bikeandsail

My light comes on at 14 to 14.4 gallons. Aparently each car is slightly different. Ron

I tow a boat with my RX400h and my average miles per gallon without boat of 26.5 mpg drops to about 19-20 mpg with boat while driving about 5 mph slower. IE about 65-70 with boat and 70-75 without. I have about 13,000 miles total including about 3,000 towing the 1,400 pound boat and trailer. I have got as low as 17-18 with boat if driving faster. The RX400h is not a "high speed" economy vehicle. I get about 20-22 mpg at 80 mph. Any speed over about 70 drops the mileage dramatically. Ron Ron

I also tried unsuccessfuly to get the locks to work at 12 mph! How did you do it?? Ron My dealer handed me the one for the RX330 and asked for my choices. I asked about the Door Locking settings and wanted to 'try' first before deciding and he was agreeable to that. I then started reading the Owner's Manual and found that this one was described in the manual and I could do it myself. After some difficulty with it, I went back to the dealership and showed them the Owner's Manual instructions. They couldn't do it and was suggesting I let their service people do it with their equipment. 'No Thanks' After some more experimenting, I got it! :P I later showed it to the salesman! I like the option which locks all doors after getting up to about 12 mph! I didn't like starting the car, backing out which locked the doors, and then I'd have to unlock to let my wife get in on the passenger side. Enough of my 'door' experiences. Have you checked the Owner's Manual for the particular settings you're interested in?? ←

I have the deep-grooved black rubber all-weather Lexus mats also and yes, the front mats fit a lot better/easier than the rear ones. The rear ones do fit fine once you get 'em in (definitely harder to get hooked up) but I find them to be a little on the small side. If the rear passengers stick their dirty feet forwards under the front seats then some grime could drop onto the carpet. But I think the cloth mats aren't any better in that regard. ← Clarification; My mats are brown not black they will NOT hook up to the rear clips at all. Ron

A slightly different topic. When I bought my Rx400h the winter ( rubber ) mats I got fit the front fine but the mats for the rear seat floor is not a perfect fit. The tie down clips in the car do not match the holes in the rubber mats and cannot be used. I assume this is because the mats are the same as for the RX330 that does not have the battery under the seat. The summer ( cloth ) mats fit fine. Anyone else find this problem?? Ron

Your approach is overly simplisic. Example: I tow with mine and get 20 mpg at 65mph towing a 1400 lb boat and trailer and 25 to 29 when not in mixed drving. You need at least a speed range or driving conditions, towing, mountains etc. On the UK numbers I expect the difference is the gallon size. A UK gallon is approximately 1.20 times a US gallon. Ron

I don't notice the bump you are talking about, though the roads around here are pretty free of potholes and bumps. One day I when I had to break relatively hard on a wet pavement I felt typical ABS type pulsations. Other than that the braking is pretty smooth. Do you really only see regenerative braking up to 10 mph? How have you determined that? I see regeneration happen any time I let off the gas or step slightly on the brake regardless of speed. If I hit the brakes harder (to the point where the power meter arrow stops moving more negative) then I assume it moves in to regeneration plus using the brake pads. If you aren't seeing regeneration above 10 mph, it sounds like something is broken. I haven't been on a long enough downslope yet to fully charge the battery so I don't know if at that point it would go to pads only or continue to run the generator and dump the power to a load resistor. From what some others have posted, it sounds like it might do the former. ← I didn't make myself clear. Regeneration normally occurs from a high speed stop untill the speed decreases to about 10 mph and then the regneration stops as indicated the KW meter. Ron

BUMP as in salt induced pothole in the road. This is not a momentary event. Once the regeneration stops it stays stopped untill the vehicle is stopped even if event starts at 40 mph. Ron

The regineration normally stops at about 10mph and you can feel the change.

Since I started this thread I'd like ot get it back on track. The key word is BUMP. The action, loss of regenerative braking at high speed, I describe in the first note only occurs when going over a hard bump in the road. It is repeatable if the bump/pothole is hard enough. By the way RX400h doesn't have torque converter. Ron

My RX400h has about 4000 miles on it and recently I have noticed what I think is a change in the braking, a problem? Normally the braking is part regenerative until about 10 mph and then regineration stops. On a few occasions while stopping and passing through 30 or 40 mph over bumps I have felt what seems like sudden acceleration. After better observation I have noticed that when braking starts there is regeneration and then the regineration stops and the brake pedel must be pushed harder to get the same brake effect. There is no actual acceleration just a feeling of that. It's is almost like there is a loose wire that the bumps sometimes effect and cause the regeneration to stop prematurely. Has anyone else noticed this. This only happens ocasionally and took serveral times before I noticed the stop of regeneration seemed to be the problem. Ron

