markatty

For those that have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal there is a bonanza of articles today: Tackling Hybrids Flawed Mileage Claims Testing the Fuel Claims of Hybrids Ford Test-Drives Online Ordering for Hybrid Doing the Hybrid Math U.S. Gets Real on Fuel-Economy

Just went to the Taste of Lexus in NYC. It was a lot of fun and if you get a chance its worth going. At Belmont Park in LI they had 3 courses set up; one for heavy cars ES, GX, SC (it really is heay), the IS course with a BMW 330i for comparision and the RX-400 course. For me it was a blast, where else do you get to really push a car in a safe enviroment. It wasn't autocross and if you hit a cone, they said they would throw you out, but I squeled some tires and the only complaint I got was about almost coming to a stop, because the ES I was driving had almost caught up to the GX-470 that started before me. The other fun party was that they had golf pros that gave putting lessons inside and videotaped swing analysis outside. The pros really knew what they were doing and they email you a link to a videotape of your swing analysis. If you play golf its worth it just for this. If you go you might want to eat before hand. The "taste" part of the "Taste of Lexus" was small hors d'ouevres that when you read the card were "inspired" by great chefs. Lines for food were long and the soda was only slightly chilled, but if you want food go to a restaurant. The other down side is that there were no Lexus engineers there. The whole thing is run by AMCI and they do a good job and some of the people are professional drivers, but if you are looking for really technical details this is not the place. Personally, I like driving anything better than waiting so I just hopped in the shortest lines rather than wait an hour to drive a protype of the about to be introduced IS350. The 400h was actually fairly nimble through the cones, since they had the course set up tight so there was little time for it to develop severe body roll and the electrics really help. I laughed when I looked at the consumption screen, 9.8 mpg for 40 miles. The 5 minute mpg bars looked like a puddle on the bottom of the screen. Just remember slow hands on the wheel and start setting up your next turn as you enter the present turn. :D

NY Times vendetta is now official For some reason the NY Times is going out of its way to disparage hybrids. The latest attempt is entitled "Wary of High-Voltage Batteries, Rescuers Study Up on Hybrids" and is all about firemen being scared to rescue someone in a hybrid, since it might have unintended acceleration or they might get electrocuted. The problem is that this problem has never happened. The quaking firemen say it hasn't happened, Toyota says it hasn't happened, but the NY Times thinks this problem is so serious that it rates the front page of the Sunday automotive section. For conclusive proof of how this is just a trap for any unsuspecting fireman on the continuation of the story on the inside of paper they show a hybrid Accord and gas only Accord - YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE; absolutely shocking :o Now I admit that there is a reason to be concerned. (I still want to know what would have happened to the guy in my high school who parked on a boat launch ramp with his girlfriend on a moon-lit night and three hours later found his engine underwater and the floor of car awash, if he had happened to be in a 400h?) Its the promenience and repetitive negative nature of the NYT stories that makes me say this is slanted reporting. The story deserved two inches on an inside page not front page, Sunday supplement coverage with photos. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/automobiles/18HYBRID.html

Germans play catch-up on hybrids http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=...rticleid=250917

Mercedes Diesel Beats RX-400 on coast to coast run http://www.expatica.com/source/site_articl...ternative+fuels

The New York Times had three interesting articles that are hybrid related. On the celebrity side, Prince Albert of Monaco when he is not fathering children http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Mo...nce-Albert.html drives a Lexus hybrid http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/internat...e/10albert.html. E85 a fuel available primarily in corn country, that is 85% ethanol is now selling for 50 cents less than regular gas http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/business...tive.html?8hpib Anyone know if you can drive 400 on E85? Oil may or may not be running out. I tend to side with the economists on this one and think, price will bring supply and demand in line. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/business/10nocera.html, but my brother the petroleum consultant says finding a lot of big new fields is unlikely.

BMW, GM and Chrysler joining together to develop hybrid http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/business...ess/08auto.html

When you are stopped at a light with the engine off you are getting 0 miles and using 0 gallons of gas, so you could look at this period as not effecting your miles/gallon at all. Its the same as when you car is in the garage at night. However, when comparing it to an ICE (which I finally figured out stands for internal combustion engine) there is a difference. The ICE is idling at the stop light while it obviously isn't in the garage at night, so a normal car loses mpg stopped while the RX-400 doesn't. Unfortunately mpg is mpg so if you are getting 27 mpg and the little Volkswagen is getting 27 mpg including the time that it is idling you have the same mileage as the VW, but you have a better experience while getting the same mpg. :D

At first I thought having a calendar was a great idea, then I found out it was not blue tooth capable so I couldn't sync my Palm with it. So I figured it was useless, but I'm now using it to keep tracking refueling stops, miles and mpg. Be nice when Lexus' computer engineering gets as advanced as their electrical engineering.

