not bad for a big, comfortable cruiser.

Buy a Prius if all you want is economy. Buy the RX400 if you want combo of luxury and reasonable consumption. As such, I think that it is really fab.

By the way, it is one of CAR's top 10 for 2005.

[jaroph]

Agreed - I have been running my 400h for two weeks and have been on motorways, A roads and B roads, including getting bogged down for an hour between London's Clapham High Street and Westminster Bridge !

Recorded 29mpg over 800 miles. The first tank did start off really low but things have improved as I have learnt to how to get the best out of the car in terms of mpg. You don't necessarily have to be crawling to increase your MPG, even driving a 200 mile trip on motorways still registered 28pmg.

For me the car is excellent - now how do I get an iPod connected? That is the only thing missing from the H's bag of tricks. I believe some LOC people are hunting down the solution

The car is a vast improvement on the RX300 - thought I would miss it...not so !

[lelandv]

My 400h is still showing 31.8 Mpg ... over 1850 miles from new. I'll reset the counter/computer at 2000 miles and start checking readings again from there.

L.

[sos10]

For me the car is excellent - now how do I get an iPod connected? That is the only thing missing from the H's bag of tricks. I believe some LOC people are hunting down the solution

←

A friend of mine is beta testing the ice-link on the 400h in the USA, it seems to be working fine, ipod read out on the central screen and all.. check the Ice-link site as they may update it soon.

:end/offtopic

[Guest Ado]

spwolfx: Simple - what it is advertised to deliver (i.e. in excess of 30 mpg).

jaroph: As for iPod connectivity - look at http://www.griffintechnology.com - they have tape adaptors or FM transmitters (e.g. iTrip). The latter works OK but not as good as in my other car. You can order from the US site for deliver in the UK.

[ColinBarber]

tape adapters and FM transmitters give poor quality sound.

[sos10]

tape adapters and FM transmitters give poor quality sound.

←

I tried the old Itrip in my Rx300, didn't work at all, now I use the cassette adapter but I'm unhappy with the sound quality.

Just bought a new iPod in LA and got the new iTrip, seems to work much better,good sound quality (although you have to take the base down drastically) at least in my rental car here... not a Rx... see next week at home if there is a difference.

Only problem is that you cannot recharge the iPod while using the new iTrip, a bit silly.

[fergy]

I use the iTrip with and sound quality is fine... think it is very dependant on gettting a nice clean station. Also I can plug in and charge the iPOD whilst running the iTRIP ??...never heard of not being able to charge whilst using the iTRIP.

[lelandv]

Okay.. final tally for the first 2000 miles (actually it's 2011 miles) is 31.8 Mpg.

The vast majority of that milage was "manually" driven (i.e. not using cruise control). I was at my meeting when I reset the computer today, and drove 100 miles back home (mostly motorway, plus the hilly A428 between Bedford and Northampton). After those 100 miles the computer was saying 39.8 Mpg average. This time, however, I was using the cruise control for most of the journey. Let's see how the next 200 miles goes.

Leland