400H

[Davelevo]

Hi to all

I am a newbie and hope to buy my first lexus 400h in november of this year and i am hoping to purchase a 2007 SE-L model with the Platinum Ice depending on the price as i have been saving hard to get i luxury car for when i get to the age of 50. My wife and i work full time and work hard so i think that we deserve a lexus 400h as we have always just spent a couple of grand on a car for a cheap runaround but now the kids have left home and we have more time to go away for weekends and days out so we want to travel in style.

As we are from the west midlands speed humps are everywhere so my first question would be how does the 400h cope with speed humps and potholes.

fuel consumption is not high on my list if i wanted a cheap car to run i would not be here but saying that we are not rolling in money which brings me to my next question. On the hybrid side of things how does it work i understand the concept of it but how does it work say round town as there are so many conflicting reports some say the petrol engine kicks in at 10 mph others say you can run on electric at 20 mph and the 5th gear review said if you stay under 30 mph it does not use petrol and this morning i saw another review stating 40 mph on electric so i am a little confused.

One last thing if you were in my place in november with 10/12 grand cash in hand what sort of deals would you be asking for.

Thank you in advance

Wishing you all happy and trouble free motoring.

[ColinBarber]

Welcome David. Personally I think the 400h copes fine with speed bumps, you have good ground clearance. The suspension isn't too hard and copes with potholes fine and the 18" tyres have a high enough profile to stop the alloys being damaged unless you really hit something big at speed. Probably best for you to take one out for a test drive as this is all subjective.

Depending on how you drive and if you change your driving habits slightly to suit a hybrid system expect around 30 mpg, maybe a little more. People that enjoy the power maybe only see 27mpg.

The hybrid system looks after itself. It will cut the petrol engine in and out depending on a lot of things such as temperature, cabin temperature/climate control settings, Battery capacity level, load on the system, accelerator position etc. so you cannot just say at 10mph the engine kicks in. Normally if the stars are aligned then if you come off the accelerator at 40mph or lower the engine will cut out, and you can gently accelerate up to 40 just on Battery power. Passed 40 mph, even though the engine will be running it may only be idling and all the power being provided by the batteries. The beauty of the larger V6 / V8 engine hybrids (400h, 450h, 600h etc) is that you may not even detect when the petrol engine starts or stops, only under medium to heavy acceleration do you hear it when the revs rise. On the Prius/CT200 you can tell when the engine is running and feel it start and stop.

[Davelevo]

Thank you ColinBarber for you reply now you have explained it to me about the hybrid side now i understand and it all make sense and i am pleased that the 400h copes with the humps as well.