flipside909

2005 MY Lexus Vehicles, 2006 GS and RX 400h

04/04/2005





Credit: Lexus USA

redkingjoe

Strange:

1 how come both the LS430 with 4,300cc and the IS300 with 3,000cc are both 18/25mpg?

2 gs300 dohcv6vvti mpg 22/30 vs is300 dohcv6vvti mpg 18/25???

3 also, how come the automatic and the manual IS300 spent so little fuel diff? normally, the spread of fuel consumption is bigger for manual and automatic.

flipside909

It's all about transmission gearing. You have to remember the 3UZ-FE 4.3L V8 and it's 6spd ECT-i auto transmission is more efficient than the performance oriented IS300 2JZ-GE I-6 and it's 5spd auto or manual variants. The G head engines usually yield lower fuel economy ratings since all Toyota "G" head engines are designed for performance where as "F" head Toyota engines are for fuel efficiency. The 2JZ has higher flow fuel injectors causing it to consume more fuel than most.

The gearing is the key here. The 5spd manual and 5 spd E-Shift auto tranny's final drive ratio is not too far apart. Because the IS gearing is short for both manual and auto, it hovers around the 3,000 RPM range at 60mph. That's pretty high for the average vehicle.

mmarshall

I don't recall my E-shift IS300 being that high RPM at 60.....it's around 2500-2600 if the lockup is working properly.
The IS300's E-Shift DOES have gearing, though, that is quite short in gears 1-4. 3rd in my car feels like second in many family sedans. And there is a fairly large gap between 4th and 5th.....the RPM's fall off quite a bit, especially when the lockup kicks in.
if you do a lot of stop-and-go driving with a lot of time spent in those short 4 lower gears, (as is probably the case in both your part of the country and mine) it will be difficult to get much more than 16-17 MPG even in warm weather.

flipside909

I was generalizing. I get an average of 23 mpg with my 100 mile a day commute mixed freeway/traffic driving w/225/40ZR18 tires.

CleanSC

I thought the hybrid RX was supposed to be about 4 grand more than the standard gas-only version? The chart shows a $10,000 difference.

Previous articles have been very optimistic, I suppose. Or am I thinking Highlander?

TRD-bB

I believe all the RX400h are fully loaded (think Acura RL), thats why their base price is $10000 more than a RX330, if you optioned up a AWD RX330, the difference will be about $4000..