sleepysurf

Interestingly, after hitting 30k with my 2010 450h, I decided to try 89 octane (instead of Premium). Lo and behold, my MPG's went up from 28.5 to 29.5, for mixed city/hwy driving. Surprising, but I'm not complaining!

oohpapi44

iTrader: (1)

My experience is the total opposite. Mileage went down with octane level.

At best with mostly city driving I can get to 25mpg but the effort to do that is absolutely herculean and no fun at all. I've never gotten above 27.1 in any condition, but again, no fun at all. With number of yellow cabs, tourist drivers and now bicycles on nyc streets, just not possible to keep sanity levels (whatever remain) and get better numbers.

I don't pay any attention to it any more and I will average from 21 to 23 mpg as my 'normal'. If I ever want to feel good about not coming close to any of your numbers posted here, I jump in my GS and look at that 13.1 mpg number I get here.

Aptosuser

I compare the 27.8 mpg we've been averaging in mixed driving in our 6-cylinder '10 RX 450h with the 21-22 mpg I was averaging in our 6-cylinder '07 RAV4, and I'm satisfied with it as a compromise between fuel economy and true comfort behind the wheel -- not to mention the available power when I need it. We average around 40 mpg in our Camry hybrid, but I have a gimpy hip and I need a higher seat than the sedan's, especially on trips out of town. If my primary focus coming from the RAV had been mileage, I would've gone for a Prius or just waited for the forthcoming NX 300h, which has the same power plant as the Camry (but for some reason, six fewer horses under the hood). It will certainly return better mileage than the RX hybrid does, although quite possibly with less comfort, ride-wise.

markrivers

Possibly the "summer blend" of fuel.
My experience is, Whether in the Northeast or here in California, the type of fuel dictates the mpg.
Winter blend + cooler temp decreases mpg in all our vehicles. Both hybrid and non hybrid.
Summer blend and a warmer temp do the opposite.

Allannde

I find it interesting to compare the different way much of the world looks at gasoline economy. We use miles per gallon. Canada an much of the rest of the world use liters per 100 kilometers. But we would understand better if it was expressed in gallons per 100 miles so I have attached a table doing that. Notice that at 30 mpg you save 3 gallons in 100 miles over 16 mpg but at 67 mpg you only save 1.5 gallons more and at 117 mpg you save only 2 gallons more in 100 miles over 16 mpg.

So the greatest gasoline savings are at relatively small mpg gains at lower mpg.

That should be encouraging news for euroja153

Aptosuser

Who gets 67 or 117 mpg and in what car? I want one!

Allannde

Here is my 2012 Plug in Prius. It is a real car with most of the good things that we expect today like power windows, power driver's seat, heated front seats, Head up Display, Pre Collision System, Intelligent Radar Cruise Control, non skid brakes, stability control. and back up camera. It seats five adults and has almost as much cargo space as an SUV. Unlike some other Plug in cars, it has a flat cargo floor.

When running on non EV hybrid (like an RXh) I regularly get 60 mpg. The mix of non EV AND EV has, for me, a two year life time mpg average of 115 mpg. These cars are available.

The reason the table has such odd numbers is that there is a third column which is liters per 100 kilometers equivalent. It is even numbers.

Aptosuser

Allande, I know about these cars for sure. Unfortunately, we don't have a garage, so we have to park our cars in our driveway and I don't want to charge a plug-in that's exposed to the street in that manner, not to mention the expense of installing an exterior outlet for it. They make a lot of sense, and for good for you for buying one.

We will continue to milk our two hybrids for all the mpg they're worth. Today when I filled up the RX hybrid, my real-world, at-the-pump mpg for the latest tank of gas (premium) was 29.57. This was even a shade better than the car's computer had predicted, which was 29.3 mpg. According to the car computer, we've been averaging 30.7 since the beginning of March. That's in mixed driving with a heavy dose of freeway driving in the mix. My wife was the car's principal driver for six weeks of this period as I was unable to drive because I was recovering from surgery. I have only been driving the car for the last couple of weeks. But I have managed to stay close to my wife's stellar average mpg by driving more like she does -- which is more slowly than I was going, although not by much. Instead of driving at the 65 mph limit, I keep to 62, and I have no problem slowing to 60 in the right-hand lane when my exit is coming up.

Allannde

Aptouser, I think that you should be proud of your efforts to conserve gasoline. You are consuming half of the fuel of the major competitors of the RX450h. There was some inconvenience in adjusting my garage for a charger, but now it is the essence of convenience. I plug the car in the evening before then with the built in timer the car charges just before I need it in the morning. And I just took a short 1.5 mile round trip to the bank without worry of warming up the internal combustion engine. I like that.

The combination of the Plug in Prius and the RX450h seems pretty close to ideal to me.

raviola4

getting decent numbers these days after that $&@?'n winter. Recent nearly 29 mpg local with minor highway driving. Winter drove those numbers down by 2-3 mpg or more. Trips still exceed 30 mpg, 32 or more if I go speed limit but as is normal, less the faster you go. Anxious ti finally get some retirement trips in over the next year to really take full advantage of the great 450 ride etc.

rc2010

I have a 2010 Lexus RX450H. My total mileage is about 23K, the overall average MPG is 22.5 as of today. I tried to keep the meter stay in the green zone and have light foot on the gas pedal, but that does not seem to help. I think this is the worst among all RX450H driver. FYI, I live in San Francisco and have 6.5 miles single trip from home to work. I only own this car, so it is my daily commuter. Does anyone else have a worst RX450H MPG than mine? I recently had a trip to Reno, and it averaged 28 MPG for that trip only.

kitlz

rc2010, what octane gas are you using? Is that with eco mode on or off? I only use Shell 93 octane and just switched eco mode back on after the temps finally warmed up. My average has since gone up to the mid 20s during my hilly six mile commute to work. I literally have to drive down one mountain and up another. I won't even tell you what the past winter mileage was Hint, it was worse than yours. Still I've managed 26 MPG overall with less than 32K miles.

One thing I've done on the way home is to detour off the final hill to a flatter road with a slight decline. It's added a mile to the overall commute. And I still have to go over a hill. But I can more easily keep it in the green since the speed limit is lower. It's made a bit of a difference.

Cruiter

I went to Milledgeville on Saturday, mostly state highways with maximum speeds at 65mph. About 130 miles each way and set cruise at speed limit when possible. It appears the summer blends are back . Below are a couple of snaps from the same tank and over the last couple of years average. I can handle those MPG's .

rc2010

I had tried Octane 91 in the past, and did not see any drastic improvement of MPG. At that time, it was still showing "MPG after refueling" around 22-23 MPG. Nowadays, I use Octane 89 most of the time and occasionally fill up with Octane 91. I also turned on "eco" mode about a year ago, and that did not seem to help too much. I do think it may be due to my car. As you can tell, even if I go extreme long distance like from San Francisco to Reno, I can only achieve about 28-29 MPG, as opposes to 30-31 MPG most other claim while doing long distance drive. FYI, I live in Sunset district and commute to work on Geary Blvd, so it is not that much hills.

Artichoke1

I'm curious, has anyone attempted to average the numbers on this thread to determine whether the 450h gets the advertised mileage? My dealer says he often gets complaints from people that aren't getting what they expected.