Hybrid Or Not ?

[KevH]

I've been looking into buying a Lexus for a while now and after visiting the local dealer and test driving the IS and GS I've made my mind up to buy a GS.

I have a budget of £11k so looking at a 2007/2008 sort of age with 50k miles.

The big question is the 450h or the 300 ???

I tend to keep cars for at least 4-5 years so my worry is that the batteries in the hybrid will fail ! No Battery lasts forever , the salesman at the dealership told me they will last the life of the car ! But if lexus really thought that the 5 yr 60000 mile warranty would be longer.

I've seen a few hybrids on eBay with faulty inverters and I have seen a couple of posts where people have needed new batteries and they are not cheap.

What's the general opinion about the batteries ???

Thanks

Kev

[wendle]

Hi kev,

The batteries failing is not something I have herd much
about, and off the two reports I have read Lexus corrected both off these
quickly and with little or no expense to there owners.

There are also at least two owners on this site that have GS
450h’s with over 100k mile on, and one with over 150k, neither have experienced
any problems with the batteries.

But as you have pointed out batteries don’t last forever,
but nor do engines and gearboxes.

Lexus have decided to extend there Hybrid range, and the
last thing they would want is reports off there batteries failing, so personally
I think your be ok,

and also the 450h is a all some car.

[Keleko]

How long has the Prius been out now? The Battery technology has improved leaps and bounds.

I personally went hybrid because of the better fuel economy, lower road tax and of course the the 6 second 0-60

[KevH]

I found this interesting article http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=542377 that seems to be resonably confident about the life expenctancy of the batteries.

[royoftherovers]

Take look at this http://www.caradvice.com.au/14639/toyota-prius-the-taxi-champion.

There are very few stories anywhere of hybrid Battery problems.

Honestjohn (UK) tells of Glasgow taxis covering 400,000 plus miles without problems.

Try a Hybrid on test and see what you think.....it`s incredible motoring, but not as economical as you might think, but certainly significantly more economical than any 3.5 litre petrol engine.

Happy motoring.

Regards

John

[Keleko]

Take look at this http://www.caradvice.com.au/14639/toyota-prius-the-taxi-champion.

There are very few stories anywhere of hybrid battery problems.

Honestjohn (UK) tells of Glasgow taxis covering 400,000 plus miles without problems.

Try a Hybrid on test and see what you think.....it`s incredible motoring, but not as economical as you might think, but certainly significantly more economical than any 3.5 litre petrol engine.

Happy motoring.

Regards

John

I agree, the feeling of instant power is addictive. Also don't expect the promised 30mpg round town, you'll get closer to 23mpg but a lot better than the 16mpg from other petrol engines.

[KevH]

Take look at this http://www.caradvice.com.au/14639/toyota-prius-the-taxi-champion.

There are very few stories anywhere of hybrid battery problems.

Honestjohn (UK) tells of Glasgow taxis covering 400,000 plus miles without problems.

Try a Hybrid on test and see what you think.....it`s incredible motoring, but not as economical as you might think, but certainly significantly more economical than any 3.5 litre petrol engine.

Happy motoring.

Regards

John

My current car is a 3.2L V6 4x4 and I get 20mpg on a good day so anything better than that is a plus ;o)

From what Im reading alot is down to what type of driving you do , if its lots of high mileage motorway then the batteries will rarely be used whilst if you do lots of low speed town driving you will be exercising the batteries harder and probably reduce the life expectancy.

I also found this link http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/showthread.php?99734-Replacing-the-Hybrid-Battery! where some Preuis cars have had battey issue at quite low mileage.

Kev

[Ullevi]

Kev, in June this year I was similarly considering whether to get a new hybrid or non-hybrid GS.

As far as reliability is concerned, when looking into it, I got the impression that Toyota/ Lexus hybrid systems are extremely reliable and capable of large mileages no matter what kind of use they get. Many places in the world rack up high urban mileages in hybrid taxis, for instance.

Just look at reliability surveys and it's no coincidence that Lexus and Toyota are virtually always very near the top. That is with Lexus, at least in the UK selling mainly hybrids.

