scoobie

I find it a little humorous this thread generated so much interest. Those idiot gear position lights on the instrument panel are more annoying than useful, I guess it depends on how you learned to drive, when I shift gear on an automatic, I look at the shifter itself rather than the panel to tell what gear I'm at. When driving, those lights are not part of my scan pattern so I wouldn't even know it if mine were out.

I've read similar comments about these tires somewhere (maybe tirerack), that's bad news for those of us that have these, are you putting the same ones on ?

I'm surprised that a 2004 car needs an alignment, do you drive over miles of pot-holes every day or what ?

I don't think this question was actually addressed by the later posts, here's my take based on my limited recollection of high school physics: Assume the car weigh 4000 lbs, and the spare weigh 50 lbs, and that the engine converts gas into work at a constant rate. Work = mass x distance, so if mass is decreased by the factor 3950/4000, then distance can be increased by the same factor for the same amount of work. Result: if you get 20 mpg with spare, then without spare should be 20 x 4000/3950 = 20.25 mpg. Of course the real world is not a textbook physics problem and I'm sure there are major flaws in the assumptions above, but I think the point is clear that the increase in mpg is in the 'noise' level.

Body flex is a term one often reads in car mags, but that usually refers to something that occurs at high stress (like driving a Corvette on a track). I doubt you can induce that kind of body flex pulling out of the driveway. More likely its the suspension making that noise. If the car is still under (the bumper to bumper) warranty I suggest you try to get the dealer to fix it, if they refuse then you may have to resort to arbitration.

Finally, a legitimate reason to throw the mother-in-law out on the street

Scenario: you're in line to make a left turn, by the time you're almost to the intersection, the light turns yellow, so you do what most drivers do, speed up to the middle of the intersection, slow down to make the turn, then accelerate to get out of the way. With any other car, this scene plays out without a hitch, as this exact scenario occurs countless times in any given day. With an RX330, be prepared for an unpleasant surprise, when you need to accelerate during a sharp turn (as in the case here of trying to beat the yellow), the usual sub-second lag is stretched to about 2 seconds, so by the time the engine finally revs up, you've already finished the turn by coasting. To sum it up, in a sharp turn, you have absolutely no power control during the last half of the maneuver, this must be how it feels to be caught with your pants down. From now on I would make a conscious effort to drive "soccor mom" style, I'd recommend others to do the same. This car has some safety issues when not driven 'by the book'.

Putting on a sunshade seems too low-tech for your high-tech 400h (not worthy, as you would say), have you considered a solar powered ventilation fan you can clip/attach to the side window ? I've seen them advertised, I'm sure you can find one locally.

I just looked at the site, I would guess the "Your MPG" link is where you can record your real world mpg, but it seems you have to register first.

Dear Management Team (and other Powers That Be concerning this issue): Here's my last ditch effort to influence your decision, even though the vote count thus far is clearly in favor of division, please note that only 37 people voted (meaning most people simply don't care). I venture to say that the audience (based on thread traffic) of the current subforum (300/330/400h) is respectable but not huge, and certainly not so large that splitting is a practical necessity. So what's broken that needs fixing ? I submit to you that further subbing would only decrease readership and participation of all threads (it's only logical), albeit admittedly the discussion would probably be more to the point. There was an argument that even with a separate forum for the 400h, people who want to browse both 300/330 and 400h topics can still do so. My counter argument is that many if not most folks who are here are casual surfers/users who may not make that extra click (if you allow me to play amateur phycologist here, it does take a concious decision to make that extra click, and if you don't have a specific reason to browse there, you're just as likely to skip it). The point is that there is much to lose but not much to gain from such a split. Now why am I so concern ? Because I want to see this forum do well and I'm convinced creating a subforum would NOT better serve the community.

That's what my impression was/is as well, after each fill up the ave mpg would automatically starts at 0 or close to 0 and stabilizes after a few miles, I don't recall reading in the manual whether there is a manual (no pun intended) reset.

This is what we call a "workaround". It prevents catastrophe but doesn't solve the problem at its roots. Still, it'll do for the time being. I think Patt may be right in that the mechanism that opens and closes the hatch needs to be limited. Otherwise, we could replace the pneumatic cylinders with shorter versions. This would work if it were not for the "power" part of the hatch. ← I think if you can shorten the cylinder travel that would solve the problem. I believe the power assist is active only at the beginning to get the hatch moving. There is a simple way to test whether the "power" operation causes any problems, use the power feature to open the hatch and use your hands to hold it before it opens all the way up and see if it stays put or tries to reverse direction. In any case, having to replace ot adjust the cylinder is too dramatic a change for my taste, I was hoping for a 'software' fix but it seems that is not possible.

I can see why the engine might need breaking in, but the electrically-powered portion of the drive train should not. And based on my own experience with a 2005 RX330 (same engine as RX400h), gas mileage does not vary much between mile zero and mile 2000+. Having said that, I don't really think you are getting gypped, because its the combination of improved driving performance and better gas mileage that makes the 400h appealing (to me at least), if you wanted the most fuel efficient vehicle for the money then you bought the wrong car, and Lexus never promoted the gas mileage alone as the selling point, its always the combination of more power and better mpg.

