RX400h

The biggest advantage of choosing an RX400h over an RX350, IMO, is the city mileage. Even when choosing a Prius over a Corolla, for instance, makes no sense if most of your driving is leisurely, 65 MPH highway driving on low-density roads. 26 MPG is a 53% increase - very significant if you are going to keep your hybrid for many years. Most of our driving includes a heavy mixture of stop & go and slow-moving. Whereas before buying our RX, we had to fuel up every week, we now fuel up every two weeks - a minimum of $40 savings per week. Multiply that by 52 weeks and it's esy to see that owning our RX for just 10 years handily pays off any increase in cost for the hybrid powertrain.

For big-city people (or those who live near big cities), it's a no-brainer!

Dave

What I've found is that *I* had to adapt my way of speaking the commands to get them recognized reliability. I used the voice command help playback feature as a guide. "POI off" was a real difficult one for me, I just don't normally say it the right way, not enough "lilt" I guess.

Have fun.

Hey, I thought we Californians are the only ones with absolutely NO accent at all? :whistles:

Well, so far, we have good reviews about Bridgestone Alenzas, Toyos and Goodyear (aftermarket, not OEM) tires. I think it's safe to say that almost anything is an improvement over the OEM tires. Sadly, this is true of most vehicles - stay away from OEM!

I've heard that you can call lexus (1-800-255-3987, prompt # 4) to get them to send you a complete list of voice commands.

I'll bet if you had the Alenzas, you would've been just as amazed. I can't even get mine to screech around high-speed corners. They are truly amazing and at $600, a steal!

I bet I could get your Alenzas to screech

Besides, you cannot get them for $600 any more. They have become very popular and their prices have been raising rapidly. When I last checked, $805 if you buy em on line to $996 at Big O Tires.

Remember, I have an 01 Corvette and have been known to activate the active-handling while traversing tight mountain corners. Unfortunately, I tend to forget what my cornering limits are when I am driving the RX. However, I am VERY impressed by the Alenzas' ability to take corners without screeching.

Yes, the $600 I paid was probably an introductory price, but there is good reason why they are selling so well - they perform extremely well and the word is out! Hopefully, it will be quite a while before my Alenzas are worn out, but so far, I am very happy with them.

I'll bet if you had the Alenzas, you would've been just as amazed. I can't even get mine to screech around high-speed corners. They are truly amazing and at $600, a steal!

There is evidence of a slight bit of rubbing going on behind the drivers side rear tire. The contact is with a flexible plastic liner inside the fender well.

That, alone is evidence that the RX400hs were not designed to have larger diameter tires. Besides, the larger the diameter, the greater the rotational mass and the slower the acceleration/braking. In addition greater sectional width tends to increase fuel consumption. Granted, the adverse effects may not be noticable or significant to some people. However, I want to emphasize that many stock-sized tires provide very noticable handling and perhaps, ride improvements over the OEM tires.

The only way to know whether the tires you chose are much better than say, the Bridgestone Alenzas would be to test them back-to-back. The huge improvements you feel may disappear when comparing your tires to highly-rated 235/55/18s.

Hey, you said you wanted to fill the wheels wells better.....

Seriously, traditional SUVs and 4X4 trucks have always had large fender gaps, and for good reason - off roading. But that's the SUV/4X4 "look", if you will. I have to chuckle when teens used to "slam" their trucks to get rid of the fender gap and make the truck handle better. I understand they really wanted a low-slung sportscar but couldn't afford one. I admit to lowering my Corvette to reduce the fender gap, but hey, it's a sportscar and should look low-slung. My SUV? I'm going to keep it looking like an SUV, but with semi-low aspect ratio tires for decent handling (no 22-inchers!) and a fairly large fender gap!

Of course, as you say, "to each his (or her) own!"

Well, it seems like this is the direction in which some of us are heading with tires. Honestly, I hope I am wrong, but the trend has already started........ <_<

22" Delta Force Wheels on 285/35/22 BFG KDW

WWest, you really should work at the Toyota R&D lab!

You are correct - post OBD-II vehicles generally respond to software changes, only.

Does it also work with the 06 RXs? What is the cost?

One thing you might want to do (if you get no answer here) is to ask the parts person at your local Lexus dealership to show you the assembly drawing of the headlight/front end. Before buying an assembly manual for my previous vehicle, I used to stop by the parts counter and ask to see how the particular part was installed. The guy at the counter had no problem showing me the drawings.

42 psi????? That's INSANE! Seriously, I have found that with my Bridgestone Alenzas (fantastic tires, by the way), 36 psi is wearing the tires perfectly. I can't help but think that you'll be seeing the center of each of your tires wear prematurely by the 10,000 mile mark or sooner.

