RX400h

Not one for us, although the invisible bra sounds enticing. Check to see how much your local window-tinting place will charge. I know a guy who recently bought a Z06. He had tinting and the invisible bra installed at a local place and saved quite a bit of money.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070609/8.html

or if you can't see that link,

http://www.hyundaiusa.com/vehicle/veracruz/trim/limited.aspx

I had to chuckle when I saw a review of this vehicle in our local paper. The author, a known Toyota basher, started his review of the Hyundai by writing:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, until the copycat makes itself better than the original.

Of course, this is the same "Wheels editor" who proclaimed that the Honda Odyssey is superior to the Toyota Sienna, so I wasn't too surprised that he insinuated that this Hyundai is a better vehicle in some way to the Lexus RX350 (He didn't mention the RX400h, maybe because he is upset that Honda does not have anything that competes with it?).

The cost of the Veracruz - a mere $38,070. Somehow, I don't think that Lexus is too worried at this point!

Its an advertisement, they want to take your RX in on trade and sell you a new one.

I agree, not a typical Lexus dealer marketing ploy. More like a Ford dealer.

I agree. I used to get this type of letter from the Nissan dealership. You can understand why the dealership will lend you a brand new Lexus when your used one is being serviced - they want you to like the new one so much that you'll trade yours in in short time.

The funny thing is that our local BMW dealership lends its service customers a Toyota Camry. When asked why they do this, they say that after driving a Camry, customers will appreciate their BMW all the more. The funny thing is that those customers may be LESS likely to trade in their cars for a brand new one. BMW's philosophy appears to be opposite that of Lexus!

I believe our manuals specify 89 octane, although I have successfully used 87 during the Winter months. Colder temps allow almost any engine to run on lower octane and by the same token, very high temps tend to allow fuel to ignite more easily. This is why I tend to run 89 octane during warmer weather. Premium is a good choice if you want to extract every last bit of power from the engine itself. It is certainly NOT necessary, however.

While coasting and when I look at the trip info screen within the NAV, I see 99.99 MPG, which is a different way of saying that gas mileage is approaching infinity! I should certainly hope that coasting is part of the average MPG calculation, as it makes sense that the distance is factored into it.

Dave

Now that's really strange. I have the Alenzas as well and indicated distance seems to be okay. The diameter of each tire should match the OEMs, perfectly, so I am clueless about this one!

In all likelyhood, you would be far worse-off by buying a Porsche, MB or BMW hybrid SUV, based upon thousands of responses to Consumer Reports questionaires. The Porsche Cayene is rated much worse than average and the X5 is not much better. The MB is among the worse, although perhaps a bit better than the Volkswagen Toureg (bottom of the heap).

No, the RX400h is not perfect and you may very well have one of the more noisey ones, but when compared to German SUVs, it is still head and shoulders above when it comes to reliability issues.

Back in 2001, AC Delco came out with an AGM battery. This glass mat battery was touted as superior to lead acid and spiral-cell batteries as far as life expectancy. Like plug-ins, it was supposed to be a "better idea".

Sadly, many owners who did not travel at least 10 miles at a time, experienced a much shorter battery life (compared to that of a lead acid battery). Those who do travel longer distances on a consistent basis (as I do) are enjoying exceptional life (my 6 year-old battery is still performing superbly).

AC Delco discontinued the AGM battery after 2003. Why? ...because having a better battery for the "majority" was not good enough to prevent bad publicity from the thousands of unhappy customers. I see the same thing happening to plug-in cars - short battery life (compared to normal hybrids' battery life) and oil sludge issues could easily kill this type of car - sad, but imminent, based upon historical similarities.

Actually I DID buy a Panasonic plasma, not just because CU listed it as the best plasmas out there, but because I compared it side-by-side with many other plasma, LCD projection, LCOS, etc TVs and the Panasonics clearly (no pun intended) has the best picture quality, by far. My coworker has had a 42-inch Panasonic plasma for many years now and it has been trouble-free in every way. Ours has been the same. Even though there are new TVs with "higher resolution", our Panasonic matches the best of then at average viewing distances.

