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DeanB

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  • Lexus Model
    RX 400h

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  1. Actually, this is incorrect, sales are increasing. Feb Sales: 1,803 March Sales: 2,470 The media generally don't report meaningful statistics. Days on lot does not directly relate to sales activity. Days on lot relates to both supply and demand, which both change to result in days on lot. Sales 'speed' can best be depicted by sales volume (the above numbers).
  2. A report from Lake Tahoe, CA. I took my brand new 400h up to Tahoe this weekend. We had a very cold storm dumping all week and weekend, so this ended up being a good test. If anyone has specific questions, please post, I'm going to keep this summary brief and simple: -New 400h/AWD/All options except RSES - approx 500 miles -We had four people in the car, the drive up is 250 miles to our place, as is the drive down. I went from sea level to just above 7000' to the resort. I put on about 50 miles while in Lake Tahoe as well. -On the way up I drove no faster than 80 mph, a good chunk of the drive was however slow due to heavy traffic. All said, the drive up was 6.5 hours of drive time (drive down 5 hours). -Once on firm snow just beyond 2500' (it was a cold storm), the 400h rarely engaged the rear tires, unless I pressed it to slip by over accelerating. Once the car went into an induced slip, the rear wheels engaged and righted itself quite amazingly. I have done this test on other cars, with less success. I performed a 'slip' test three times, each time resulting is a very good positive grip. -On local streets covered with snow (the depth was 2" to 6") I tried to induce several slips by slamming on brakes or accelerating heavily around a corner. Each time a slip occured for a split second, then the system took over and righted the car to do whatever I was planning on having it do. Again, better than a typical SUV, on par or better than an AWD sedan like an Audi Quatro (which has much less clearance). -Starting and warming in the AM was excellent, no problems. -Backing up in 1' of snow, pushing through a berm of snow at the same time (from the city plow) only required pusing the pedal about half way (this is normally a tough task due to the low traction and heavy accumulation over night). It did not blast through like my old Expedition, but it did humm away and do the same job nonetheless. Net net, for a small SUV, that utilizes a hybrid system, incredible performance. I didn't mention that the 6.5 hours up to go 250 miles included tons of slow-and-go traffic. Rolling up-hill, in the mountains, running only on electric at times was beautiful. I counted four twenty minute stretches where the ICE was off going up-hill, in traffic, not creating CO2. (the cycle was, ICE charges battery to 3/4 full, then electric motors burns it down for 20 mins until 1 bar left, then ICE starts up to charge...) Going downhill was even better, due to traffc again, I counted two 20 mintue periods, and one FULL HOUR period where the ICE was off. Again, this is 100% downhill, utilizing the 'B' gear or just brakes. (The drive down took 5 hours). My MPG for this trip was 24.8. This was NOT conservative driving (I sped to 80 MPH when I could), and it was partially in cold weather (12-28 degrees F). I was BTW very happy with the Zaino and Clear Bra (xPel/3M product) that I applied to protect the 400h during this drive. I have many more 'results' if you have questions. I hope this clears up any doubts about using this car in severe weather. It triumphed, and even saved some serious CO2 and some gas at that. My previous Tahoe Mobile was a Ford Expedition. I averaged 10-13 MPG, and never knew what feeling the road in snow was really like. While the Expedition could bull through anything, it did so at a huge expense to the environment, and I will never go back to such a waste. Regards. P.S. In the case that the weather got *really* bad, I purchases a pair of chains for the 400h. I keep chains with all of my trucks, regardless of AWD capability for the sake of having that extra traction on-hand. The "Konig Magic" or "Konig Super Magic" chains, made by an Italian compay are incredible, and fit the 18" wheels quite nice a safely. You can only put on the front wheels (per the manual). I didn't use this trip, and probably will never HAVE to use, but if you want a pair yourself, contact Kevin: kevin@chainquest.com.
  3. Of course as a 400h owner I am biased, but are we somehow forgetting the pollution factor here? Forget the mileage comparisons, its the CO2 output numbers that are drastically different. These two cars have essentially nothing in common about their pollution profiles, which I would hope, is a component of your decision process. Don't get me wrong, I just sold my Expedition 4x4 for the 400h, so I know how to use gas, but the technology is available now to make a difference, at little incremental cost (you can get a fully loaded RX400h without RSES for under 45K now). I would be nice to have the higher res Nav., but you'll have to wait until the '07 RX400h comes back down in price once introduced.
  4. His is the OEM integrated Lexus unit I believe, so everything is controlled through the radio with no external box. That is correct. My Sirius Sat radio is integrated. The wires have been hidden and run through the ceiling, down the pillar, and into the back of the radio. I access Sat radio by pressing the AM button until Sat1, Sat2, and Sat3 appear. I can save those three banks of pre-sets, or scroll through the stations. The "Type" button works to surf the Sat stations.
  5. "The RX 400h luxury hybrid SUV reported February sales of 1,803 units." PR Newswire
  6. I have mine (Sirius Sat) right next to my rear-view mirror. No interference with the rain-sensing wipers. Longo Lexus of Los Angeles installs Sirius in all of their cars for free, so they have tons of experience enabling Sirius on Lexuses. The RX400h next-to-rear-view-mirror install looks pretty good (out of way), and reception is great.
