My commute is ridiculous. It takes me between 45 to 50 minutes to travel eight miles. I could ride a bicycle home faster -- that's if there was anything resembling a safe bike lane. But my stop-and-go drive home with speeds that top out at 30 mph perhaps once, is a great laboratory for testing our hybrid Lexus RX 400h's maximum gas mileage...
On the six-mile highway portion of my journey, I averaged 33.2 mpg. After the two-mile, higher speed portion through city streets, the final tally was 30.3 mpg. That's better than the revised 2008 EPA city mileage for the 4WD RX 400h. So what's the significance of all this? I would say that the hybrid RX is best suited to folks who want a high-mpg luxury car to tackle a craptacular stop-and-go commute like mine -- who aren't too concerned with price. In my opinion, though, the top-of-the-line Prius is also luxurious, has basically the same lengthy features list as the RX, is vastly cheaper and gets even better fuel economy. I bet driving the same way, I could get our Prius at least into the 50 mpg range. Mind you, the Prius won't go from 0 to 60 in 7.3 seconds when you need it to.
James Riswick, Associate Editor @ 24,800 miles
SubyTrojan says:
09:57 AM, 05/31/07
Wow. I thought I had it bad with a 60 to 80-minute (average) morning commute to travel 24 miles from Monterey Park to Santa Monica (60 W to 10 W).
James, I wonder if those "I Want My MPG" Toyota commercials are aired nationally or only in Southern California. Am I the only one who thinks that jingle is annoying?
misaniovent says:
10:03 AM, 05/31/07
Is there a reason why there are hardly ever updates for this car?
dragonzsoul says:
10:23 AM, 05/31/07
misaniovent, i was just wondering the same thing. i thought this car was long gone
ktoepke says:
10:41 AM, 05/31/07
The RX isn't in our care day-to-day, so it's difficult to post on it regularly. We are responsible for its general maintenance, so anything of note is always recorded, and we post driving experiences whenever possible.
Kelly
carlisimo says:
11:34 AM, 05/31/07
That's awesome. I can't get that kind of mileage in heavy traffic with a car half the weight and half the displacement. Luckily I'm not in that kind of traffic often, or else I'd want an RX too.
dragonzsoul says:
01:08 PM, 05/31/07
Kelly,
What's the story behind it? How come it isn't?
bennetpullen says:
02:20 PM, 05/31/07
I have never seen a "I Want My MPG" commercial here in Western Washington, so maybe they are so-cal only.
boxermike says:
03:13 PM, 05/31/07
No "I want my MPG" commercials in Massachusetts.
jriz says:
04:15 PM, 05/31/07
I guess the "I want my MPG" commercials are in California only and I know they're annoying. I recently discovered it's a take-off on the Dire Straights song "Money for Nothing" in which the chorus states "I want my MTV." Considering I think MTV is almost single handedly destroying culture as we know it, I'm guessing I'd find the original tune just as annoying.
-James Riswick
SubyTrojan says:
04:47 PM, 05/31/07
^ Amen, James!
"Money for Nothing" info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_for_Nothing_(song)
(scroll down to "References in pop culture" section, penultimate bullet)
hondacura4 says:
05:21 PM, 05/31/07
My father has a last gen Prius he drives everyday a 2007 Lexus GS450h and a 06 Toyota Avalon Limited (step mothers). The Prius is actually his company car as he is a product planner for Toyota in Erlanger Ky.
Ive driven the GS on a few occasions. Built EXTREMELY well, very quiet and its fast. Im not a big fan of the CVT (Lexus or not) but its not all that bad. Ive never driven it enough to monitor fuel economy but he says its pretty good considering the high HP V8 like acceleration.
billt9 says:
05:27 PM, 05/31/07
Good job with the "continuous conscious effort"!
Since you're completely pooped once you get to the office and will probably sleep through the day, I hope the gas money you save offsets your lack of productivity and low annual evaluations!
...Well that's if your work isn't about testing cars. Which is every one else.
jsc4321 says:
03:33 AM, 06/ 1/07
which freeway are you travelling on?
jriz says:
12:14 PM, 06/ 1/07
I-10 from Cloverfield Blvd. to Fairfax.
And to billt9...huh?
-JR
r_flagg says:
02:51 PM, 06/ 1/07
It seems like I hear a lot about the crappy LA commutes/traffic on this site, and I have to wonder, why would you locate a company, that deals with driving & reviewing cars, in the middle of LA?
Yes, I know there are a lot of fine roads in Southern California and it's probably good from a business standpoint with the manufactures and all that. You can keep the suits in LA, but maybe you should think about moving the car reviewing portion somewhere outside of LA where you can actually drive 8 miles quicker than jogging it.
How about relocating the car reviewing portion to, oh say, the Denver area. Sure, that may not be too popular with you and a lot of others. But, after the move and all of you have elected to stay in LA and they're staffing the new Denver office, maybe I can take your job. :-)
jriz says:
09:03 AM, 06/ 2/07
r_flagg -- Interesting point, however, weather has a huge influence on location as well as quality roads. By staying in Southern California, we have year-round good weather for road testing, photo shoots and video shoots. Detroit-based mags have to spend lots more time, money and effort to travel to sunnier climes in the winter, and to more twisty roads in Ohio and other places. Another reason, and this is a big one, is that auto manufacturers all maintain press fleets in the Los Angeles area. If we were in Denver (hah!), or even San Francisco, the logistics of getting short-term test cars would prove a bit difficult. So while traffic sucks, Los Angeles remains an ideal location.
speeder31 says:
10:18 AM, 06/ 2/07
No "I want my MPG" ads in the Philadelphia region, either...
tinyred says:
06:32 AM, 06/ 3/07
In my opinion, and my experience of owning and driving a 2005 Prius for two years, the flat, non-supportive, and generally uncomfortable seats in the Prius remove it from any serious contention as a luxury car. The rattles and lack of a nice, solid feel to the car do not help its case, either. I have never driven the Lexus, but I would hope that for the money and the nameplate, it would be more comfortable and have a more solid feel than the Prius.
r_flagg says:
07:44 AM, 06/ 4/07
jriz - OK, you've got a point on the weather, but pretty much all the manufactures are represented in the Denver area press fleet(s) - I think Porsche is the only "mainstream" manufacture that the local fleets don't handle, but if I'm not mistaken, Porsche handles their own fleet. A friend of mind has even gotten Bentley's before, and he's pretty low in the pecking order (although, a lot higher than myself).
I'm sure the fleets in the larger market have more vehicles "in stock" than we do up here, but I'm sure a major media outlet would have no problems getting what they need.
jriz says:
09:07 AM, 06/ 4/07
True, in fact, I meant to go back and ammend my comment to "large" press fleets as I am in fact aware other cities have them. Also, I'm sure we'd have no problems getting cars if we relocated to Flagstaff, Ariz. or something, but the logistics, time and planning would be greatly affected. For instance, say we're delivered a press car for a comparison test. Now say that pre-production car has a clutch that fails and we need it replaced or repaired, or an entirely different vehicle to replace it. Having that large fleet handler suddenly becomes an indispensable advantage. Again, there's a reason car publications are where they are. It's not like we enjoy hideous traffic and high home prices in Los Angeles, or on the flip side, living with frigid winters in (choose your own negative that describes) Detroit.