katzjamr

Little sand i agree with skyfish400h answer and only would like to add, as you may have noticed these vehicles coast really well, so there is no feeling of slowing like in a non hybrid car where coasting alone will slow the car without braking.

i agree on the no automated carwash, the water is recycled and contains sand. i use a hose connected to a warm water utility sink in the winter and for some reason not using cold water makes it totally doable. seattle is one of those 'progressive' cities that is considering banning outdoor hand washing as environmentally unsound, especially now that we have a former sierra club president for a mayor. when that day comes you will see me practising civil disobedience outside still washing my vehicle. i suppose one of those carwashes where you wash the car with a brush and spray it off, could work in a pinch, i would bring a pail with your own soap wash it by hand and then rinse it with thier system.

i think what the 400h is doing on hills is protecting the electric motor from burnout due to excessive wheel spin. my experience is with the 2006 400h, perhaps the new model is improved. going from the goodyears that never should have come with this vehicle to the michelins made a huge difference, i drove for weeks in seattles 08 weeks of snow with no problem

yes you dropped below the nine volts required to start the main battery. have them check the starting battery and do a load check , i think that will fix it, also reset the isc after a new battery if u get one

ljbad4life, i had never owned a foreign made car until i purchased my 400h in july 2005. After waiting a on a list for a year it was the most i have ever spent on a vehicle. For me i wanted a hybrid suv larger than a prius and i felt that could only come from toyota, and i wanted something safer and more comfortable for work than my 99 ford exploder, purchased new, that was the worst ford i have ever owned and we drive alot of their trucks in my family business. I think of my vehicle as much as a toyota as a lexus. In Japan, until last year high end vehicles were sold as toyotas, there was no lexus brand. The year i spent on the waiting list i read everything i could on this forum and frankly it was a source of support before i made my final decision to buy. I purchased my car from a smaller lexus dealer south of seattle, i still go there for service and with few exceptions they have performed beyond my expectations. My salesman called me once a week for six months to see how i was doing with my car. Toyota has sent at least four surveys asking about my experience with the vehicle and what could they do to make it better. I know of no other brand more connected to its customer than this one. It is common knowledge that when lexus first came out it was a huge wakeup call for mercedes because the japanese were now making luxury vehicles cheaper by far than the bloated mercedes and much more reliable. I agree other brands may be more sporty, and the seats are comfortable however there might be better ones out there. I can tell you driving this hybrid car has changed my way of driving for the better,(my employees will tell you there was alot of room for improvement) i have learned to drive in a smoother more hybrid style to save fuel, and sitting in traffic knowing i am coasting with the engine off has made what used to be frustrating actually fun. i applaud what mercedes has done with diesels, a necessity in europe, if i won the lottery i mght look at an SL, but for now and the forseeable future at 52,000 miles mark me down as very happy with my 400h

good luck with your new 450h, we know you will enjoy it as much as we do our hybrids.

i know it is so hard to wait, but living with a second choice color for the length of your ownership puts waiting an extra month or two in perspective. I waited a year on the list before my 400h finally got to the dealership. Love the millenium silver, it stays pretty clean in the pacific northwest rain, however if i knew how much i was going to wash the car anyway i would go for the charcoal that was available at the time, and the black interior rather than the too light grey. Get all the options you can afford, it helps resale and its amazing to find out what you actually use after you own the car. also its my personal opinion once the dealer knows you will only accept a specific color they might work harder to find it. I know blues and a certain gold were in short supply when i got mine. Toyota seems to have some convoluted system of sending more of certain colors to a region and making some colors more scarce.

perhaps they never aligned the rears when they said they did, perhaps i am quoting him wrong, its been months since the steering recall fix, however he did say they used the jaguar dealer machine at first and that now that they had their own, they were doing better alignments, perhaps with mechanics trained to align lexus vehicles. now that i think about it you could well be correct, had someone looked at the rear alignment when i paid for one at 15k, then that issue would have been caught then.

Did you keep all the tires on their original side of the vehicle? yes lexus rotated it and kept the tires on the same side, they did ignore badly out of alignment rear tires that were causeing premature wear, i had suspected it was the front because of the extra tourqe on these vehicles. i complained at 15k but they said they only consider dealer alignment issues at 12k or under or during the first year. so i paid for an alignment. then comes the front suspension recall at about 45k (now using michelins since the goodyears only went 25k) of course as part of the recall everyone got 4 wheel alignment. the service manager tells me that my rear wheels were more out of alignment than any car he had ever seen. when i mentioned that his dealership had aligned everything at 15k, he told me they didnt really have the proper alignment machine for the lexus 400h and had been using the one at the jaguar dealership next door owned by the same dealer. now at 45k they had a new system for alignment at the lexus dealership and were able to properly align all 4 wheels. imagine my chagrin, this is from a dealer who has otherwise treated me well in all respects.

i used all five in my tire rotation program, especially after i dinged up one rim and wanted the new spare in use. i think the dealer discourages it because it just takes more time to access and stow the spare in the rotation process.

