Consumption After 2 Days Of Ownership

[lelandv]

Howdy all,

Just thought I'd report on the mileage/consumption that I've been getting off the RX400h over the past two days since it was delivered on Friday.

Total miles driven in that time: 286

Average consumption over the total distance: 36.7 MPG

Lowest consumption with petrol engine running: 68.7 MPG

Highest consumption (hard acceleration): 6.8 MPG

My routes have been combination of urban, motorway, country/windey roads and hills.

The car was delivered with a full tank of petrol, and I've only used about 1/3 of it so far.

I'm actually reasonably impressed since the average is so far exceeding not only the book figures as well as other reports from 400h owners, but also better than the average that I get on my IS200.

I do dig the adaptive headlights though... kind of freaky until you get used to them :)

Leland

[Robin H]

I do dig the adaptive headlights though... kind of freaky until you get used to them :)

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What are they?

how do they work?

[Foxgoose]

Total miles driven in that time:  286

Average consumption over the total distance:  36.7 MPG

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That's amazing!

I've had mine just over a week and averaged 28mpg over 1000 miles and three tanks of fuel.

Like you, mixture of M-way and country roads.

That's not driving it hard - just motorway cruising 80/90 and being fairly gentle on the throttle and watching the consumption display.

I'm a bit disappointed since the BMW 540 Touring I traded in had a 4.4 litre V8 and was giving me 25mpg driven quite a lot faster.

What's your secret - please tell!

[Kazi]

You swine!!!! I cant even manage that in my IS!!

[lelandv]

I do dig the adaptive headlights though... kind of freaky until you get used to them :)

What are they?

how do they work?

The headlights pivot around a bend in the road, the mechanism is picked up from the steering wheel angle and road speed. They're also self-levelling and you can see this feature in operation if you accelerate hard which lifts the nose of the car slightly, once you stop acceleration the nose settles back down and you can see the headlights raise slightly to compensate.

Kinda cool

Leland

[lelandv]

What's your secret - please tell!

It's the way I drive... gentle acceleration in general, and very little adjustment of the throttle in the cruise. I have a lot of motorway driving to do this week coming up, so this will be a more accurate test.

Leland

[lelandv]

You swine!!!! I cant even manage that in my IS!! 

I was never able to get that good of consumption in my IS either.

L.

[Lexusjohn]

Total miles driven in that time:  286

Average consumption over the total distance:  36.7 MPG

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That's amazing!

I've had mine just over a week and averaged 28mpg over 1000 miles and three tanks of fuel.

Like you, mixture of M-way and country roads.

That's not driving it hard - just motorway cruising 80/90 and being fairly gentle on the throttle and watching the consumption display.

I'm a bit disappointed since the BMW 540 Touring I traded in had a 4.4 litre V8 and was giving me 25mpg driven quite a lot faster.

What's your secret - please tell!

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Lets see when he brims it, then brims it after say 300 miles, thats when the real mileage will show

:)

[jbanfie]

All,

It's well worth turning of the air conditioning, especially on the hybrid and in this weather!

On test drive I managed 43mpg over a 40 mile run back to the dealership, air con off, being very gentle on the throttle and trying to use the electric motors as much as possible. This route did not use any motorways which kills the consumption.

At 90mph, I found it would only get 25mpg, although this was a short test.

Still awaiting delivery, but these stories are useful

Cheers

Jon

[Foxgoose]

All,

It's well worth turning of the air conditioning, especially on the hybrid and in this weather!

On test drive I managed 43mpg over a 40 mile run back to the dealership, air con off, being very gentle on the throttle and trying to use the electric motors as much as possible.  This route did not use any motorways which kills the consumption.

At 90mph, I found it would only get 25mpg, although this was a short test.

Still awaiting delivery, but these stories are useful

Cheers

Jon

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I think you're right - high speed motorway cruising is the killer.

