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If your vehicle registers 6 bars and still performed badly, it means your have extra loads on the engine. Loads could be in many forms: extra weights, towing, electrical problems (unlikely with Lexus quality assurance). The car could have passed quality assurance in Japan but was messed around with, and damaged after shìpping to the dealership.
The recommendation to take to another dealer is a good one because of many reasons. If they commented about the lurch as you said, I would not have much confidence about their ability to solve your problem (in fact, your comment leads me to think that they disown the problem). The system was engineered to operate smoothly, and seemlessly, ie. no suđden lurch. The CVT design can not experience lurch occurances long term because it would be damaged. That's why a precise and smooth engine was a requirement. And that's one reason the CVT, an old concept, was never really in production with a regular and imprecise combustion engine. The regular automatic transmission is not a good design preference conceptually compared to the CVT, but it can take punishment better.
Good luck.
BTW, you're not going to take my 400h! I don't let a good thing go that easy.
I believe somethngs wrong and have contacted Lexus for a factory rep. As the dealer will do nothing but say the vehicle is at specs.
Last week I had to do several short mileage trips. I was not surprised to see my mileage drop to 23 mpg. Numerous short trips are a mileage killer. The same short mileage trips in my former RX300 gave me 17-18 mpg.
From your post I can see that you enjoyed much better mileage on longer trips.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/automobiles/31AUTO.html?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/automobiles/31TOYOTA.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/automobiles/31EPA.html
You may have to register (it's free) to read them. The jist of the articles, that include much test driving, is that the fuel efficiency of the Lexus RH 440h and Toyota Highlander SUV hybrids was very dissappointing. There was barely any mileage difference between them and their much less expensive gasoline-powered relatives.
If your regular driving isn't in very adverse conditions (short trips, lots of stop and go), then it sounds like something might be wrong in the set-up of the car - it did well driving at high altitude and is doing funny things at home.
You are not in error when you reported unexpected acceleration when the ICE kicked in...
I experienced a very similiar situation when I prepared for a right hand turn from a fast moving highway.
as I proceeded to turn into the sidestreet the ICE kicked in and the vehicle 'lurched' forward directly towards another vehicle which was in the intersection waiting to turn onto the highway.
I slammed on the brakes, thereby initiating a shutdown of the ICE and swerved to the right.
I definetely think there is a problem here that Toyota NEEDS TO ADDRESS !!!
BTW my mileage has also been poor with 26 mpg on the forst tank...did the dealer put something in the tank ????? to 24.3 to 23.2mpg.....hell, my 1990 4 runner with a 3.0 V6 got consistent 22 mpg.
Fellow Hybid Types, lets not sweep this problem under the carpet.
Sorry to those of you who paid close to 50K for a vehicle that does not perform as advertised, as I have for close to 40K.... :lemon:
I just read a San Diego Trib revue claiming he only got 16 mpg driving to Arizona at 75mph on cruise control. He further claimed this was much worse than the gas-only version. I can't imagine how his mileage could be this bad, unless he was overloaded and driving into a 30mph headwind the entire trip!
Tank Log (www.greenhybrid.com)
MPG ,Miles ,Gallons of Fuel , Degrees F, Minutes Per Ride
26.6 341 12.8 90 30
22.1 250 11.3 90 15
24.8 334 13.5 90 20
26.6 221 8.3 80 30
26.6 334 12.6 80 30
25.0 308 12.3 80 15
26.1 308 11.8 90 30
27.5 320 11.7 80 30
26.2 227 8.7 80 20
Re the engine kicking in --- all cars have idiosincracys. How long have you been driving ?? This is a fine handling, driving car. sounds like you're a Chevy guy.
A similar thing happened on steering problems. Some people were complaining about pull in their steering and some of us had Rx400's that tracked straight. Some dealers initially brushed off the owner complaints, but there are owners who have gotten it fixed (and at least one reported it was a learning problem). I wonder if some dealer techs aren't following the proper set up proceedures (or if Lexus is working bugs out of their set up process).
My driving included a 2000 mile road trip which had fairly level stretches and mountain passes up to 7500 feet. The remaining miles were approximately 90% highway and 10% city. I generally leave the AC on auto at 73 degrees and the day time temperature has been in the 75-85 degree range. I use cruise control whenever it is safe to do so and have been using 87 octane fuel (Chevron, Shell, and Union 76).
A fellow 400h driver told me that he gets better mileage with 92 octane fuel. I filled my last tank with premium and according to the navigation screen I am getting 28.3 mpg. Preliminarily it appears that I may be getting 2 mpg higher than on the 87 octane. The performance didn't seem to be affected. The economics does not justify the additional 20 cents per gallon cost so I will fill up one more tank with 92 octane to verify the mileage and then return to 87 octane.
My 400h is getting about 5 mpg better than my previous 2003 RX300. I love the car and am happy with the increased fuel economy, reduced emmisions to the environment, and the increased performance. I plan to keep the car until it reaches 70-80,000 miles.
The RX400h is not a Prius nor a Porsche. Before buying you should think trough what you want out of your automobile. I did and am getting just about what I expected.
If you'd add all of our miles together and consider all terrains+driving styles, that's a lot of data making the 26-27mpg a scientifically reasonable expectation for this version of 400h on 87octane gas.
And remember, this is the summer of heat waves.
When things cool down after moonsoon rain in FL, I'd run errands with the AC off, just to see my mpg goes up from 26+ to 29+ with 100miles+ used in the calculation (I reset it every new gas tank).
I believe all your figures would go up around 28-29mpg comes autumn.
Keep an eye on the real time MPG bar graph. Sometimes, by relaxing the gas pedal a tiny bit (on straight away road), you'd see the bar graph shows a significant increase in MPG, for almost the same speed or not too much loss in speed.