My point exactly, they way it is now, the combined forum gives 400h owners a chance to share their experiences with non-type owners, I don't own a 400h, but personally I've enjoyed and benefitted from reading posts from 'RX400h' in San Diego, patt from Sacramento, and numerous others about their experiences and views on the 400h thus far. With the creation of the subforum, I predict these folks will form a close knitted clique (of a handful of people) and would mainly correspond amongst themselves.

The ebay description didn't mentioned whether the mpg reading was for instaneous mpg or average mpg, both of which are available for display on the console. It is not at all surprising for the instantaneous mpg reading to get to 30 mpg, especially in an around hills (set and observe your own inst. mpg sometimes). So based on the original ebay ad I wouldn't hang the guy for omitting to mention that it was instantaneous mpg he was reporting vs ave mpg.

My prediction of what's going to happen if a subforum is created. Interest and participation in the RX catagory as a whole will diminish, in other words, the parts will be less than the whole. No question the 400h is a different animal from the 330 or 300, but the 400h buyers are a subset of potential 330 buyers (or in general luxury SUV shoppers), so wouldn't it make sense that current or prospective 330 owners would also be interested in 400h-related issues ? Having a subforum will give the illusion of a neat and orderly segmentation of the RX communicty, and may even give the 400h owners a false sense of exclusivity, but will be counter productive in the long run.

I don't see anything wrong with the current combined format, brings a variety of topics for all to see and discuss; as long as the ensuing discussion is faithful to the title, then those not interested can tell right away and simply not look. Subsections would make sense only if and when the number of daily new topics become unmanagably large (say into the hundreds). Right now I don't think we're there yet.

For what it's worth, my salesman told me the wood is real, in fact, he claims it is the same grade of wood as that from which Yamaha pianos are made. That said, I do agree the gloss is a little overdone, and I too prefer the feel of an all leather steering wheel when manuveuring (high glossed wood is slippery), however, after a while the wood trim appearance grew on me and I kind of like it now (isn't that true in most situations, we get used to it because it takes less effort to adapt to the environment than to change it).

Getting your money's worth is a subjective perception, for people buying the 400h now, I'm sure that they've already factored in a premium for being the first to have the new technology in their driveway. But I certainly agree with you that Lexus should not make the 400h less "luxurious" than the RX330, if the RX330 had leather on the door (looks and feels like leather anyway) then the 400h should have it as well; ditto on the wood trim, someone else mentioned he/she didn't like the aluminum trim on the 400h, I wouldn't either.

I would disagree with you on that point, I think most people who are considering hybrids in general rank the decision criteria you'd mentioned in this order: power, fuel economy, luxury. And those considering the 400h specifically probably rank them as: power, luxury, fuel economy. Be honest, if the 400h didn't have the "neck snapping" 650 lb-ft of torque, would you have bought it ?

As with the previous reply, it happened to me in a new BMW. The carpet was loose and bunched up next to the brake and accelerator. Every time I pressed on the brake, the carpet pushed the accelerator too. Very dangerous problem. ← Thanks for the response. I'm sure that was not the problem in this case, as the care was at a complete stop, brake depressed and idling. ← I think what you meant to say was that the engine rpm raced expectedly while you were shifting from Drive to Park, with the brake pedal depressed, right ? Could be a transmission problem or engine control problem, my thinking is that when you shift from Drive to Park, the load on the engine changes and the controller would normally (I guess) adjust the engine throttle accordingly to maintain rpm, if the controller is faulty I can see how it could lead to the symptom you'd described.

Would you do us a favor and drive your brand new 400h to a MB dealer and ask for test drive of the ML350 ? And then report as objectively as you can on the results ?

Looking at the pics of the 400h again, I can see why some of you are considering a wheel change, the OEM wheels are hideous.

All RX330's come with 18 in wheels at the dealer where I bought mine. I believe it is a $250 option, if I recall correctly. As RX400h said, a lower aspect ratio would give a stiffer ride, and normally when one installs larger diameter wheels, a lower aspect ratio tire is chosen (compared with the base trim) to make the tire circumference equal. So I'd expect the 18 in wheel version of the car to have a stiffer ride than its 17 in counterpart. As far as advantage of one over the other, it depends on your preference and driving style. In the case of the RX330, I believe there are more tires available (different brands) for the 17 in size than the 18 in size, so there may be a cost advantage to the 17 in.

I think so too, I read somewhere (I think in the AAA's Westways mag) that the stability control is based on input from a gyro device (gives the instaneous orientation of the car, that info along with a log of the travel path supposedly can determine whether the car is out of control) and applies braking to the appropriate wheel to correct it. The tire pressure monitor sys could also be based on some sort orientation measurement (low pressure in one wheel would cause a 'tilt' relative to path of travel).