Okay, getting back to SUVs....the latest issue of Consumer Reports rated the luxury SUVs and the X5 and ML350 did not fare well at all. Once again, the RX400h is at the top with an excellent reliability rating. As usual, the Mercedes "much worse than average" rating pulled it way down on the list.

By the way, Shepsan, what kind of fuel mileage are you getting with your M45?

Thanks,

Dave

Hello Dave

I do all stop and go city driving. The longest stretch without stopping is almost 5 miles (if no traffic). My average from day one to last fill up on Saturday is 15.5MPG.

I do not ever floor the M from a standing start. However, I do bring RPM's up when I want to fly past a slow car.

All I can say is "Ouch!" I guess that is to be expected with a high-horsepower non-hybrid sedan.

My Corvette averages 19-20 MPG with a 60/40 split of highway/city driving and a daily blast of 80-90 MPH for 15-20 seconds.

This is the statement that really gets me nervous (from the link that was provided):

Below 32mph it will use stealth mode (pure electric) far more than normal.

Herein lies the problem. Conceivably, many people will "run to the store" without having to use the highway. Halfway to 4-mile-away store (or later), the car's ICE fires up. Unfortunately, it does not run nearly enough to boil off the moisture in the oil, especially on a cold Winter morning. The return trip doesn't help, because for most of that trip, vehicle speed never exceeds 40 and the ICE runs for only a couple of minutes - not nearly enough to get the oil temperature to 200 degrees F.

Maybe if everone who had a plug-in lived on Maui and had a 15-mile commute to the grocery store, there'd be no problems....

I read an article in our paper the other day that mentioned the growing popularity of electric cars on the island of Coronado (San Diego). Certainly, this makes more sense for most of these people who seldom need to exceed 30 MPH, anyway.

Silver,

There is a state-subsidized rebate for CA residents who buy solar panels, but the overall cost is still very high. With all the sunshine we have here, it makes sense; it's just that few people wish to spend $20,000 - $30,000 upfront for the panels. But yes, electricity usage soars during Summer months in some parts of the state. I need to turn on the AC only 7 days per year. That ocean breeze seems to make its way to my house!

Unfortunately, it is well known in the battery industry that deep-cycling can and does shorten battery life. A standard battery can last 7 years under the right conditions (no deep-cycles), but this would be very rare for a marine-type battery that is designed to be deep-cycled. take a look at NiMH rechargable batteries for digital cameras and other heavy-usage devices. These batteries need to be replace fairly often. Even the new Lithium-Ion batteries for laptops cannot provide long life.

As far as the oil-life issue, there is little sense in swapping fuel savings with the added cost of changing oil three times as often. I worked with a guy who lost his engine in a $30,000 Toyota 4Runner because his daily commute was only 4 miles and he didn't think to change his oil every 1000 miles. Imagine if he had a plug-in that started the ICE only 2 minutes before he arrived at work. He'd have to change the oil every 500 miles. Who will accept that requirement?

Personally, I would never buy a plug in unless somehow, its batteries would last as long as Prius batteries AND I had a minimum of a 15-mile commute, one way. As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of shortening the oil change frequency!

We still love our Alenzas after 4000 miles! Regarding wheel well gap: I lowered my Corvette because I felt that a large gap is for SUVs and trucks. With the RX, I don't mind the gap because it is an all wheel drive SUV, after all!

RXREY, I'm just joking with you. Everyone has his or her preference regarding the "look" of an SUV.

Silver,

I agree, although conceivably, someone can overdo it and keep switching it on enough so the battery charge falls below 60%, which would decrease battery life.

