Got Ours A Bit Early!

[Philly400h]

We signed up on three different lists in March '05 in the Philly/New Jersey area for a neptune blue/grey RX400h with Mark Levinson sound. The first dealer told us we could expect it sometime in the fall and took a $500 deposit. The second gave an ETA of July or August and took $1000 down. A dealer in Northern NJ took a $1000 deposit for a blue/grey coming on June 20-23, but he was under the (mistaken) impression that no 400h's would have Mark Levinson until the fall of '05. We decided we really wanted the ML, and that dealer is quite far from where we live, so we took back our cash and jumped off that list.

After reading reports of some buyers getting their cars already, we became impatient and started to follow up with dealers to see what may have opened up. We got in touch with 8 dealers in PA, DE and NJ. We got lucky with the North Jersey dealer who had originally thought he couldn't get us ML sound. As a fluke we were going to be driving right past that dealer's location last weekend to go to upstate NY.

It turns out he had one coming in "on the boat" for June 20 delivery with everything we wanted, including ML. May have been the same car we originally ordered and he was just mistaken about the ML stereo the first time(?). We put a $1000 deposit down on the car on 6/18 and got refunds on our deposits with the other 2 dealers.

The NJ dealer told us the EPA mileage estimates of 27/31 were correct and said there is no break-in period. Thankfully we were able to research the car and read current owners’ reports quite a bit, so I took those statements with a grain of salt.

So we picked it up on 6/23 and drove it several hundred miles last weekend. We're very happy with this car and it's a lot of fun to drive. I was concerned about a break-in period, so we made frequent stops on the highway. It's very hard to fluctuate speed on the Turnpike(s), so we just hit a lot of rest areas. We got around 22mpg highway mileage with the A/C cranked. I've been resetting the consumption to see which trips will fare better than others. 500 miles on it now and second tank of gas - mpg seems to be creeping up to 23mpg for short around-town trips.

Friends and family are very intrigued and we're pleased with the purchase. It seems well worth the price tag - as a bonus we got it for $500 under MSRP. We expect the mpg to increase somewhat over time, especially when we are not using the A/C and driving gently to maximize fuel efficiency.

[RX400h]

Congratulations! Although I have not reset our consumption readout yet, we are averaging 25.2 under all conditions - bumper-to-bumper traffic to 90 MPH freeway blasts. BTW, the EPA figure is 31/27, not 27/31.

Still, we are more than happy with the mileage and power. The feeling on the highway is that of neverending power!

[speedyg]

I have almost 2000 miles on mine and am averaging about 26.1 mpg (mix of city and freeway). I notice that city mileage may not actually be that good if you need to come to complete stops frequently without stopping long enough for the gas engine to shut off. When I drive to work for instance I encounter a lot of stop signs which hurt the mpg number. The best mileage seems to occur when you are travelling at slow to moderate speeds and need only accel/decel slowly without ever coming to a full stop.

I am pretty darn happy with 26.1 mpg though, it's 40% better than what I get with my BMW 330i sedan. And maybe the number will keep getting better as my RX400h gets "broken in" more.