Drive like that, and they all "add" up.
There may be a sweet spot in the weather in fall and spring, but in general Hybrids lose some MPG in cold weather.
Those of you experiencing poor performance might ask your dealers to try the ISC Learning proceedure which reinitializes the the idle speed control. It is in TSIB EG010-05. This is something that can be necessary if the 12 V battery dies (and possibly that happens during shipment or prep of some of the cars).
Some of the things this can cause are poor fuel economy, engine running too often and excess noise at idle.
I would really like to hear the results from trying this for some of you with poor mpg experience.
Is your city driving all with a cold engine? I see a city MPG average of 22 when I do all short trip (less than 6 miles or so) driving. Other than that, with a lot of AC going I see about 24 mpg. Our average for the first 3000 plus miles (calculated based on gas purchases) was 25.4.MPG. We are running regular gas and performance has been fine with that. Last weekend we had it on a pull up a steep grade for the first time and it had plenty of power with regular so I have yet to figure out why the manual recommends premium for better performance. Eventually, I may try a couple of tanks of premium to see if I notice any difference.
On the other hand, the average mileage meter on the car seems reasonably accurate. When I have let it run for a tank, it has been within 1 MPG of my calculated MPG.
mostly urban driving, some interstate but not much
Today I also scratched the rear hatch. It went up as the garage door opened (I've got to figure out the key buttons better, it seems)
Estimate for two small scratches on the rear hatch is $430. Have to repaint the whole back section and replace all the markings. The little Lexus name on the back is $57 to replace. Gives you the idea. The whole thing is two scratches about 1.5 inches long.
The first thing I noticed sitting in the back was the buzzing noise when the rear generator kicked in, very annoying. Second was looking at the on board display real time mileage, noticed that the gas mileage never went over 25 MPG as we were driving the car (except if you let go of the gas) and in most cases was below 20. The turning point was when I saw the trip computer (around the speedometer cage) showing 450 miles with 16.8 MPG as the avg run rate, I guess it is not very smart on the dealers part not to reset that often or turn it off during test drives (may be that's why they don't do test drives
Granted many owners on this forum are getting better MPG than that but IMHO if you are considering getting one of these just for the gas mileage you may end up disappointed. Two other points, this car most likely would not qualify for the car pool lane at least not in California even if the law passes since the gas mileage is low so no bonus points for that, second a quick calculation tells me that my $ savings on gas with this car would be approx $750 per year (assuming 20k miles per year so if you drive less your savings will be lower, also assuming $3/gallon gas). :sick: At that rate it would take me over 13 years to get the $10000+ premium that this car requires. Needless to say I'll be getting my deposit back this weekend. Compare the price and gas mileage to other popular SUVs like RX330 or MDX and decide for yourself.
One oft mentioned item is the advice to compare actual mileage divided by gallons added at pump versus nav to get true reading. On the Prius, this is difficult due to "bladder" inside fuel tank. Does the RX400H have the same? I have had to slooowly top off my tank to brim(against Toyota's recommendations) in order to really get true measure.
I am also looking for one for my wife (and me too) and wondered where you were referring to when you indicate ready availability "south and east of here". Are you referring to Colorado Springs, Kansas City or elsewhere? Denver area does not appear to have any current inventory and Abq seems to be similar.
Thanks for any suggestions on availability.
The air conditioner broke down during the first 1,000 miles and they had to replace the condenser. It took one week for the part to arrive!
Katzjamr, wondering if you had the opportunity to drive the Tacoma Lexus black/black demo and whether you perceived it had been driven extra hard? I ask as it may soon be available for sale and this may be a way to avoid a long wait or having to buy out of state/region. I agree in general with your statement but this demo has about 1k miles and perhaps lexus test drivers are a bit easier than others in terms of abuse during test drive. If you drove it, did you notice any mileage issues regarding this vehicle as were reported by "not impressed" in his test drive of the other demo. Thanks
On the trip back, I took country road at 50-55mph and got 28.2mpg!
So there, this one did better than the EPA's 27mpg report. And that's in 95F weather with AC set at 80F.
At present, I can not match the city number of 31mpg. I think it is partly because of the weather and that the city I live in has multitudes of red lights. I had done better than 30mpg in city trips when the route has few red lights which I ended up going steady speed around 30-40mph.
The thing to note is that the 31 & 27 numbers are not Toyota's. They are from the should-be independent EPA.
Definetly passing on the Tacoma demo so thanks for the valuable and first hand reports.
Many years ago I lived in Palolo Valley area of Honolulu and drove frequently around Oahu during my brief break in schooling when I drove a Charlie's cab there. No need for Nav on Oahu as I learned the geography quickly. I can understand why they are leaving the Nav out in HI, although maybe it has something to do too with satellite coverage. In any event it is an expensive option that probably isn't warranted in the Islands.
A dealer in Phoenix had four coming in this month that were unsold.
My driving included a 2900 mile trip from Seattle to Lake Tahoe and back. I generally set my cruise control at the speed limit when it is safe to do so. The balance of my driving has been 90% highway and 10% city with very little stop and go traffic and some short trips of 2-5 miles.
I ran 2 tanks of 92 octane and the rest 87 octane. I generally leave the AC on auto at 73 degrees. I estimate the average temperature was 75.
It appears that the EPA highway mileage of 27 mpg is accurate, but I question the 31 mpg city estimate. To be fair, I have not driven much stop and go city driving with a warm engine.
The first 5000 miles have been an enjoyable driving experience. I loved my 2003 RX300h, but my 400h is a step up in mileage and performance. The wine from the electric motors when slowing to a stop and the slight shudder when the ice shuts down are minor annoyances that no longer bother me.