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The above statement of mine was a misprint itself: I meant Spring 2005.
NY Times does not have a history of accuracy IMO. Has the November issue of Motor Trend hit the news stands?
Yes! It appears only Motor Trend knows this rumor.
Motor trends knows about the delay but Toyota/Lexus appears not to know about the delay. This does appear bogus to me. Although that letter from Toyota you received may be dated, you would think that the company would at least inform everyone on the waiting list.
Stranger things have happened. We know they had 6 RX400h vehicles in Hawaii for Promo videos, because I followed one for several miles. Maybe all the testing has uncovered some bugs that Lexus did not want let out. Has anyone else with a deposit heard from Lexus?
I6 is gone in favor of the 3.3L V6.
DrFill
I'm number 10 in line here in Honolulu, but I still haven't received any letter from Lexus. However, it must be explained that Servco Lexus here in Hawaii does not fall under the Lexus/Toyota North America umbrella. Servco has deals directly with Japan. That is why Honolulu doesn't benefit from special Lexus financing and promotionals. I'm assuming that the letter mentioned earlier on the website is actually coming from Lexus North America.
I am new here. Since last October, I have a 04 Prius. I love it! So late January, I put down a payment for a RX400h. Last week I went back to the dealer. I am number 1 of 196 pre-orders (Santa Clara CA). He told me early March 05. Anybody else from this area?
Urs Steiner
Peace!
Scare off potential buyers with high prices! What an ingenious business plan that would be. I knew a few restaurants with such a customer philosophy. Unfortunately they are all out of business.
That seems counter productive. All you will get are the people that just gotta be first. People with money that make up the bulk of Lexus buyers are not fools. They did not get wealthy by making bad decisions. Buying anything to be the first is adolescent. This is not a car for those that are worried about the price of gas. My tax man just bought a new RX330. I asked him if he thought about waiting for the RX400h. He said no way that was foolish. Wait until the bugs are worked out in 2 or 3 years.
Lexus is not perfect. My wife's 1990 LS 400 was in the shop a lot the first year. Mostly with suspension problems. She wished she had waited until the second year.
Stevens Creek Lexus has 196 preorders for the RX400H?
Well there is a lot of interest out here for hybrids, high-tech gear and early adopter types. So not surprising.
Probably have the money to pay the premium that dealers will no doubt charge.
The car uses a V-6 engine plus electric motors to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, says Michael Bruynesteyn, the Prudential analyst.
1.2 Seconds Faster
That's 1.2 seconds faster than the gasoline-only RX 330 from which it's derived. The RX 400h will get 34 miles per gallon of gas compared with 23 mpg for its gasoline-only counterpart, which costs $3,000 less, Bruynesteyn says.
This performance may help Toyota achieve one of its most ambitious goals: making Lexus a fun-to-drive competitor to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG worldwide. ``We're going where BMW would like to go next and can't,'' U.S. sales COO Press says."
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aY51ETU- - P01nk&refer=japan
Note, official RX330 0-60mph is 7.7 seconds. Therefore 400H is only 0.2 sec faster. The 1.2 seconds that they were referring to is probably 30-50mph or 50-70mph acceleration where HSD delivers the most power. Fuel economy is improved by 50%. All those benefits while lowering emission to SULEV. It will be fun to compare 400H to Escape Hybrid or Accord Hybrid.
Dennis
http://www.caautoshow.com/index.html
Anaheim Convention Center
800 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92802
Tel.714.765.895
Q: Why did Toyota delay the launch of its hybrid Lexus sport utility vehicle, the RX 400h, to next spring?
A: The postponement allowed us to refine the vehicle further and to expand capacity to produce more Prius hybrid cars. We're giving preference to the Prius because there is such a long line of customers waiting for the cars.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0410/24/c04-313133.htm
When I spoke to Lexus about their pre-orders for the 400h, they said they were developing a Lexus-to-consumer direct contact system for keeping people up-to-date. I'd love to hear from anyone who has been contacted by the manufacturer, and/or if the order system runs smoothly.
http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=22575
I have to agree with wwest, Toyota has found some real problems with the HSD and larger vehicles. This is just another way to pull the wool over our eyes. What do they mean "REFINE"? This vehicle was supposed to be in production and in the dealers showrooms a year ago. They supposedly have a RX400h with a million miles on it. That in itself smells suspicious to anyone that can add and multiply. I would bet they can get their CAFE numbers in line with one money loser, the Prius and that is what will be sold to the public. Plus the dealers have thousands of people's deposits that they can use to floor higher profit vehicles. Go to any Toyota or Lexus dealer and tell them you want on the hybrid list. I'll bet they all try to sell you something else. Toyota has not even decided where they are going to build the 5,000 additional Prius per month that they promised.
