400H Miles Per Tank, And Mpg Explanation.

[PCthug]

Hi there, first time poster.

I am looking at buying a 2006 RX400h and have a couple of questions.

Firstly i have just trawled through the last 10 pages of threads, looking at MPG results to get an idea what its going to cost me.

I cant find any that show how many miles per tank you get.

My current car is a 2005 Saab 9-3 1.9TiD, it costs me £65 to fill the tank and i get about 450 miles. The computer shows 50mpg.

Of course i dont expect the Lexus to be anywhere near this, but would like an idea off as many people as i can to get an average miles per tank.

My daily commute is around 50 miles or 'mainly' national speed limits.

Secondly, the Lexus shows to have a MPG of around the low-mid 30's, but surely if its running on batteries around town this cant be included (Battery power wouldnt show as MPG). So does the MPG only come into effect when using the petrol engine itself? So say you do 5 miles on Battery and 5 miles on engine then the car should only use 5 miles on engine to work out an average. Or am i completely off the mark?

[MartyCee]

Hi there, first time poster.

I am looking at buying a 2006 RX400h and have a couple of questions.

Firstly i have just trawled through the last 10 pages of threads, looking at MPG results to get an idea what its going to cost me.

I cant find any that show how many miles per tank you get.

My current car is a 2005 Saab 9-3 1.9TiD, it costs me £65 to fill the tank and i get about 450 miles. The computer shows 50mpg.

Of course i dont expect the Lexus to be anywhere near this, but would like an idea off as many people as i can to get an average miles per tank.

My daily commute is around 50 miles or 'mainly' national speed limits.

Secondly, the Lexus shows to have a MPG of around the low-mid 30's, but surely if its running on batteries around town this cant be included (battery power wouldnt show as MPG). So does the MPG only come into effect when using the petrol engine itself? So say you do 5 miles on battery and 5 miles on engine then the car should only use 5 miles on engine to work out an average. Or am i completely off the mark?

Completley off the mark! ;-)

The mpg for any vehicle is reached by the number of miles traveled campared to the amount of fuel used. For example, your Saab will almost certainly shut off the the fuel flow when you lift off the power for deceleration. It was emissions rules that brought this in for new cars a few years back & was the down fall of the carburettor ... but I digress .... those moments of travel are included, just as Battery driven, or Battery assisted miles are in a Hybrid.

Thhe low 30's is about right, although you have to be mindful of the fact that you've got a large 3300cc petrol V6 in the nose, not a 1900 TD.

The secret is to adapt your driving style, foot off the power (not feathered) when you lift off, lighter pedal pressures (remember these RX's can shift, 60 can come up in circa 7 seconds if you need it) so what might seem like next to no input in an RX will equate to a firm prod in the Saab.

They are very differnt machines & you really must drive a couple of RX Hybrid's before you buy - the trade off is much greater civility inside & the regal feel you have in car parks as you cruise past people in silence (then run them over because theyaren't looking out for cars - they're listening! :-) ), or in traffic jams, when you use little to no fuel, whilst everyone around you is idling their fuel down the exhaust.

As a real world insight, I don't hang about (much!) & get 28mpg around the local city, 32-33 on a sensible (ish) run & with a light foot to Lincolnshire (a full day out) I saw 37mpg a couple of times with a genuine, compared at the pumps fill to fill, 35 for the full trip.

Now I don't know what you expect, but for a large SUV with over 3 litres of petrol power I think that's pretty fair - friends have "other brands" with Derv motors & most struglle to get within 10mpg of those figures & the best (BMW) can't better them in the real world.

[PCthug]

Thanks for your reply.

So how much is it to fill the tank, and how many miles do you get out of it?

I thought i must have been off the mark.

Does that mean that if i run around in town all day i will not use any fuel at all (except whent he batteries run low)? So those who live in cities wouldnt use as much as those who dont?

My Saab has a top speed of 125mph and a 0-60 of 8.5sec, but doesnt have the size of the RX or as many refinements.

I had some very scary moments this winter, and dont want a repeat. I want a 4x4, but not an ugly noisy unrefined one.

I am the type of person who likes quality and doesnt mind paying a little extra for it, but dont want half of my wages to go on fuel alone.

I also live out of town, and to be quite honest 3 cars is classed as a traffic jam in my town, so not much stopping and starting.

I set off for work at 6am too, so hardly anyone on the road.

Showed the wife the photo of the one i want and she said "its just like the one your Stephen sold, why didnt you buy that?" My brother Stephen had a 2005 X-Trail, lol. The only similarity was that they are both silver.

[JBPRX400h]

Hi PCThug

I did post my thoughts on this back in 2007 after we had a worrying moment late at night in Belgium whilst heading towards Luxembourg (for their cheaper petrol!!!)

For what they are worth here are the calculations I did when we got back home.