  7. Just bought my RX400h yesterday. After reading this thread I actually searched for the distortion and found it. Seems to be part of the product. I'm 6'4" which is the fun part. With this said, my driving thus far (limited) didn't bother me, didn't really notice unless I focused on it. I also noticed when I wore my polarized sun glasses some/all of the effect went away. Perception or fact, who knows. Interesting. But not an issue for me at all.
  8. Greetings, just bought my RX400h yesterday. Today I had a local xPel (clear bra company http://www.xpel.com/products/paint.asp ) dealer install the product. Their product is based on the 3M protectant. There are three kits for the RX400h as you will see on the site. I found my local dealer on their site. The product looks, well, you can't even see it, really, you have to run your finger over the seam in order to find it. You can do searches on "xPel" on the internet to read about other people's installs. The latest 3M product is the clearest, longest lasting. You can wax and buff the product as the new generation has a clearcoat finish on top, treat it just like paint. I recommend sealing it and your car with Zaino (http://www.zainostore.com). While I am a new customer, I am very satisfied so far (the install/fit/coverage is excellent). I paid $600 for a full install. My dealer offered 2 of the 3 kits installed for over $900. Hopefully this helps!
  9. We are experiencing the same issues with the new SAMSUNG A900 and Sprint - requires turning BT off on phone and re-enabling it. We have a new Samsung SCH-a950 from Verizon. When the car is turned on the system indicates that bluetooth has connected. We can use the screen in the car to make a call. The problem is that most of the time the voice does not switch over to the car's handsfree system; you have to talk and listen on the phone. Some of the time it works properly (i.e. the cars speaker and mic work). It seems hit and miss, it either connects fully or not, and if not, you make a call, the call goes thru annoying the called person, yet we cant talk to them. But the next time we start up the car, it might work correctly. Has anyone else experienced this behavior? The phone works fine with a bluetooth headset so it seems the phone is OK. The car works fine with another phone (Cingular/Motorola V551 always works) so it seems the car is OK. But the combination is flaky and unsuitable for prime time. I don't know what to do. This again is exactly the same problem. Samsung tech's say "this is a problem and they forward the issue for checking". Lexus has never gotten back to me. Sprint says ? Change to cingular or bypass car and use bluetooth headset..... I still gamble that when I'm in the car it will work to receive a call or send, and I wind up picking up phone. It *BLEEP*es me off because when I got the phone a Sprint rep came out to the car and paired it and it seemed to work fine.....as you know!!! Frustrating, HuH!!!! I currently work for a Lexus dealership handling the Help Desk. It is my job to help customers with technology questions, though i mainly get navigation and bluetooth questions. I have actually helped a customer with the SCH-a950. The phone would pretty much work when it wanted to, sometimes just fine, sometimes it would delay or won't let someone hear or talk. The one I was working with was from Verizon. I spoke with Verizon about the problem and they couldn't give me a straight answer. The phone works just fine with standard handsets. We deduced that it may have something to do with the bluetooth profiles that Verizon disables and that it could be causing incompatability. There was a firmware update scheduled for a week or so after when I was working on this problem. I haven't heard from the customer or anyone since about the phone. But now that you mention that the SCH-a940 is behaving in the same manner, but with a different Cellular Provider leads me to believe that it is infact just samsung phones. I would have to say that of all of the phones i have used with the lexus systems, motorola seems to work the best, followed by Sony Ericsson. I have hooked up a few Nokias, and they generally work well except for the 3650, that one had compatability issues. From what i have read Audiovox do not work with the system. Blackberry's work well, but you can't do data transfers. The Treo works, you have to do a little trick to register it correctly with the system, but it will do data transfers even the ones from Verizon. Hope this helps. I will continue to post any info i find on phones, and im working on compiling my own compatability list from all of the phones that i have personally worked with and ones that are brought in with problems. LexTacoma, Great information - I read your other posts as well. Could your indicate which SPRINT phone you have seen work most reasonably well with the RX400h? Thanks!
  10. No no no. Its available in AWD and 2WD. In fact you can get it without Nav. and all sorts of other features now. Just saw a 2WD w/o Nav. last weekend. Re: Noise: There is no transmission running the rear wheels from the front wheels, so you don't have the 'shaft' noise in typical cars. But, I have not compared the two, so can't say for sure.
  11. Just be aware that there are now an AWD or FWD version. The FWD versions are less. Is that 47k for FWD or AWD. I bought AWD. Great point. The quote is however for an AWD. Longo is the largest dealer out west. Save yourself time and give Marc a call: Marc Fata Longo Lexus 626.652.3434
  12. Hey dude. Just down the street from you, Longo Lexus. They will sell you a fully loaded RX400h (Nav, Mark Lev, RSES) - that is ALL OPTIONS - including a FREE install of Serius Sat, for less than $47k. The price goes down from there if you want less features. The ONLY place to buy a 400h.
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