I can't say that I ever watched that show. It must be from watching tomorrows news today on CNN. I don't think it is a Toyota conspiracy. I think it is a Toyota business plan. They are in the business to make money. Hybrids will never be big money makers except for a few scalping dealers.
Whether you want to accept it or not, they build the Prius to offset the gas guzzling LX470 and the Land Cruiser. Two of the worst polluters on the planet.
It is also most likely a first rate engineering headache. However, Toyota can afford to get it right. And they had better...for if the first SUV/hybrid is a engineering disaster (or even disappointment), it will be a PR nightmare. Think Audi's unintended acceleration woes or how GM destroyed the notion of a practical American diesel with their 5.7liter gas-conversion monstrosity in the '70's.
I don't know what this has to do with the Prius balancing out the LX470/Land Bruiser twins for CAFE manufacturer fleet gas mileage. What difference does it make if they sell a hybrid at a loss instead of a gas-powered Echo to comply with federal regulations? It is not sneaky...it's business. I agree they are horrible polluters...but their market share is so low, their OVERALL contribution to vehicle based pollution is relatively negligible. If you want to complain about volume polluters, the american pickup truck (F-150, GM/GMC etc) sell millions of guzzlers a year.
Remember, RX400H will have a 4WD-i version as well. Rear wheels will have another(independant) 50kW motor. I bet Toyota is exploring all the possibilities to take advantage of it in safety, performance and efficiency. Torque control accuracy in 4WD-i is down to milliseconds! To my knowledge, this configuration has never been implemented in production vehicles.
"I do not understand why Prius waitlist would have a higher priority than 400h waitlist."
When you build a house, you want to make sure the ground you are building on is solid. Toyota made Prius a priority even though they can make more profit by selling 400H. It is a long-term investment rather than short-term profit.
Dennis
As far as building a house on solid ground is concerned, you seem to be iterating your opinion along the same lines I have (in case of IMA).
And it still doesn't answer the question. Why announce production, have waitlist and then say Prius gets a priority? I don't think capacity is "the" issue, or is it?
We might know within a year or so, if this prototype has gotten the nod for production as the next new Acura.
400h, please.
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What can I say? Unexpected demands of Prius create unexpected delays. Note that RX400H would use twice the battery as Prius. It is my guess that Toyota allocated HH and 400H battery packs to boost 05 Prius production to achieve 150,000. What bothers me is the lack of information that Lexus is senting out to the potential customers. They said they would set up a system that would do it but hasn't.
Dennis
It makes no sense to me to give priority to Prius buyers (if it indeed continues to have waitlist with increased production) while not a single 400h is delivered.
If there wasn't another issue, and I had a decision to make, I would probably increase Prius production "enough", say, by 30K units, and that could relieve batteries for at least 10K units of 400h.
How long do you think the 400h waitlist is?
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/- www/story/11-08-2004/0002397402&EDATE=
They said they got 34MPG on a 412 mile loop around Hawaii.
Lexus drivers have been waiting. The RX400h was promised back in 2003 for early 2004 delivery. The latest is April 2005. That is six more months. Many prospective buyers have put down money on them for a good place in line. Same treatment that the Prius wannabe buyers have gotten. The only unknown is how shabby the Lexus dealers will treat their buyers, when and if the RX400h ever makes it to the dealers showrooms.....
Lexus customers are more apt to put up with waiting times than a Toyota customer would be. People wait & have waited in the past for months to get their cars. To some extent, wait lists happen with high occurance in the luxury car marketplace.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6480057/site/newsweek/
If the Lexus RX400h is ALL about performance then it will be seen as nothing more than a Suburban with an SC.
source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6479959/site/newsweek/
Development costs have to be recovered somehow.
Sounds like you had the right idea before anyone else. I think that Lexus has learned from the Prius sales. When they see how many crazy people will pay a premium for anything that says hybrid they decided to go for the gold. They could probably put an MSRP of $55k and people would pay it just to be first on the block. Hype sells hybrids.... No way are they an economical option.
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Well, that goes to prove the theory that you can't beat physics with Hybrid technology. One cannot achieve truly high mileage in a heavy, large frontal area SUV.