2010 Lexus RX 450h Makes 30 MPG Combined

Well gas milage is good +1 ! woot!
Now lets go to the minuses:
-still handles like a troll.
-has goofy brakes.
-weird 4X4 engagement.
-less storage space than a CRV.
-cost more than a devalued house.

I guess I'll pass on this version too!!!!

BTW it was funny to see a fuel cell highlander concept at the chicago show. The fuel cell was bigger than a whole Honda Clarity! Good job Toyota LOL

so we can have 30mpg SUVs, they just have to start at $45k. I do want to know how highway mileage jumped from 24 to 32 though. The camry hybrid only gets 33 on the highway.

Its nice to finally see the 'new' version of the RX....not that it necessarily looks better, but any sort of change is good. I'm sick of seeing the same old RX's around for the last however many years.

I know this is kind of odd, but this is like my dream car. (Along with the Lexus LS460/Mercedes-Benz S600). I think it's so cool how it gets such great mileage, while still having the practicality of an SUV. If money was no object, I would by one for sure. Also, 1487, 32 is for the city mileage, so it went from 27 to 32 (which is still a nice improvement.

Wow that's amazing gas mileage for a midsized SUV.
I'm in love with this car.
I love the interior. The mouse is awesome. The seats are awesome. The much increased interior width is awesome.

It really doesn't look that bad on the outside in person. It looks like those Dakar rally trucks with no front bumpers.

While I'm not much of a fan for the Lexus RX 400h & RX 450h, it does interest me with it's estimated fuel economy. Your long term RX 400h got an over all 20.4 mpg, way below the EPA estimates which really disappointed me. I wonder if the new RX 450h will come closer to the EPA estimates this time around.

DCuerpoJr,
Seems like all hybrids, under performance driving, drives as if there is no hybrid drivetrain (except the added weight.).
That makes sense since normally you use the extra electric drive to put the gas engine to sleep.
Under performance driving, you're maxing both the electric drive and the gas drive. So it makes sense to me that under performance driving a Hybrid would go even faster, but no savings on gas.

billt9,
I understand what you're saying. But the 20.4 mpg that the guys at edmunds inside line obtained was after 33,944 miles of driving. With their best average at 28.45mpg and their worst at 15.55. While they may have a lead foot, according to their blog it's not like they take this thing to the performance track every day. They've also taken it on mild road trips.

6sptl,
Lies on the storage space. Lies!
2010 RX 450h: 40.0 cu ft trunk, 80.3 cu ft rear folded.
2009 CR-V: 35.7 cu ft trunk, 72.9 cu ft rear folded.

But if you're talking about passenger compartment cubbies, that could be true. It's true of all luxury cars that there's less storage. Because the 15 speakers, center channel, amplifier, subwoofer, heads-up display, navigation, rear seat entertainment all take up space that otherwise would be empty. Mostly it's the Mark Levinson 15 speakers.

As regards fuel economy...

As with all the other hybrids on the road the RX 450h addresses the single worst driving characteristic of a typical ICE-powered vehicle; i.e. the stop and slow city / congestion type of drive.

As an added benefit it also improves the best driving characteristic - the highway cruising - as well.

On top of that it provides more power than the non-hybrid version.

A pity RX has grown bigger and heavier.

The RX400h, though, gets much better mileage than a '09 Forester XT.

True, but the 09' Forester XT costs nearly half the price. Then again these vehicles are in two different categories.

Well to fill the newly created Lexus small hybrid hole, there's the HS250. ugly, extra efficient. That's what people who want a smaller RX really want, right?

"The RX400h, though, gets much better mileage than a '09 Forester XT.
"

And a Prius gets better mileage then a Corolla.... if you willing to pay a lot more money to save on gas.

So I'm wondering how the new RX 450h will compare to the 09' Highlander hybrid. Same goes for the standard versions of each vehicle.

I'm considering it for a next car purchase, and about the only bad thing I can say about it is that you still can't input navigation data while you're driving (and neither can a passenger). On my current Lexus, there's a factory override option you can access to allow input while driving, and that's been useful enough for me to forgo updating the nav information, just so I can retain the override capability. When it comes down to it, that might end up being a deal-breaker when it comes to making a decision on buying a new RX or keeping my existing car.

It seems silly to me that the one reason Toyota might not get another $50k from me is only their refusal to allow me to use some features of the car under arbitrary circumstances for no technical reason, but it is what it is: having to pull over to input nav information, or enter in spurts while stopped at lights, is obnoxious enough that it might kill the sale for me. Here's hoping the economy persuades Lexus to eventually extract their head from their ass and fix this glaring hideous blemish in their otherwise attractive product line.

So you admit you enter info on the nav system while driving?

Do you actually think that's a good idea?

But 450 pounds heavier?? Isn't that going totally the wrong way? How much better could its figures have been if it weren't so bloody heavy? Do automakers even try to keep curb weights reasonable anymore? Nearly every new model from every manufacturer has been heavier than its predecessor for years. I know there are many factors to account for it, and that it's challenging for engineers to meet various targets that often conflict with one another, but 450 pounds *more* than before? It wasn't too long ago that a 1/2 pickup weighed "only" 4500 pounds, and this thing now exceeds that.