Sky,

In order to achieve the 100 MPG that the plug-in people seek to achieve, I can see people running to a store that is 6 miles away and using electric power all the up and halfway back. I think that either the car is all electric, or just as it is. I just don't think there is a good middle ground without extra cost for batteries and more frequent oil changes that eat up any additional gas mileage savings. As you know, every design must compromise in one way or the other. I believe that Toyota engineers went through many design scenarios before coming up with what is offered today.

Dave

It's not that part of the infrequent startups I'd worry about - it's the inability of the oil to rid itself of moisture. It really needs to heat up to somewhere around 200 degrees F. If the ICE started and ran for only a few minutes and on a regular basis, sludge would form, inevitably. This why I believe that people who advocate converting a Prius to a plug-in vehicle aren't thinking it through, completely. Not only will batteries need to be replaced more often (unless more batteries are added), but oil issues are bound to surface for some people.

Dave

Katzjamr,

I believe Louis questioned only the reserve fuel indicator. The other comments were posted by the originator.

You might want to peruse the owner's manual. I haven't heard anything like that, yet.

This is one of the reasons why a plug-in hybrid is a bad idea. Can you imagine driving 10 miles before the ICE comes to life? Heavy sludge as oil would be inevitable. The engine really needs to stay somewhat warm/hot to keep the oil flowing readily and to burn off" water in the oil. You are correct in that most engine wear occurs during a cold startup. Keeping the oil warm enough is Toyota's key tool for ensuring that its engines have a long life. The other thing that helps in this regard is the low-rpm running of the engine, due to electric motor assistance. There is no need to "race" the ICE to extract passing power.

Dave

Steve,

I find that I have to remove approx. 6 screws from a bottom panel so that I can reach up and grab/get a wrench on the filter. It is literally out-of-sight. When I DO loosen it, the oil drips everywhere. I have to spend an extra 10 minutes to try to clean all the oil from various parts of the car. Using a K&N filter helps because it has a welded-on nut that makes rotating the filter much easier.

Dave

Actually, the days of running straight 30W are long gone, even for temperate climates. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic oil. A 5W-30 covers just about any climate swing here in the US. Synthetic Mobil 1 5W-30 is easily good for 12,000 miles or 1 year. I change my own oil and the RX400h is not an easy vehicle when it comes to doing this. This is why I can see Tim's point about extending the frequency of changes with synthetic oil. Even going to the dealership consumes quite a bit of time.

Tim,

That sounds like a plan; we're probably neighbors here in Sorrento Valley during the day!

Dave

Hello, Neighbor Tim! I worked in Scripps Ranch for more than 16 years, but now work in Sorrento Valley. Even so, you may see our RX in Scripps Ranch, as my wife works in that area. We live in Penesquitos - not too far from you.

Regarding oil, I can't figure out why Lexus is still using dino oil, either. I use it in my Mazda MX6 GT turbo as well.

Dave

Steve (SW), from what I understand about the oil change intervals, if 5 months rolls around and your Lexus has only (let's say) 3000 miles on it since the last change, the oil should be changed (according to Lexus) - correct? I don't think this is necessary, but a warranty is a warranty.......

I agree. I would not change the viscosity or interval until the warranty is up. Many of Toyota's sludge issues were due to customers' extending of their oil change intervals. I don't think that there is danger in using synthetic oil; it's just that if anything engine-related should happen, your telling the Lexus dealership that you changed the oil every year will probably not go over well when it comes to their deciding what they will pay for.

I change the oil in my Corvette (Mobil 1 5W-30, but soon to be Royal Purple) once per year, but the Lexus gets anti-sludge Castrol 5W-30 every 5 months.

Sky,

That last link doesn't work.

Regarding tire comparisons for the RX400h, see

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresult...;speed_rating=Y

Not all of these tires are available in the stock RX400h size, but I thnink you'll agree that when it comes time to replace the quick-wearing OEM mMichelins or Goodyears, the Bridgestone Alenzas are right there on top. I have them and highly recommend them.