Task

Just had a few questions for you folks who own a 450h. After driving a 2013 450h I was sold on the comfort and performance of it and really like the potential for good gas mileage. Being this would be my first ever hybrid, do the batteries slowly lose the charge capacity over the years of ownership? I would like to keep this car for many years and wonder what issues around owning a hybrid RX I will need to take into account. Thanks

Cruiter

Welcome to the (h) club . You should really enjoy the way the car drives and handles and the quality built into it. To get the most of good mileage it does require a slightly different driving style than you may be used to like easy acceleration, steadier cruising speeds and anticipated braking rather than charge up then stop. The graph in the display and the power meter are very good guides to help with the driving technique.

As far as the batteries, you've got an almost forever warranty on the hybrid portions of the power train. For all practicable purposes the batteries are designed to last the life of the car. Plenty of reports on the Prius baby cousin with the same type of traction batteries and over 300,000 miles with no issues. Spend gobs of time in your manual learning all the techno stuff so you aren't trying to figure it out while moving and you'll do very well.

Over 43,000 miles now and still maintaining over 30mpg average with no issues. I burn the suggested premium and it seems to be worth it. Once my free services were over I started using Toyota for a fraction of the price to change the oil, rotate the tires, check everything, and no 'latte' .

MT5643

Until about a month ago, I owned a 2007 GS 450H hybrid and I found that, as time went on, the battery seemed to be a bit more powerful and my mileage actually increased during the last couple of years. I should say I only put about 50,000 miles on the car, still, the battery's energy level never faltered during my five years of driving.