Jayson

Ok, so I took the day off from work and ran some much needed errands for the house in our LX. I decided after filling up to drive the entire tank with POWER set to on. I have only driven about 30 miles so far, but the truck is saying its getting 16.9 mpg "since last refuel" which is amazing because with the POWER setting off, it always hovers around 14-15mpg. We're taking the LX from Austin to Houston this evening, so I'll update this thread once we get there, but is it possible the LX can manage better gas mileage with the POWER mode on?

Specs on our LX: 2003 riding on good quality 87 Octane fuel with 83k miles.

V8_Fan

No. The power button just means that when you floor the accelerator, the engine will hold the lower gear longer than normal. It's like driving a manual transmission and delaying your shift. Otherwise, it doesn't make any difference. To get a true reading on your fuel economy, you need to run a few tanks of gas through and use the odometer for miles driven and amount of gas you input into the tank (not all gas pumps will click off at the same time, so you might put in less gas than a full tank at one dealer and more at another). The computer readings are always rosy.

Hoser

Jim, in power mode, I "think" the transmission will hold the gear longer with 1/2 or 2/3 throttle too, not just flooring it. But maybe I'll pay closer attention to it next time. In top gear, as in a non-hilly freeway, there will be no difference in MPG.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

The power works for practically all throttle. You'll notice it more when the throttle gets closer to full.

kyoso23

It merely changes the shift points, that is it. I tend to get better mileage in my car with it turned on as I don't get in the throttle as hard. The extra revs keep it in a better part of the power curve, so I'm less likely to push the throttle more. I keep my Land Cruiser in Power mode as well, as I'm sure it actually does help mileage for the same reason, unless you just bog around all the time anyways.

lexi4darin

Specifically, this shift points are held an extra 500 rpms. That is the whole story behind Pwr Mode in all Lexus models.

CraigBC

I found my 99' LX470 get about 1/2 mpg better with the power button on! Always running 91 octane with 126K miles on her now!

AKoch

I noticed that with the power mode the transmission would less hesitate to switch the gears. I.e. tapping on a gas pedal would more likely cause a downshift, and earlier. But it is a subjective impression, not that I measured it in any way.