Pre-purchase questions: Driving a CT in the mountains
 

I have been reading lot of pre-purchase threads about the CT as I do my own research prior to buying one. I'm used to having some power available when I step on the gas; I've been driving a modded Subaru Legacy GT wagon, Volvo V70R and an RX400. I realize the CT is not a high horsepower vehicle, nor is it meant to be.

I'm looking for feedback about driving a CT in the mountains. I live in Heber City, Utah and my daily commute to Salt Lake City is about 45 miles. I drive over two mountain passes each way with 6% grades:

Home elevation ~ 5700'
First climb to an elevation of about 7000'
Back down to ~6000'
Second climb to an elevation of about 7000'
Office elevation ~ 4300'

I would love to hear from other CT owners about their experience driving in similar conditions or mountainous terrain. Does the car have enough power to maintain 70-75 (80?) mph during sustained climbs? What else can you tell me about your CT - good and, gulp, bad?

Thank you for your input.

It has the power to maintain that speed with 6 % grade, but it might not be very economical and engine rpm will be constantly high, 3600-4000 rpm I guess.

I wondering about the MPG penalty also -- although going downhill the engine will be off.

It's basically a personal sized Prius.

accelerate down hill when you see an up hill coming up.

try and use momentum to get up that hill as much as possible.

I personally use the CT as my dedicated ski vehicle (since my other car is RWD) and it can handle travelling to Lake Tahoe well (roughly a 7000 feet climb). Can't say about maintaining an 80 MPH cruise, but have you considered an AWD turbo car instead? If power at elevation is a concern, generally turbo powered cars are the way to go.

If you put the car in "B" while going downhill, you can achieve maximum charging (hence maximum mpg) and engine braking at the same time.

After taking my CT from LA to Vegas (~300 mi one way w/ ~2,000ft elevation change), I avoid taking it on any road trips as much as possible. My MPG for the trip (with stock wheels) went down to 34 (realistically 32 since the dash meter is wrong) - but note this was with a full car of 4 w/ luggage. The car sounded like it was struggling to move and there was 0 fun factor.

Even on my daily commute which is mostly flat and with an empty car, if I go above 80MPH my MPG will go below 40. IMO, CT is meant strictly for urban, high-traffic areas, which can be supported by the fact that the CT is one of the few cars that has its highway MPG LOWER than city (43 city / 40 highway).

My Fuelly reference: http://www.fuelly.com/car/lexus/ct20...swanson/347521

No, B mode won't help mpg. It just wastes energy to engine pumping losses. It can decrease brake wear on long downhills though.

i plan on taking a CT from Atlanta, GA over to the LA area.... hitting up cities along the way there.

bad idea?

coming from a wrx and sti ... its pretty much impossible to compare the ct to the latter. id recommending renting a prius/ct200 and taking it out for a test drive, if possible doing so testing out your commute/mountain passes




in case you missed it .... he did mention
[QUOTE=IGadget;9492980]I've been driving a modded Subaru Legacy GT wagon[/QUOTE




to add to what ron said, i actually make the drive from san diego to vegas 3x or 4x annually. on some trips its possible for me to get low 30s, usually these trips involving windy conditions, excess baggage/passengers, and possibly a heavy foot on the gas pedal. on the flip side, the mrs was able to get us 39.72 home ... so literally speaking .... YMMV.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/lexus/ct20...rgerfan/170100
fill up #193
date = 1/11/16

heh .... 1 more thing i wanted to add. i found it amusing for my fuelly fill up #191 on 01/09/2016 where my "vegas arrival" mpg ended up as 33.83. that just goes to show how a heavy foot, and an excitement for a vegas trip has such a huge impact on the numbers.

i hope this helps!

No, it's not a bad idea at all. Like chargerfan said, MPG (as well as driving enjoyment) is driver dependent and you might have a blast taking your CT on the road trip.

i think i'll actually be swapping out my wrx for a ct as my ski vehicle. never get to use the wrx's power going up the mountain because inevitably there is some nitwit doing 10 under the limit and not letting anyone pass because they are too cheap to buy a decent set of tires. not to mention going 75-85 on the way there means stopping for gas every 200 miles...

I live in switzerland. My daily commute involves a motorway and a mountain pass (from ~400m to ~1000m). Of course it's not very powerfull but you can sill achieve wanted speed in a decent time and MPG is not that bad (5.6l/100km [or 42mpg] for me with 2 passengers every day). And I find it very fun to drive on twisted roads! Good supportive seats make it very confortable to drive in this kind of situations actually.

X2!!

Sometimes I drive my CT200H like I drive my RC F and I get around 27 mpg on the highway on the CT200H !!

If I drive lightly and let it coast and glide, the 42mpg+ is not that hard to achieve.