Certainly there are many good tires out there, although at $600 total cost, it's tough to beat the "Stones" for perfermance and value. Goodyears and Michelins, among others, tend to be higher-priced than the others. The same holds true for Corvette tires. I love my Goodyear GSD3s, but dang, they cost a small fortune.

Keep us posted as to what the wear pattern looks like......

Dave

I have a computer cleaning kit that I bought at Office Depot. It includes a monitor screen cleaner that works great for smudges and the like.

Sorry to hear about the hate crime. There are crimes of greed, crimes of passion, and crimes of desperation; yours was definitely a crime of hate.

However, it's good to hear that you have your baby back!

And to think that I paid $600 + free mounting and balancing (courtesy of my dealership) for the Alenzas. Now THAT'S a bargain!

Are you sure about that 5% rule? That's almost 1.5 inches! It's hard to believe that this much difference won't be reflected in the speed reading and odometer. Regardless, I have found that although I could easily get the OEM Goodyears to squeal, it is much harder to do with the Bridgestone Alenzas, despite their same width and diameter as the OEMs. I guess if you want to track the 400h, having super high-performance tires will help, but really, the suspension is not set up for ultimate handling. Lexus chose to keep the ride smoother than that of BMW because many luxury SUV buyers like it that way.

Of course, if you really just want bigger tires, that's another thing!

Dave

Is there any way to remove a double post?

Where is it? I have removed a few in this forum.

Dave

Post #6 was a double post of #5, I tried to remove #6 but I couldn't remove #6 so I edited it to ask the question "Is there any way to remove a double post?"

The answer is - only if you are a moderator (as much as I know).

Dave

Is there any way to remove a double post?

Where is it? I have removed a few in this forum.

Dave

I think the new RAV4 is almost as large as the old Highlander! However, that Highlander was never a super-attractive vehicle, anyway. Its selling point to most people was its reliability and utility. In Toyota's case, bland sells!

You might want to peruse this post:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...9&hl=decals

Dave

As a general rule of thumb, if your owners manual specifies a minimum octane rating and mentions that improved performance may be achieved by using higher octane, then there is a benefit if one so desires. In essence, we have a choice between spending more money every time we fill up, or spending less and accepting the slightly reduced performance. My Mazda GT Turbo has similar nomenclature in its owners manual.

However, I suppose that a vehicle like the 4-cylinder Camry would not benefit from running premium fiuel unless the ambient temperture gets beyond a certain number (like 100 degrees F).

Thanks for the technical explaination, WWest.

Who doesn't agree that there could be taller / wider / (whatever suits your preference) rims on our 400h rides, that would look better. The rub is, that Lexus used the best configuration for highest mileage, unfortunately. I'd hate to sacrifice that, just for my ever thirsty ego.

Hey, Reybustos bought bigger, wider wheels for HIS ego, why not someone else with the same idea?

Agreed. However, don't forget the middle ground - midgrade gas. Here where I live in San Diego, temps rarely exceed 80, so midgrade seems to work perfectly. Going to Las Vegas means making sure premium is in the tank, since temps can reach 114F at times.

Dave

First, I'd like to quote my 2006 RX400h's owner's manual:

Select Octane Rating 87(Research Octane Number 91) or higher. For improved vehicle performance, the use of premium unleaded gasoline with an Octane rating of 91 (Research Octane Number 96) or higher is recommended

Okay, now to clarify nomenclature a bit, I found this bit of information in www.refiningonline.com:

The performance of an engine is dependent upon many factors, one of which is the severity of operation. Accordingly the performance of a fuel is also dependent upon engine severity. To account for differences in the performance quality of a fuel two engine octane numbers are routinely used. Thc Research Octane Number (RON, or F1) simulates fuel performance under low severity engine operation. The Motor Octane Number (MON, or F2) simulates more severe operation that might be incurred at high speed or high load. In practice the octane of a gasoline is reported as the average of RON and MON or (R+M)/2.

Classically, both numbers are measured with a standardized single cylinder, variable compression ratio engine. For both RON and MON, the engine is operated at a constant speed (RPM's) and the compression ratio is increased until the onset of knocking. For RON engine speed is set at 600 rpm and MON is at 900 rpm.

Look at the statement in bold print. This is significant because the gasoline we buy here in CA is labeled as having an octane rating of (R+M)/2. To me, this means that Lexus requires (87+91)/2 = 89 (midgrade), which is an average of RON and MON. If I am correct, this is the minimum octane of gas that is recommended. During Winter months, I have successfully used regular RON +MON average of 87 and have not experienced any knocking whatsoever. However it is my experience that this may be insufficient during the Summer months.

If anyone believes that they are buying pure Research Octane-rated fuel, please chime in and let us know, but I did check the pumps here and saw that our octane numbers are an average. Thoughts?