As mentioned, on the few occasions batteries have needed replacing, Lexus have bent over backwards to sort the problem out.

Personally, I went for the non-hybrid having tested both the GS250 and GS450h. The main reason I found is that I prefer the standard auto of the GS250 to the CVT of the hybrid. Also I do not do many miles, so fuel economy is not much of an issue for me.

Having said that, the performance of the hybrid car in terms of speed was great.

In the end I chose a standard V6 engine car over the hybrid equivalent, but reliability was not the reason for that choice, after initially posing the question myself.

Good luck in chosing a new car!

[Silver Arrow]

Just to add - like Ullevi says, I did the same. In the real world, it all depends on where you do the driving. If you drive on motorways a lot then you won't get much in the way of saving through the hybrid system. If you do a lot of town driving, then it will help.

Put it this way - if I was looking to replace my GS250 now with another Lexus, it would be a hybrid….most of my miles are towny.

EDIT

that taxi article is a good one - someone once said to me that you should always buy what taxi drivers use - and guess what? Where I live, almost every Taxi is a now a new Gen Prius….

[coneybiller]

I do alot of motorway driving (150miles round trip commute) and the hybrid doesnt really play much of a role, exept if you get bored and want to overtake an annoying driver who cant decide what speed to stick to, then the hybrid motor also acts as a boost to the engines power and at motorway speeds it pins you into the seat and pulls effortlessly into ban territory before you know it! But then when you get off the motorway into a town, it comes in beautifully and glides along in stealth form! Mines about to tick over to 153k tomorrow, and as far as bettery life is concerened, it's still as good as the day I bought it 3 years ago!

Lexus tend to be brilliant when it comes to customer service, they pretty much always bend over backwards to help you out. Only problem is with parts costs and labour, you can't seem to buy many aftermarket products, and if you car is out of waranty and needs a repair, it tends to be very expensive!

I had a nearside rear hub carrier bush deteriorate and cause a bad squeeking noise from passenger side rear, ended up needing a new hub carrier and ABS sensor, as you cant get the bush separate and they couldnt get the old ABS sensor out! They also replaced 2 rear tyres (falken's), total cost £970!

[KevH]

Thanks for all the advice folks :hohoho:

I have now officially joined the club after buying one at the weekend

But what did I buy ? Well in the it came down to availabilty and budget ! I wanted either a silver or metalic grey one with a grey interior and my local Lexus dealer happened to have a low milage 2008 one in silver and it was a ............. GS300. There where no hybrids in the right colour and mileage within 300 miles of where I live. So I negotiated with the lexus dealer and got £2K off the window price , years tax, MOT & service for under my budget .

If a hybrid was available then I probably would have gone for it but Im sure I will be happy with the GS300.

Thanks again

Kev

[aviator888]

Lexus tend to be brilliant when it comes to customer service, they pretty much always bend over backwards to help you out. Only problem is with parts costs and labour, you can't seem to buy many aftermarket products, and if you car is out of waranty and needs a repair, it tends to be very expensive!

I had a nearside rear hub carrier bush deteriorate and cause a bad squeeking noise from passenger side rear, ended up needing a new hub carrier and ABS sensor, as you cant get the bush separate and they couldnt get the old ABS sensor out! They also replaced 2 rear tyres (falken's), total cost £970!

Ripping off customers is not what i would call a "brilliant customer service" :D

[rhosneigr]

Please name a main dealership that do not rip off customers. At least with Lexus you are treated very well and the frequency of having to have repalrs done in my case anyway is very low against for instance my daughter who has a BMW.

[aviator888]

Please accept my apologies i did not mean to be rude. You are right, they all the same. Hyundai tried to charge my friend £22+hours labour at £90 for changing a bulb :D And when it comes to reliability, Lexus is far ahead of any european make in its class.

But it's sitll a rip off business, no matter how nice they seem..

[rhosneigr]

Apology accepted although I did not think you were being rude. Agree that its a rip off business.