I got my overall average since delivery up to 29.4 during a couple of hundred mile A - Road trip around Cornwall - but as soon as I got back to 80/90 cruising on the M5 coming home , the average started to drop off into the 27's.

I guess it's a combination of weight and aerodynamics, Interestingly, I've found that driving fairly agressively on A-roads - using the power for overtaking etc - doesn't make a huge difference to consumption - I guess that's because of the regenerative braking reclaiming most of the energy used.

The reason I'm a bit disappointed is that I remember during the fuel crisis a couple of years ago I got 37mpg out of my 4.4 litre beemer by nursing it along at 50 ish on A-roads and 70 ish on M-ways but hardly using the throttle.

You can get great consumption out of lots of cars if you drive like that. I was hoping the 400h would get me into the mid 30's under average driving conditions (ie: get there before the end of next week!).

Maybe it'll be better when it's fully run in.

The biggest drawback I've found in mine is the rear visibility. I do a lot of driving around Devon lanes most weeks and if you're in a big car you've got to be able to zip back smartly 50 yards or so to a passing place when you meet oncoming traffic (especially in the summer when we're chocca with visitors unaccustomed to narrow lanes).

I happened to me going to the pub the other night. Stuck it into reverse, looked into mirror - nothing to see it's so high! - looked at camera screen pitch black except for a faint glow of light - couldn't see the hedge on either side!

I'm going to have to think of a way of adding some decent reversing lights.

Also when it rains heavily you can' see through the water on the camera lens.-

Maybe they don't have lanes in Japan!

In case it seems like I'm deterined to find fault with my new car I should say I'm delighted with it overall.

It's far more civilised, faster and better handling than any other 4x4 I've had, more comfortable and enjoyable to travel in than my 540 was, and very user friendly in most respects - but it always annoys when there are obvious design glitches like not being able to back up in the dark.

Also why doesn't have a proper trip computer with a range feature - the electronics is already there!

[Robin H]

I do dig the adaptive headlights though... kind of freaky until you get used to them :)

What are they?

how do they work?

The headlights pivot around a bend in the road, the mechanism is picked up from the steering wheel angle and road speed. They're also self-levelling and you can see this feature in operation if you accelerate hard which lifts the nose of the car slightly, once you stop acceleration the nose settles back down and you can see the headlights raise slightly to compensate.

Kinda cool

Leland

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Cool

Thanks

[TopSec]

Foxgoose,

I thought I was reading something I had written there - my thoughts are exactly the same as you. I had to reverse up towards a window just to check the lights were coming on! It is very difficult to see out the back and with the camera, and as for the view throught the mirrors forget it! Just edge back slowly and hope you don't hit anything! ;) I prefer the old fashioned way of reversing anyway - just tend to use the camera for distance from the post/wall etc

My mileage certainly seems to have dropped this last few weeks since the cold weather. I think it is that my journey to work is about 3-4 miles country (ish) roads then a quick 3 mile blast on the motorway, so the engine hardly has time to warm up and get ticking over? Mine is certainly run in now at 5.5k miles.

Got to say that I am not amazed by the mileage but love the car overall. I find that when I get into other half's LS that I am constantly trying to get some 'e's!!

So what do you reckon is the best driving style to maximise mileage? I have to say I have slowed down since acquiring it, I always used to bomb up and down motorways at 90+ in my IS and was fairly nippy on the A roads, but now do about 80 on mways and drive 'sensibly' on the A roads?

One thing I guess that is useful is that there is less chance of adding to my 6 points with this style!!

TS

[lelandv]

Update...

Now have 1003 miles on the clock (been a busy week, with lots of meetings all over the place, motorway driving and stuff).

The average consumption calculated by the system is now showing 32.8 MPG over the first 1003 miles. I will be shortly resetting the computer to compare the next 1000 miles to see if there's any real difference overall.

32.8 is still a lot more than I expected for the class of vehicle... I was honestly expecting something in the low 20's to be more realistic for the class of vehicle.