ON Rx400h no commands in instruction manual only a note to see the help screens :( I took a digital camera and took a photo of each help screen, several dozen to make my own manual. Ron

Yes mine squeeks only in reverse on a cold startup. Ron

I had the same question and the salesman had to contact Toyota to clarifiy. I saw the letter from Toyota. All current RX400h are equipped to tow 3500#. IE Towing Package = Tow Prep package. Also I had a Lexus hitch installed before delivery and the the Rx330 hitch fits. There are a couple of plastic covers on the underbody that need either removed or cut to accomade the hitch. I have already towed over 400 miles with mine. Ron

My Rx400h is my first Japanese car and I unfamiliar with the knife edge type jack points used on the Rx400h and other Lexus/Toyota products. The dealer uses a conventional hoist with flat ( horizontal ) metal plates that are adjusted to go under the knife edge jack points at the 4 jack points on the car. As a result 2 of my cars jacking points have been bent over about 45 degrees. The comment from the mechanic was this always happens! Question: does your dealer use something other than the conventional flat metal plates to protect ( keep from bending ) the knife edge jacking points. If so what type of device? Also my own hydralic jack at home will damage the jack points. Does anyone have any suggestion? Rubber pad or other device that you can make or purchase. Ron

Patt, Where did you find the "real world" numbers that people acually report on the site? I looked and couldn't find them? Ron

As an engineer I have read a lot of discussion on this forum about the RX400h and have found that very few people have the foggiest idea of how a hybrid works and what gas mileage is to be expected. The US government EPA mileage tests are a government requirement that all manufactures that hope to sell cars in the USA MUST do. The tests are performed by the USA government not the manufacture. The US has also done extensive testing of hybrid cars with several 100,000 miles accumulated with detailed records of gas mileage and maintenance on just the Toyota Prius. If you review these records it is obvious that the US mandated EPA mileage tests produce unrealistically high numbers for the at least the Prius. The actual mileage achieved in several 100,000 miles of driving is more like an average of about 45 mpg or about 20% less than the average mixed EPA rating. Being an engineer I studied this data before purchasing the Rx400h and determined that any average mileage over 23.5 mpg would exceed the long term comparable mileage actually achieved on the Prius. I am so far exceeding that mileage and pleased. There are several government web sites that have this kind of data but the one below gives the maintenance and mileage results of actual test vehicles, not manufactures data and not the unrealistic EPA data: http://avt.inel.gov/hev.shtml One of the things that caught my attention was the very high reliability of the Prius at even 100,000 miles per car usage. I suggest that anyone who is still unsure of whether the Rx400h is a car they want spend some time on this web site before deciding. The Japanese Toyota site has a very good description of the Prius technology links below: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environment/ Another useful link is this model that explains how the continuously variable transmission works: http://homepage.mac.com/inachan/prius/planet_e.html Another link with info: http://www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/hev...components.html Unfortunately the same type of technical information is not available for the Rx400h but the technology is virtually the same. I guess I am lucky that $55,000 was enough of a dent in my pocketbook that I did my homework prior to purchase. I suggest everyone else do the same. This vehicle is my first new car since 1976 and I am thrilled with it. Ron

By the way the on board computer mileage is nice and resonalbly accurate. I checked at about 1% short. The right way to check the mileage is miles traveled dividied by the gallons at fillup. I also checked my odometer and found it was 2.5% long. IE 1mile indicated =1.025 actual. T

I've got 1400 miles on my 400h and the average mileage is 22-23 inlcuding 400 miles towing a boat. For mixed driving w/o boat I am getting 24-27. Worst highway mileage has been about 22 driving 70-80 in the snow into a headwind. I'm pleased with the numbers. The car is not a 2500lb econobox hybrid and will never match the mileage of one. Ron

I suggest a separate forum. Ron

I also saw that warning. I believe that both the RX400h and the Rx330 have the same gross weight limits and therefore this is a statement to satisfy lawyers. I bought a set of Highlander original equipment wheels and intent to use them with snow tires. Ron

If Lexus.com does not accept the VIN you never get to the page to input other info. Just tried again and it still will not accept my VIN Ron

that is the problem. I can't find a list in the manual or the tutorial. They refer you to the "help" screen on nav. Ron ← Did your dealer supply you with a DVD to watch? We haven't looked at ours yet, but supposedly, it explains how to use all the NAV features. There is also a tutorial in the Lexus website. ←

Anyone know a simple way to get a list of available commands. Going through the various help screens is painful. A printed list would be nice?? Ron