it seems to me they need to make those hooks more user friendly, i have a feeling people are unhooking the oem mats for cleaning and just throwing them back, im no slouch and do my own wash and detail work, however i find those hooks a pain and i will bet money people are not using them. i would much rather see two posts that still hold the mat but allow much easier removal, AND INSURE PEOPLE WILL USE THEM

that is an even better idea

arent the door panels vinyl? the only leather is on the seat in the areas your body touches, even the front panels of the seat can be vinyl. in most cities there is a company that is mobile and services car lots to take care of this problem on a regular basis as they detail trade ins. many of them are listed in the yellow pages of the phone book.

yes the 400h will run on regular or premium, premium will give you more power and better gas mileage so that the extra cost is usually mitigated by that higher mpg. i prefer the better engine response of the higher grade fuel. This is a little bit of a sore subject, kind of like but not as contentious as the 'what kind of oil is best' debate. if you do a search you will find this is a frequent question asked here. when the 400h first came out some were upset that a 'green' car needed premium fuel and wanted to use regular. also i believe the first Lexus manual for the 2006 400h was not as strong in recommending premium as later years. The reality is this engine was designed to run on a higher octane fuel, you can use regular if you want, i have tried both but went back to the premium. It takes about three tanks to fully notice the difference one way or the other.

when you are able find a flat road that goes for a few miles in light traffic after the 400h is warmed up and see if you can go only electric up to 20, 25 mph almost 30, but no engine, you will find that after just five or ten minutes the battery is at the two bar or recharge level, so the reality is our systems are not able to go far or fast on electric only, now figure in freeway speeds, the reserve in the battery the way it is configured is not there. that is why at higher speeds electric only is not possible for any reasonable length of time (downhill excepted of course). it will take lithium ion battery packs, or another kind of breakthru to travel electric only for the periods you would like to. some owners have wished for a dial that would reduce power output but allow for more battery use in certain situations and i think that is here in the 2010 model to some degree, where it can be put in an eco mode for longer battery only use, i dont think this is possible yet at freeway speeds. bottom line you still own a vehicle with an incredibly smooth cvt transmission, that has one third lower emissions than a regular suv, a meaningful reserve of power that is fun to drive, (i think) safe,RELIABLE and comfortable. yes there are compromises however i dont think you will regret your decision, and if you care to it can bring a new hybrid approach to driving.

chimchim, when toyota did research on hybrid cars prior to the first 400h they found that Lexus owners at that time had two major concerns, first they didnt want to give up luxury for the hybrid experience, and two they didnt want to worry about the battery. Toyota knew at that time the our batteries would last longer if they were never fully charged or depeleted say beyond the last 30 or 40% of their charge. So the algorithm that maintains this range was set up to protect the battery in that way and toyota could give you a seven year 100k hybrid warranty (longer in california). Some of us wish the charging system was more adaptable and there have been improvements in the later models however until the next generation battery is available this is the way its going to be. There really isnt any way to change how the 400h decides when and where to charge or discharge the battery. also keep in mind everything is running off the main battery once the car is started, so the drain of accessories, the need to keep the catalytic converter at a high temperature for low emissions, how much cabin heat you desire, is the ac on all factor into the battery charging, engine running equasion. Using cruise control will be more efficient than not as the system works more seamlessly. ifyou turn off some accessories the battery stays charged longer and is more efficient. in seattle our weather is mild and i open the window or the sunroof and have all fans off and of course no ac at all. this always improves my mpg. as many have said these benefits show up in city driving more than hiway, also do have the dealer at the next service check the isc learning to see if it is set correctly, there is a tsb here if you do a search and they will know what you are talking about. if you have a battery that is not original, or any work was done where the battery was disconnected this system may be out of adjustment.

why havent you tried starting the battery with jumper cables from another vehicle.

there is a three position switch on each ceiling interior light that has a door, off and on position. so you would have to turn the front and back ones on manually to the on postion while driving. do not forget to switch to door or off as the light will stay on and drain your battery after you leave the car.

thank you for your quick response, my friend is an auto body mechanic and we have a full shop available for the work, so it will be in his experienced hands, thanks, dave

i am inheriting a 1999, rx300 with 125,000 in great shape but the ride has deteriorated. the tires are new, transmission serviced but never broken down, go figure, and wondering what shocks did anyone use for replacement. thanks

have you tried an auto body shop, they have to be able to order and replace emblems during repair work, and have access to most everything, usually at a discount.

have you fine tuned the nav system with the preferences that you would like, so it selects those first?, you can ask it to do freeway preferred, or pick shortest distance, or shortest time to destination. my four year old system knows where i can and cannot make a legal turn, it seems to me that many dealers do not take the time to teach people about the nav, and not all of them are being used to their capability, just my two cents.

also this issue is spelled out in the owners manuel, regarding towing

you cannot tow any vehicle with regenerative braking because it is possible this system will over heat during towing and cause a fire. all lexus hybrids should be towed on a flatbed truck.

sunapollo: what you are remembering is that there was a tsb on the ecu settings that would go awry and and result in lower mpg after the battery was disabled, during body work, or during replacement. so afterwards, or at the next lube i would ask the dealer to check the ecu settings and correct them if needed. the copy of the tsb is on this site and i walked up to my service manager with it and he took it from there. the car still runs it just affects the gas mileage.