Leland

[spwolfx]

Update...

Now have 1003 miles on the clock (been a busy week, with lots of meetings all over the place, motorway driving and stuff).

The average consumption calculated by the system is now showing 32.8 MPG over the first 1003 miles.  I will be shortly resetting the computer to compare the next 1000 miles to see if there's any real difference overall.

32.8 is still a lot more than I expected for the class of vehicle... I was honestly expecting something in the low 20's to be more realistic for the class of vehicle.

Leland

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colder weather will make it worse a bit, especially if you drive short trips. My milage is down by around 10%. But at the same time, after some 5,000-6,000 miles, it will be worked in and you will start getting some better mpg's as well. People say that around 6,000 miles and 12,000 miles everyone should see decent improvements.

You cant really compare it to car's mpg, since aerodynamic's is all different.

Best and easiest tips I could give to fellow HSD driver is to anticipate stops and release gas pedal long before stop light, and use cruise control as much as you can. Cruise control is magic for highway mpg... Of course, dont forget to give it a bit of go at times, especially if you are not anywhere close to an stop, since that will give it an nice work out and you will feel much better :-). Plus, it wont do too much damage for the mpg.

But real plus of HSD is that it is so damn amazing. You simply love watching and feeling it work, dont you? :-). In RX it lowers the mpg by some 30% while giving it V8 type performance.

[lelandv]

wholeheartedly agree...

I personally think that that 7.2 second 0-60 book figure is a very CONSERVATIVE figure based on experience. The only real downside is that under such hard and heavy acceleration, the steering feels slightly unstable to me... have to make several major trajectory corrections to keep it in a straight line. Normal (and slightly above normal) acceleration is not a problem though.

The last V8 I owned had a prancing horse on the badge and an F1 sequential gearbox, so the RX is nowhere near the same league, but it's nice to have that additional OOMPFFF of power available when overtaking.. something which is sadly lacking in my IS200.

Leland

[jaroph]

wholeheartedly agree...

I personally think that that 7.2 second 0-60 book figure is a very CONSERVATIVE figure based on experience.  The only real downside is that under such hard and heavy acceleration, the steering feels slightly unstable to me... have to make several major trajectory corrections to keep it in a straight line.  Normal (and slightly above normal) acceleration is not a problem though.

The last V8 I owned had a prancing horse on the badge and an F1 sequential gearbox, so the RX is nowhere near the same league, but it's nice to have that additional OOMPFFF of power available when overtaking.. something which is sadly lacking in my IS200.

Leland

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Yes I agree about the steering on hard acceleration - it does seem to wobble a bit. Has everyone else noticed this? - I was wondering if it's an oddity that is limited to my machine. Could make an overtaking manoeuver from slow speeds risky in the wet ! Very interested to hear of your experience with RX400H on this!

[Lexusjohn]

wholeheartedly agree...

I personally think that that 7.2 second 0-60 book figure is a very CONSERVATIVE figure based on experience.  The only real downside is that under such hard and heavy acceleration, the steering feels slightly unstable to me... have to make several major trajectory corrections to keep it in a straight line.  Normal (and slightly above normal) acceleration is not a problem though.

The last V8 I owned had a prancing horse on the badge and an F1 sequential gearbox, so the RX is nowhere near the same league, but it's nice to have that additional OOMPFFF of power available when overtaking.. something which is sadly lacking in my IS200.

Leland

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Yes I agree about the steering on hard acceleration - it does seem to wobble a bit. Has everyone else noticed this? - I was wondering if it's an oddity that is limited to my machine. Could make an overtaking manoeuver from slow speeds risky in the wet ! Very interested to hear of your experience with RX400H on this!

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It is "torque steer" as this vehicle is predominatly "front wheel drive" it can not cope with the sudden surge of BHP, so if you power out of a corner the steering wheel will try to straighten up.

Normal acceleration will not show this traite. It is not full time four wheel drive, Hope this helps