Shintsu

Huh, I had no idea. Places like CarGurus and cars.com just list them as CVT so I assumed it was your basic CVT setup. Rather a moot point though, the cheapest RX450h I found was almost $18k. Stretching the budget too much.

Hmm sometimes I wonder...how much can I fit in the trunk of an LS460...ha, if there was any way I could make that work I would. Shame those seats don't lay down.

kitlz

Too bad about the 450h. It has 25 more HPs than the 350 (295 vx 270) plus a few other unique features. With gas prices low, people just don't have them high on their list. Hey, you might get lucky. But definitely go drive one first to see what it's like.

F250

I agree with Anita. Drive one. I think you'll like it. What I saw around here when I was shopping in July/August, the RXh's were selling for almost the exact same prices as the 350's, and that's how we ended up with the one we have. I don;t regret it at all.

Shintsu

Well for 250 miles around me there are several 350's that are in my price range but no 450h's. And I really don't want to go more than 150 miles from home to look at a used car. Same problem I had with even looking at an FX35, nearest one is 148 miles away but has more miles, older, same price, and not the color combo I'd choose compared to the RX350.

I know I'm in the last place that I'd expect to ask this, but any thoughts on 2.0 Ecoboost Escape? I found one with 52k miles not far from me with AWD. I know it's not luxury at all like the RX, but its smaller size might give it a little more playfulness in handling. Plus there are some cool tunes they make for them. I could also get the Ford extended warranty since it still has remaining powertrain on it (which I might, since I am nervous of Ford's quality). But I did a Ford Ecoboost event that was free and found it surprisingly swift and kinda nice. But for me it's the uncertain (Ford) vs. the certain (Lexus).

F250

I know this is OT a bit, but where in KY are you located? (Just curious, because my wife and I have taken some long weekends in and around central KY several times over the past 3-4 years, and find that region quite attractive).

I can't speak to the Escape issue very much, but I was considering that vehicle as a potential alternative to the RAV4 I'm trying to purchase for my 17yo daughter. As would be expected, the TrueDelta data indicated worse reliability for the Escape than the RAV4 (or CR-V), but not as bad as I had expected to see. There was more variability from year to year with the Escape, though... just enough for me to rule it out. Granted, I was only looking at the 1004-1009 year models due to her budget constraints. You might find better information there (TrueDelta.com) by digging through their details.

kitlz

Shintsu, have you considered a Toyota Highlander? It's comparable to the RX with the same reliability. Plus they make a hybrid version if that interests you. The track record with Ford n my family is not good. My Explorer went back under the lemon law. My mother's MKS with Ecoboost had transmission problems. The interior reeked of gas too. I switched to Lexus and never looked back.

Shintsu

I'm near Louisville. Haha, I find it funny someone takes trips here. As locals about the only time it seems like people come to this region is for the Derby and maybe Thunder over Louisville (I'm not a fan of either event).

Yeah, I for years swore hatred of Ford. Hmm, I kind of still do. I had that Mustang GT for awhile, underwhelming for the claimed horsepower and the price. The Z06 is expectably on another level of performance than the Mustang ever was. Ha, and some wonder why I went from a newer to an older car. They just don't understand...
Sort of, they suffer from Toyota tax though and are not much cheaper than the RX but at the cost of the nice interior. As an example, I found an '08 Highlander Limited with 112k miles for $15k. It's only $1k cheaper than the '10 RX and has more miles. I look back now at 4Runners I had considered and even the '04 and '05s are around $10-12k. The one I test drove was an '06 with 198k miles and was $9k... I had thought a little about a Venza AWD V6 as well, similar problem for price though. Toyotas just seem to be expensive around here. I doubt I'd be happy with a base model Toyota either, so I'd need the top model and those are right back where I started.

All the Fords we owned save my Mustang were junk (And I owned it for about a year and just a few thousand miles). I'm surrounded in this area by people who have some kind of unnatural undying love for them though. To the point their entire driveways are nothing but Ford products. They have problems, they fall apart, and they just buy more of them. I don't understand it. I keep telling myself that's the old stuff and not the new, but hear things like this sprinkled here and there which make me think they're as junk as I remember them. The Focus ST seems littered with issues and kids buy them and mod them and they blow up even faster. Why people think these new turbo engines from Ford will last years and years is beyond me. Even good companies like Volvo and Subaru have a hard time with that, and are leagues above Ford - especially when it comes to turbos.