Assumed MPG 31.84

Tank brimmed and odometer reset 0.00

Mileage at light on 376.10

Miles to petrol station since light on 3.60

Galls used since light on 0.11

Mileage at fill up 379.70

Galls to re-brim tank 11.93

Galls full tank (data from handbook) 14.30

Galls difference between full tank and amount to re-brim tank 2.37

Galls used when light comes on 11.81

Galls left in tank when light comes on 2.49

Theoretical miles left between light on and completely empty 79.16

But don't take my word for it!!!!!

This would give a total range of 455.26 Miles

But again don't take my word for it!!!!!

Good Luck

JBP

[PCthug]

Thanks for the answers so far.

So guys, how much is it to fill the tank, and how many miles do you get from that tank?

This is the true way of working out MPG as computers/sensors can be wrong and show the wrong info.

The one i am looking at is on a '55 plate (registered 6/1/06), and has 19000 miles on it, so rather low mileage.

[PCthug]

I work within an upmarket business park, and the park security use a 400h as their vehicle for checking the units within the park day and night.

I was talking to one of the guys there during last nights night shift and he said its costing about £55 to fill the tank and they get about 200 miles out of it.

If this is the case, it is quite a worry as i will be spending about £100 or more per week.

He also said that the one they use has had about 10 pairs of front tyres on this year so far, and had a Battery replaced too.

Their car is a 2008 model with 60,000 miles on the clock.

Admittedly they do a lot of stop and starting and very short distances in tight areas, this could account for poor fuel consumption and tyre wear i suppose.

He did give me a go of it, and i noticed when i got in that the average MPG was on 20.3 I reset this and drove up and down a national speed limit area for about 12 miles, driving like my granny.

This showed an average of 24 mpg, and still rising (slowly). I still think this to be a little low still.

How many miles does it take to get a truer reading of an average? Or does this sound correct and what i should expect?

I need to make a decision today, as i have to ring up and give a deposit, as they wont hold it any longer for me.

[JBPRX400h]

I work within an upmarket business park, and the park security use a 400h as their vehicle for checking the units within the park day and night.

I was talking to one of the guys there during last nights night shift and he said its costing about £55 to fill the tank and they get about 200 miles out of it.

If this is the case, it is quite a worry as i will be spending about £100 or more per week.

He also said that the one they use has had about 10 pairs of front tyres on this year so far, and had a battery replaced too.

Their car is a 2008 model with 60,000 miles on the clock.

Admittedly they do a lot of stop and starting and very short distances in tight areas, this could account for poor fuel consumption and tyre wear i suppose.

He did give me a go of it, and i noticed when i got in that the average MPG was on 20.3 I reset this and drove up and down a national speed limit area for about 12 miles, driving like my granny.

This showed an average of 24 mpg, and still rising (slowly). I still think this to be a little low still.

How many miles does it take to get a truer reading of an average? Or does this sound correct and what i should expect?

I need to make a decision today, as i have to ring up and give a deposit, as they wont hold it any longer for me.

Hi PCThug

I think you will find those are very misleading figures. As you say there is a lot of stop/start driving at low speeds probably with the petrol engine never getting up to full operating temperature. That sort of driving will slay the fuel consumption of ANY vehicle.

I regularly get 400+ miles between fill-ups. The absolute maximum cost of a fill-up being 63 litres (total cap.of tank from handbook) times £1.15 (current price at local supermarket) which equals £72.45.

As for tyre wear my '06 400h covered 30,000 miles whilst I owned it and I only had to replace the front tyres once in that time at 24,500 miles. The car had 14,000 on the clock when I bought it and the tyres were probably the originals.

However, fuel consumption and tyre wear are both hugely dependent on driving style!

Just for information below are the MPG figures recorded during my ownership. All were calculated from brim to brim fill-ups. The lows were mainly in the winter months and the highs in the summer months. (The 39.5 was an experiment driving from Norwich to Milton Keynes using mainly country B roads and driving very economically!)

These figures give an average of 30.1 MPG over 30,000 miles and 3 years of all sorts of conditions and are therfore a pretty accurate representation of real life driving.

So, don't be put off - go for it. I don't think you will be disappointed. It is a great vehicle.

Good luck

JBP

30.3

30.1

31.3

27.5

29.5

28.1

29.3

31.9

29.9

30.0

30.0

29.9

25.0

32.5

31.0

28.0

26.1

27.0

30.2

25.6

28.5

29.9

29.2

33.9

33.5

26.0

25.9

28.8

30.5

32.3

28.0

32.6

30.9

30.3

29.0

29.8

33.1

33.3

27.8

26.8

24.5

24.2

28.6

27.5

31.1

30.6

30.9

26.6

34.5

35.5

29.8

28.9

32.2

31.8

32.1

32.0

30.1

32.0

32.4

30.3

30.0

27.4

30.0

32.2

32.3

39.5

33.4

23.1

26.5

29.2

32.2

29.6

32.6

34.0

32.6

31.8

Average = 30.1MPG

[PCthug]

I have ordered my 400h.

