Robiati

A cautionary tale... About six months ago took my RX 400h to a certain north London main dealer for the recall work to be competed. Naturally they checked the car for other problems and turned up very little (a couple of missing plastic clips under the bonnet). Lulled into a false sense of security I decided to do the next service with them as they quoted a fairly reasonable price. The car went in. Then a short time later I got the call... Lots of red flag work needed in addition to the service, some of which made very little sense. According to them the rear brake discs, that I know to be less than two years old, were ‘very old’ and ‘provided almost no braking power’. I had a seized front offside caliper which meant that by their logic the car was stopping on one disc. But I knew the rear discs were not that old at all and there had been no apparent deterioration in the braking power of the car — certainly not to the extent that it was stopping on one disc only as claimed. There were other things besides, naturally. Anyway I was very busy so reluctantly agreed to much of the work and the eye watering bill — didn’t have time to get a second opinion. Got the car back a couple of weeks ago and in the time since I have barely used it (I live fairly centrally in London so I mostly use the car at weekends). No one else has keys to the car or has driven it since and I have not had the car cleaned or worked on in any way. This weekend I was driving on the M6 with three others in the car including my 4 year old daughter. I was in the middle lane which was crawling at the same speed as he left hand lane and I decided to pull into the right hand lane which was moving quickly with (fortunately) large gaps between the cars. The right hand lane was moving so much faster than the other two that I floored the accelerator to rapidly increase my speed so I could safely join. As usual with the RX400h, all three motors kicked in and I zoomed into the right hand lane nicely. Then I eased off the accelerator to match the speed of the car in front and... my car kept on accelerating at full pelt. I pulled my foot off completely but the car was racing as fast as it could and the car in front was getting bigger very, very quickly. I had to brake against the engine go-kart style. Then I shifted my left foot onto the brake so I could jab at the accelerator with my right foot. I could feel it was stuck to the floor and jabbed at it and tried to get my foot underneath to work it free. Thankfully I managed to free it, but that obviously meant the car pitched into rapid deceleration. Everyone was thrown around like crash test dummies for a moment before I managed to bring the car back to equilibrium. I pulled the car off at the next exit and found a safe place to park. With the engine off I jabbed the accelerator all the way to the floor again and, again, it stuck fast. I got out of the car to take a close look and could then see (and this was not obvious) that the rubber mat (original Lexus and in good condition) had been taken off the safety hooks and placed on the floor unhooked and so far forward that it held the accelerator pedal if it is floored. I put the matt back on the hooks and there is now (obviously) no way the accelerator can become caught — that's what the hooks are for, right?! Now when I occasionally have my car cleaned at a hand car wash I check they have hooked the matt on properly. But I don’t expect to have to do that with a main dealer — especially not when checking that the matts are in good condition and fitted correctly is one of the items covered in the service (I’d already seen this on the service sheet with a big tick next to it). I can’t prove fault of course. But there is no way I unhooked those matts and no one other than the main dealer at the service has had access to do so. I am, of course, warning them about what happened. Perhaps the car was cleaned after the service rather than before and whomever does the cleaning (probably not the best paid of trained individual in the dealership) didn’t know any better. But that kind of sloppiness could cause a pile up. I thought I’d pass this on. Needless to say I am now doubly disinclined to revisit the main dealer. And I will now always check the matts after any service or valeting work.

I'm coming in a bit late on this. Especially as it's now a moot point for the original poster. But I bought an 07 RX400h with 62k on the clock three years back. It now has just over 90k. Below are a few thoughts in case they're of interest. The only issues I've had other than routine maintenance (just forked out for timing belt etc.) have been trim and finish related. I have the common issue with the alloy wheel finish and the flock-like stuff on the door pillars has started to peel off (annoying but not too noticeable and nothing to do with the hybrid system). So far there have been no additional costs arising from the hybrid system at all (touch wood). I think the rolling of eyes by various mechanics may be as much lack of knowledge/certainty as anything else. Perhaps I'm wrong but I'd ask them for examples they know of first hand. Beyond that, in my view it's a mistake to compare the RX300 and RX400h too directly. In many senses they are totally different beasts. I've known people average 38mpg in an RX400h though I've no idea how. If I'm sensible I can average a touch over 30 but that's rare because I'm too heavy footed. What's interesting about the 400h is you can pootle around and squeeze every last possible mile per gallon or you can drive enthusiastically and get really good performance. Pick up at speed is really exceptional when all motors fire at once. At some point batteries or inverter may deliver a hefty bill. But the many Prius's at high mileage are encouraging. Yes the RX is a larger beast but that is not necessarily a bad thing for overall battery life. And there are potential high milage benefits to a hybrid too. Conventional engines are at their most stressed and least efficient when getting a car moving from standstill. That's when electric motors come into their own with their instant torque availability. On a hybrid they do much of the work in getting a car in motion thereby removing from the petrol engine it's most stressful and least efficient role. The petrol engine returns the favour by taking over were it's more efficient. It remains to be seen what this will do for longevity over time but it is at least in theory possible that the petrol engines on hybrids will be much less stressed than on non-hybrid equivalents and this may save on non-routine engine repairs as the miles pile on. Such savings may be small beer if your inverter goes but the point is it isn't just a one way street.