Zaki

Hi everybody,
I have just purchased a brand new Lexus RX350 about couple of weeks ago. The car is perfect in all aspects . Though, I have a concern regarding the fuel conception. It consumes more fuel compared to my previous car which was a V8 1996 Grand Marquise! Could there be something wrong with the car fueling system? http://www.lexus.com.sa/showroom/rx350/index.html
Thanks,
Zaki

tfischer

Congratulations.

It sounds to me like your car is pregnant. Take it to the OB, who will give you a new Rx.

Tammy

Are you running premium fuel, 91 or 92 octane? This is recommended
What is your "miles per gallon" figure to? (number of gallons divided into the mileage)

And it's fuel consumption, not conception

spikerjack

First, fuel choice does matter - I have tried all grades and premium (92 octane) really does maximize fuel performance in the RX350. Right now, with 4400 miles on my RX, I am averaging about 23mph....which if I were to guess is about 60% highway and 40% city driving. Not scientific, but some data you can use.

I would say that overall fuel performance is quite good on the RX350 and an improvement on the RX330 (even with a more powerful engine).

--Scott

32kcolors

Please post pics of the baby RX450 when it pops out.

jamesfabin

I'm pretty hard on cars when it comes to fuel economy. I usually average just below the "city" rating on a car. I purchased an Infiniti FX 35 in January and it average 14.1 MPG. I have a BMW Z4 3.0 and average 19.9 MPG on it. My Lexus is running at 18.1 for it's first 1100 miles. I'm extremely pleased with the MPG and certain that a normal driver would see at least 4 mpg better (they may get father then me, but it will take them longer).

James

Zaki

Thanks everybody for your responses. I think I will have my vehicle inspected at my local Lexus dealer just to make sure that the vehicle is consuming fuel in a normal manner.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

official specs are 19/24 I believe

srashid

I have had my RX330 (2005) for about 6 weeks now and I am also disappointed with it's fuel consumption.

I am getting about 18mpg on average for a mix of city/highway (mostly city) driving, and I was expecting more as this about the same as my old car which was a Mercedes ML 320.

The reason I expected better mileage is because the Merc was rated 15/19 but the Lex is rated 18/24. I notice the mileage is particularly disappointing on the freeway.

I am calculating the mileage manually and not just by the computer, which is usually between 0.5 and 1 mpg higher than 'actual'.

I am going to raise the tyre pressures to 35 all round to see if I get any improvement.

Booyah

Me too---But you will be hard pressed to make 20 in the city ever...its not that good

X72

We have an 02 ES300 and an 05 ES330. In our experience, premium fuel does make a difference (perhaps 1 mpg). Around town we get in the 18 to 20 mpg area, probably very close to what the RX fuel consumption since the RX and ES use the same engine and weigh about the same. On the highway though, the cars will get 27mpg to 29 mpg (measured by miles driven divided by gallons of gas to fill up again), slightly below the trip computer indication, depending on speed (mpg greatly improves from 27 to 29 if drop speed from 80 to 70). At highway speed, the ES blows away the RX in fuel efficiency for the same reason the old Gran Marquis did so well at highway speed ( way less aerodynamic drag!).

Also, we are in Florida so we don't get ethanol blended in our fuel which decreases fuel economy.

No magic bullets; keep tires well inflated and buy low rolling resistance tires and not high performance summer tires, SLOW DOWN to at least 70 on the hwy, easy on the throttle and lots of coasting in the city letting all the people in a hurry to burn fuel, brakes, etc. zip around you to the next traffic light and jump ahead of you by a whopping 5 cars.

You will get a much more realistic idea of your actual fuel consumption for any new car you buy if you consult Consumer Reports tested mileage figures and not rely on the EPA figures.

salimshah

Brand new cars consume more fuel and then as they break-in the consumption numbers sart improving.

MPG is such a vague number ... depends upon driving habits, actual vehicle (not all machines are equal) and mostly the terrain-trafic patterns. It is measured by driving on a closed loop with constant speed, while the real life driving is wastage idling and overcoming the inertia as you want to gain speed.

Comparing SUV to a sedan is not a fair comaprison as the profile (wind resistance) is very different.

My reccomendation is to reduce driving. If we all cut our consumption by 10% we will make a huge difference in demand ,,,, which in turn will bring the price down + other benifits.

Also consider shifting the the time you hit the road (avoid rush hour bumper to bumper traffic).

Salim

USLEX

My appologies to 2003LS430. I meant to reply to this topic but I must have hit the edit button by mistake and covered your original post. Since I can't retrieve your original message I'm leaving this appoloy in its place so you and others don't get confused. My mistake.

CK6Speed.

liquidsilver

Keep in mind that your old v8 I belive is only rated at 210HP or less and its 2WD. Im not that surprised.

USLEX

Moderator Abuse!


Just kidding. My reply was that I have had my new RX350 FWD for a month now and average about 23 MPG in mixed driving.