Another dumb question.

What does B mean on the gear setting?

It has the standard satnav/stereo and have heard that I can play dvd's on it whilst stationary. Is this true? And if so does it go in the cd slot or satnav unit in the boot?

[JBPRX400h]

I have ordered my 400h.

Another dumb question.

What does B mean on the gear setting?

It has the standard satnav/stereo and have heard that I can play dvd's on it whilst stationary. Is this true? And if so does it go in the cd slot or satnav unit in the boot?

The "B" gear setting provides you with engine braking to help with controlling your speed when going down steep hills. It can also be used for slowing the car without applying the brakes in ordinary driving conditions such as when approaching a roundabout but be aware that there will obviously be no brake lights to warn following motorists that you are slowing down.

One thing to bear in mind is that the "B" setting cancels cruise control and it is easy to forget to return the gear lever to "D" after using the "B" setting as the car still appears to drive normally but the cruise control will not operate. (It doesn't do any damage to the car driving it in the "B" setting. However, the car only appears to drive normally as the engine is still directly coupled to the transmission and the car does not operate in its "natural" hybrid mode.)

I'm not sure if you can play DVDs on the front screen in the '06 model (you certainly can on the '08). If you can the DVD goes in the slot in the dashboard. As covered in many other posts it is easy to run down the 12V auxilliary Battery if the car is not in the "Ready" state whilst watching DVDs or even just using the radio which has quite a high current draw.

Hope I haven't sounded too negative! Just enjoy your car when you get it. I'm sure you will.

Regards

JBP

[PCthug]

Thanks again.

I am not too bothered about the DVD, just might have come in handy when waiting for the wife whilst shopping, instead of playing games on my Iphone.

Get my car on Wednesday, so as excited as an excited thing at Christmas.

[Duncan Roberts]

I work within an upmarket business park, and the park security use a 400h as their vehicle for checking the units within the park day and night.

I was talking to one of the guys there during last nights night shift and he said its costing about £55 to fill the tank and they get about 200 miles out of it.

If this is the case, it is quite a worry as i will be spending about £100 or more per week.

He also said that the one they use has had about 10 pairs of front tyres on this year so far, and had a battery replaced too.

Their car is a 2008 model with 60,000 miles on the clock.

Admittedly they do a lot of stop and starting and very short distances in tight areas, this could account for poor fuel consumption and tyre wear i suppose.

He did give me a go of it, and i noticed when i got in that the average MPG was on 20.3 I reset this and drove up and down a national speed limit area for about 12 miles, driving like my granny.

This showed an average of 24 mpg, and still rising (slowly). I still think this to be a little low still.

How many miles does it take to get a truer reading of an average? Or does this sound correct and what i should expect?

I need to make a decision today, as i have to ring up and give a deposit, as they wont hold it any longer for me.

I find it very hard to believe that it "has had about 10 pairs of front tyres on this year so far". If the ting has only done 60k in 2 years that suggests that they are lasting less than 3000 miles (estimate 30,000 m per year) . Someone is pulling your leg. Very odd to have a security guard use such a car as well.

[Normski]

I'm being tempted to change my car so the MPG values here have made interesting reading. My '300 is doing about 25mpg-ish on average and that's over 80% motorway 20% town...

Crazy tyre wear though on that security guard car - 10 pairs! Blimey.

[PCthug]

I find it very hard to believe that it "has had about 10 pairs of front tyres on this year so far". If the ting has only done 60k in 2 years that suggests that they are lasting less than 3000 miles (estimate 30,000 m per year) . Someone is pulling your leg. Very odd to have a security guard use such a car as well.

I thought 10 pairs seemed a bit steep too, maybe he meant 10 tyres in total.

The car is owned by the owner of the firm that owns the industrial estate. It originally belonged to one of the bosses of his other companie, who retired. They wanted to keep the car so give it to the security gaurds to use for their rounds. Its also a bit of a status thing too, as i said, it is an upmarket business park, and is always parked outside the gatehouse.

[Fintán]

Hi there, first time poster.

I am looking at buying a 2006 RX400h and have a couple of questions.

Firstly i have just trawled through the last 10 pages of threads, looking at MPG results to get an idea what its going to cost me.

I cant find any that show how many miles per tank you get.

My current car is a 2005 Saab 9-3 1.9TiD, it costs me £65 to fill the tank and i get about 450 miles. The computer shows 50mpg.

Of course i dont expect the Lexus to be anywhere near this, but would like an idea off as many people as i can to get an average miles per tank.

My daily commute is around 50 miles or 'mainly' national speed limits.

Secondly, the Lexus shows to have a MPG of around the low-mid 30's, but surely if its running on batteries around town this cant be included (battery power wouldnt show as MPG). So does the MPG only come into effect when using the petrol engine itself? So say you do 5 miles on battery and 5 miles on engine then the car should only use 5 miles on engine to work out an average. Or am i completely off the mark?