Of the big three I was more fond of GM and the ones I had were good, but I don't even like the looks or style of almost any of the newer stuff they make. Same with Chrysler, I just have no interest in them and to boot have heard bad stories about them falling apart. Just today as I was driving around I saw 3 slightly older Jeeps broke down or loaded on to a flatbed. How people even consider owning Jeeps I don't understand...seems like a make that genuinely could leave you stranded.

F250

The Ford plant being there south of Louisville surely has an impact on how many Fords you see in driveways. Our visits up there have always for scenic fall getaways trips where we can find historic house museums (pre Civil War era), and neither of us have any interest in horses or planes. We've stayed in Louisville, Harrodsburg, and most recent in Lexisgton (this past October). I love the terrain through that whole region.

Shintsu

I'm sure it is, that plant went from making those junky Exploders as I prefer to call them to the Escapes. Of course local government acts like they're the most wonderful thing, while I generally despise them. No one really knows me, but considering how specifically I have hated Escapes in the past it would be extremely ironic if I ended up having one. I much rather a Lexus or at the least a Japanese make. I hate them, but the older Escapes seem to last quite a long time. I've seen them with 175-200k miles quite a bit. I guess people buying 'em get wrapped up in the technology and the kind of neat interiors (On the new ones, god knows why they like the old ones that are just boxy ugly cheaply built things). The brand new GMs are a lot nicer now, but even just a few years ago they still look pretty garbagey and very slapped together. A friend described it as Ford designed the interior first, then slapped together a powertrain whereas GM designed the powertrain first than slapped together the interior. Seems reasonably fitting.

I've never looked at any of those kinds of things, but knowing the area I'm sure there are lots of them. There's some colonial looking home that is just someone's house I've driven past several times. Heh, Thunder isn't so much about planes as it is fireworks and a bunch of general noise. Much like Times Square, every year people pile into the city to watch it then after it's over it's a nightmare to get out. Plus all the fun things that come with cramming tons of people into a downtown area for a few hours.

Shintsu

So you guys got me curious, I pretty much ruled out hybrids because I figured 100k+ miles meant expensive repairs and problems on pretty much all of them from Prius to an RX. This isn't an RX, but I found a Tahoe Hybrid for $14k with 142k miles on it. I had liked a Yukon I had looked at, but did not want to drive something that got that bad of gas mileage. The hybrid Tahoe gets 20+ MPG which is perfectly acceptable to me especially given the size of the vehicle. I had anticipated if I ever needed to really haul big things I'd just rent a truck, but if I can own something that will do that for me that would be great. So given that, what can you guys tell me about high mileage RX hybrids? At least on them, what do you have to worry about and at what time? How is the transmission? It seems like the strange drivetrain and the battery could be some expensive dollar repair items.

vlad_a

Just keep in mind, not all hybrids are created equal. The PSD device I mentioned above is patented by Toyota. Ford uses same approach after exchanging hybrid patents for diesel in Europe.
GM tries hard to hide the fact that Volt ended up with a drivetrain rather similar to the Prius. I don't mind an older Toyota hybrid, but anything else - all bets are off for me.

Shintsu

No doubt, but I can say from research I did that Tahoes/Yukons are pretty rock solid platforms to start with. I did find Hybrid examples of each with 200k+ miles on them, but it's impossible to know if a previous owner spent a lot on fixing things or not.

Shintsu

I checked with my credit union, they do offer an extended powertrain warranty I could buy for that Tahoe Hybrid good for 2 years/24k miles for $2k. So basically it would net to be the same cost as the '10 Black/Black RX350. Bad thing is I just don't know about those Tahoes with all that stuff on them. All that extra mass makes me more concerned for issues later on. It's honestly just as likely in 2 years I won't even need that big thing anymore as I'll have bought my house by then and would likely downsize to something more practical for a single guy. I see the Tahoe as an enclosed full size pickup truck, except with better gas mileage.

I did find a nice looking RX400h, a 2008. Same black/black color combo, only 106k miles. But now that's going back to the older gen, not so sure. I do like the more striking look of the newer RX not to mention the additional safety that a newer vehicle provides. But it's $13k. Then again, it almost feels like $3k more for a newer generation isn't a bad deal.

Also found an '09 Pebble Beach edition with 99k miles for $14k. I do like the unique grille and rims it has, looks sharp. Definitely one of the nicer looking styles of the 2nd gen. I'm guessing it probably does have HIDs as well as the old touch screen nav.