The New York Times has an article about Toyota's effort to sell 10% hybrids and once again repeats its disparaging remarks about the poor fuel mileage on what the article calls "muscle" hybrids. Those folks at the NYT really don't like hybrids. :P I've yet to see a positive article from them, which given its generally liberal slant is surprising. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/business...brid.html?8hpib

Thanks for the info. I wonder if Lexus has a feature to protect the driver from shock if the car is flooded. I'll be very interested to see how this car performs in snow. It replaces an Audi TT Quattro which did surpisingly well in snow up to about 5". (When it gets really bad we take the Jeep, which in 4WD-Lo handles snow up to 18").

Looking at the pictures from New Orleans got me to thinking about how a hybrid would perform on flooded roadways. Does the fact that it is a hybrid mean the 400h is more prone to stalling? Just how much water can a 400h go through before it will have a problem? What happens if you go through water 3 - 4 inches deep at high speed and it splashes hard against the bottom? How about if it is salt water? If you do drive into deep saltwater say 3 feet deep, will the car short out or will the will the engine jus stall or both? What's it going to cost to fix the car and what has to be done? If the car does stall in salt water and you get out of the car are you, your passengers and bystanders at risk of an electric shock? Also as I understand it you are not supposed to drive the 400h on loose sand, i.e. the beach, has anyone done this? Does firm moist sand create a problem for the 400h. Anybody tried their 400h in real world off roading? Is it any good?

RonO and Patt, Thanks for the info on how turn off the damn Maintenance required message. (It would have been nice if the Lexus service manager had told me this instead of saying I had to bring it in so that they could do this.) Its nice having control of that screen back.

Coasting is only boring if you are not thinking ahead to see what you can do to maximize your mileage. Can you shift lanes to coast further? How long can you stay off the gas? Too long and you have to accelerate too hard and lose mileage and the guy behind you gets mad; too soon and you've wasted a good coast. Also try accelerating just enough to get to 58 mpg on consumption meter, while building up speed for further coasting. Now I agree that coasting on highway is not as exciting as trying to beat your own personal best at the track, but for every day driving with other cars and cops around coasting can give give you a lot to think about if you are driving a hybrid w/ good electronic feedback and it keeps you alert to what is going on around you.

I agree that coasting is crucial, but for today's oxymoron I try to do powered coasting. Whenever there is a downhill stretch, I do try to coast, however, whenever I see a rise or hill coming up after the downhill section I step very lightly on the accelerator. Ideally I want the mpg graph to go from infinity to about 5 mpg below the top so that I can build up as much speed as possible (but never going over 100 mph ;) while coasting down the latter part of the hill. I hold this accelerator postion as I hit the up hill section, when my mpg graphs drops I slowly take my foot off the accelerator. If the up hill portion is not too long, you can coast all the way to the next down slope without having to accelerate up hill, which kills your mpg. It may sounds a little complicated, but I do it almost instinctively now. It just takes a little practice.

I just got to 5,000 miles also and the car is driving me crazy, because the "Maintenance Required" notice has taken over the information system under the speedometer. When ever you change the display to show the screen that you want, it only stays there for a few seconds before the damn "Maintenance Required" pops up again. The reason it is so irritating is that I use the instanteous mileage display to give me feedback on my driving. Now I'm left with using the Trip Info display on the dashboard screen, which takes my eyes away from the road more. Also the other screens on the speedometer display can't be used for the same reason. Once again all this information is available on the dashboard screen, but you can't cycle through it easily on the center console like you can on speedometer display by using the steering wheel buttons. I know the dealer can turn this notice off, but the earliest appointment my dealer could give me is over a week away. Its not a big deal, just stupid programming. Its my car, remind me when I turn on the car and get out of the way. As to my 5,000 mile experience, I like the car a lot. I have taken to doing what I call "active driving" where I monitor the instaneous mileage continually and try to adjust my driving to increase mileage just cuz its fun to do and gives me something to do on the commute. On my 35 mile mostly highway commute, I'm getting between 27 and 34 mpg. I drive 60 to 70 mph on the highways and get most of my good mileage by coasting when appropriate, long light applications of the brakes and not going over 70 for most of the trip. To get the higher mileage, hills and even undulations are key. Driving on a flat road at a constant speed knocks my mpg to around 20 mpg. I've found that if I coast down long hills and then accelerate gently towards the bottom I can coast a good distance up the next hill, which save lots of gas. I don't drive like a little old lady, I accelerate hard when I need to and usually drive in fast lane on highways. To people around me, they don't even notice what I'm doing. I really wonder how much of my mileage savings over a 330 is due to the electrics and how much is due to giving people understandable, immediate feedback. I bet the US could lower gas consumption at least 10% if every car had the same info systems as the 400.