I'm seeing some Highlander Hybrids too, how are those? Not sure I'm sold on their looks, better than the old ones but hard to match the Lexus appeal.

kitlz

Shintsu, can you explain what expensive repairs you are referring to with hybrids? If anything, it's the opposite. Brakes can last two to three times longer. The 12V battery, well, I was at 6+ years and it was still going strong. AC is electric in the 450h. Watch your mileage go up while idling. The hybrid battery warranty is 8 years or 100,000 miles. And even if something happens, the cost to replace it is much lower now. Overall there's less to worry about. I did nothing outside of routine maintenance.

Sorry, I should've prefaced my last post with saying sometimes people have better luck with other car brands. It happens all the time. That's why you see them in the neighbors' driveways. Either that or they're gluttons for punishment, LOL! For me with Ford, the problem went beyond a bad vehicle. Basically I was treated like a neurotic female. Except most of the 25 or so problems were validated after I insisted they check. The balance, well, it became their problem when the Explorer was turned in. It feels good to know if something happens to my RX, I can call up my SA and she'll take care of it. I count on my hand how many times that's happened in 18+ years.

Please know I wasn't trying to dissuade you from non-Toyota vehicles. You're the one who will be buying and driving it, not me or anyone else here. With that said, can you maybe give us an idea of what you're looking for in an SUV? For example, the things that are must haves versus others that aren't as important. This is the RX forum but plenty of members here have or had other vehicles. They can provide some suggestions.

Shintsu

Well, for that Tahoe Hybrid a brief search was having people saying the battery was around $2700 to buy and not much less in labor to have replaced so nearly $5k to get replaced. Someone on that same forum said hybrid specialist repair shops can replace bad cells and recondition the battery but no idea where I'd find those places. I watched the video showing how the Lexus Hybrid works and I can see the merits there, I typically assume the hybrid drive in most vehicles just worked by operating at low speeds and then switching to gas at higher speeds. Never knew of any where the hybrid mechanism assisted the gas engine, which explains the better acceleration. I will say though I am no fan of CVT transmissions, even though it sounds like that's kind of not exactly how the Lexus is setup. When you stand on the gas pedal, it gets to the max RPM and just holds like a CVT - it is that that I do not like. Admittedly, I really shouldn't constantly be doing this in my second car since my Z06 is well suited for such things. But I'm a leadfoot and I like to punch it, so I wonder if I'd be truly happy with such a transmission. I won't look at any newer Nissan products because of the CVTs they all use now.

I had started off just looking at big SUVs that were safe, because god knows idiots around me all have these big things and are always on their phones and plowing into others causing all the injuries to them and walking away. Combine that with the fact I will start hauling things that won't fit in a car and I'd kind of like something bigger to protect me from other boneheads on the road. I typically prefer active accident avoidance and consider SUVs to be passive avoidance since they're better in a crash but worse at avoiding them due to worse handling. But there's not really such a thing as a great handling car that can haul a ton of stuff, going to have to make the trade off. I realize the "bigger is better" mindset is excessive, as even the smaller RAV4 and such seem to rank very well in crashes but it does feel empowering in a way to drive something big.

I like luxury, decent acceleration, I'm inclined to say I care about handling but I don't guess it's that important considering the purpose of the vehicle anyway. Good handling SUVs basically limits to Mazda, Infiniti, and German makes. Already ruled German out for prior mentioned reasons, Infiniti I'd love to have but have not found one and not sure they're quite as world class as Lexus even though I love the VQ35 engines, and Mazda...bleh, every thing I find from them is a four cylinder with no real power to speak of. So they handle well but have no acceleration. If I gotta get one or the other, give me straight line acceleration and lose some of the handling. I'll use the acceleration far more than the handling. Other than that, my ideal target is 20 MPG-ish. 18-19 is ok...maybe 17 mpg if it's really good but that's pushing it. I just am not a fan of the 12-14 MPG big SUVs, I actually do like how they drive I just don't want to dump that much gas into them with the city driving I do. If I tow anything it will be a small trailer I'll rent from Uhaul or something to get something that's too big to fit in the back. No boats or anything like that.

It should really be noted that out of a week I might only drive somewhere 3 or 4 days tops, and rarely more than about 10-15 miles away. Eh that has kind of made me think about buying one of the not so good MPG SUVs, because I would drive it infrequently enough that would be less of an issue. But I feel if I ever had to sell immediately for any reason, it would be a much harder sell than say an RX would or a RAV4 with their better gas mileage. Most people buying bad MPG SUVs have a big family or tow stuff...or I like to hope they do. I know of guys who do drive a Tahoe and have no family though, I suppose no worse than a Silverado truck or something (though I like to hope most people who have those do haul stuff in them more than just sparingly, and that would be me if I had one - empty 90% of the time).