It looks like we're not alone, and that Toyota is listening: Toyota plans ways to make hybrid models stand out http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-0...-tag-usat_x.htm ← Thanks for the info. I wonder if they are going to allow retrofits. (Then again maybe the unbadged will get rarity points.) BTW: While you're on the USA Today site read their article about mileage disappointment from not meeting the EPA numbers (see links on right) and compare it with the NY Times Sunday "Emperor has no clothes" article and today's sideswipe at the RX-400. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/automobi...cnd-toyota.html

I get 26 - 28 mpg on mostly highway driving on my commute. I don't do a lot of pure city driving, but the times that I have, I've gotten 28 to 31 mpg. The only thing I do different from my previous car is I try to coast and brake gently for a longer time when I can see a stop ahead. I actually tried for 30 minutes to see if I could reproduce the NY Times reporters number and even with jack rabbit starts, the A/C on, and 80 mph on the highway the worst I could do was 23 mpg. The only time I regularly see bad mileage is running consecutive short errands with where segment is less than 5 minutes of driving. I actually got over 40 mpg in a traffic jam and I'm using regular gas, another thing that saves money. Personally, I think the RX-400h is the most technologically sophisticated production car on the planet. Its not perfect, but its makes the other luxury cars looks so 20th Century.

The thing that bugs me about this article is that the RX-400 is a great car for NYC, but the vaunted the NY Times does not test the car in NYC, they test it on the highway in the midwest. I live in the NY metro area and got rid of my sports car because the roads and specifically the NY state highways and NYC roads are horrible with potholes and other road hazards year round either from ice in the winter and construction at other times. The RX-400 handles most of these road hazards with ease (though I did have a piece of construction debris pierce the sidewall of the Michelin. I'm driving on the spare and the tire is back order.) Driving on highways makes the least use of the electrics and the flatter the roads, the less you get any advantage from coasting. Also the hotter it is the more the air conditioner has to work, and the faster you go the less benefit you get from the electrics, so the only way this guy could have been more unfair to the mileage claims is to do what one of the NYT's Highlander Hybrid reviewer did and drive it between LA and Phoenix http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/automobiles/31TOYOTA.html So the 400 and the HH would benefit many of their NY metro area readers and they test it on Michigan highways and test the HH on AZ highways. (They did also tested the HH in eastern CT and in upstate NY. Doesn't anyone who works for the NY Times actually live in NYC?) I don't understand why there numbers weren't at least a little better, but clearly the authors did not do any of the things that encourage better fuel economy and that all the instrumentation in the 400 makes both relatively easy and even fun. (This is the only car I've ever enjoyed applying the brakes or even thought about how I apply them. ) I'd love to see an all city comparison of the RX-330 and the RX-400.

Blame it on Connecticut. You get 6 characters and all the letters and numbers have to be grouped together with a "." in between. So I had a choice of RX-400 or 400-H and picked the first. BTW: For CT residents DMV will let you check out options at http://www.dmvplate.state.ct.us/VanityPlate.asp. Options still available are 440.H, 4.oo and 400.RX.

Well I always thought that Lexus should make the RX-400 a little easier to distinguish from the RX-330. Since their badging is so small I added a little bigger "badge". :) RX-400 License

I got a flat via a puncture in the sidewall of my tire. The dealer put the spare on (glad Lexus has full size spares), but he told me that the Michelins that my 400 has are on back order. Its been two weeks and he still doesn't know when they will be in.

Is hard or soft braking better for fuel consumption and electricity generation? Each morning on my commute I take a long exit ramp off the highway. I can apply the brakes softly so that the Kw guage goes just a little negative and brake for say 500 yards or I can coast on the first part of the ramp and brake harder so the Kw guage goes full negative for say 200 yards. Now I assumed that long gentle braking would be better, since it was all regenerative braking, but when I look at the consumption display, I seem to get more electrity buttons generated, by coasting and then applying the brakes hard enough to get to the bottom of the guage. So any thoughts on which is better. Related items: The manual says that maximum number of electric "buttons" you can get on the consumption screen for any 5 minute period is 4 electric buttons on the display so once you get that number, I can't tell which driving pattern is better for any five minute period. Any way to tell when the regular brakes kick in? Riding the regular brakes will get expensive. Is there any advantage to braking even harder so that the Kw guage is hard on the bottom? My ears tell me that the generators are spinning even faster, but once again with a max of 4 electric buttons, I can't tell which is better.

I kind of like seeing the Kw used, but find the Kw generated portion of the gauge pretty poor. First you get little indication of how much electricity you are generating. Not until up to five minutes later when the consumption graph shows the electricity boxes do you know and then it is often hard to remember what you did to generate the boxes. Also I think the guage should have some indication as to when the wheel braking kicks in. Often I can see a red light from a distance, so apply the brakes lightly to get regenerative braking. The harder you press the more regenerative braking, but at some point the wheel brakes kick-in and now I'm riding the brakes, which I think is going to lead to over-heating and premature brake wear. (It would be ironic if gas savings were eaten up by prematurely having to replace the brakes.) A red light on the gauge to show when the regular brakes kick-in so you could back up would be helpful.

With golf clubs, file boxes and grocery bags, I'm never quite sure what I will be carrying. I find that two bungee cords with the standard hooks on the end put diaganolly across the back work pretty well for most things in limiting how much they slide around. The only thing that is a hassle is that the clips that Lexus has in the back are short and hard to get the bungee hooks clipped to, so I cut a portion of the bungee hook off so it is now more "J" shaped rather than "U" shaped. This works fine, but it would be better if Lexus had more clips and made them easier access