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Had my heart set on 2012 CT200H but dealer talked me into driving 2016 VW Jetta Comfortline first. A nice car with turbo engine but quite bland in terms of looks and bells and whistle (power seats, keyless entry, push button start, ...) compared to the Lexus. I live in BC, Canada where we do get snow and there are hills. I have never had trouble with front wheel drive vehicles in the past. I mainly drive around town (4-5 km trips) to pick up kids and 3-4 times a year take longer 400-800 km trips. These would require me going over a couple of mountain passes. I drove the CT200H for almost an hour today. Did a few climbs and tried some freeway speeds, passes, ... Slow out of the gate but I was pleasantly surprised with Lexus's pep. Much more than my daughter's 2013 Honda Civic. The salesperson tells me to expect very similar fuel economy between the two vehicles. He states that he has taken both on two similar trips (one almost hour drive) and saw these results. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Sales person is lying about MPG. Jetta is similar to my wife's golf GTI that gets 31mpg. I get minimum 38 to 52 depending on driving style or anywhere from 375 to 500 miles per fill up.
Jetta resale is horrible. The 2016 is probably the same price as a 2013 ct200
I have a 2013 CT200h since new and used it as a commuter car. It currently has about 56K miles. No problems. MPG depends on how you drive it....in stop and go traffic in Los Angeles I get around 49 mpg consistently. However, in very high speed open road cruising outside of Los Angeles metro I get only low 30's/high 20's especially going up extended STEEP mountain climbs such as the I-5 Los Angeles area to Bakersfield CA (the so called Grapevine). It's paddle to the metal in order to keep the momentum going and it has enough power to even pass everybody going up on the extended steep climb (with BOTH the ICE and ELECTRIC MOTORS working!!). If I let off gas, then it will take A LONG TIME TO CATCH UP AND EVERYBODY BEHIND YOU WILL GET UPSET. Once you reach the top and then going down hill, I put it in B from time to time to let engine braking to it's thing instead of keep hitting the BRAKES. The mpg going extended downhill is in the 55+ mpg range.
So mpg is very dependent on the driver and road conditions. I found it gets more mpg by using regular gas vs premium gas!!!
Also in cold temperatures and very short trips (less than about 30 minutes), your mpg will be drastically lowered to something in the low 30's mpg bc all the energy is used to warm up the engine. (Meaning the ICE will be running longer and at higher rpms on initial cold start. And by the time you get to where you are going, say 5 km later and you shut off the engine, the engine had not even warm up yet. This is true also for the VW Jetta. It will help somewhat if your car is kept inside a heated garage or you have an engine warmer block connected to your cars engine block/oil pan......)
You are going to have more potential for things going wrong and headaches with the VW Jetta vs the Lexus CT200h. Warranty or no warranty, does not matter bc you are still going to have to deal with the problems and headaches.
One thing to check due to the fact you are in a cold climate in Canada is what's called COLD SOAK KNOCK NOISE where there is a crack in the intake manifold and will need replacement FREE under warranty/TSB:
TSB ID: L-SB-0004-13
I heard that Canadian Lexus has a totally different recall/TSB system and that the Lexus of Canada is not as generous as the US Lexus? IDK.
Had my heart set on 2012 CT200H but dealer talked me into driving 2016 VW Jetta Comfortline first. A nice car with turbo engine but quite bland in terms of looks and bells and whistle (power seats, keyless entry, push button start, ...) compared to the Lexus. I live in BC, Canada where we do get snow and there are hills. I have never had trouble with front wheel drive vehicles in the past. I mainly drive around town (4-5 km trips) to pick up kids and 3-4 times a year take longer 400-800 km trips. These would require me going over a couple of mountain passes. I drove the CT200H for almost an hour today. Did a few climbs and tried some freeway speeds, passes, ... Slow out of the gate but I was pleasantly surprised with Lexus's pep. Much more than my daughter's 2013 Honda Civic. The salesperson tells me to expect very similar fuel economy between the two vehicles. He states that he has taken both on two similar trips (one almost hour drive) and saw these results. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Last edited by lexusrus; Sep 16, 2018 at 07:58 AM.
I have a 2013 CT200h since new and used it as a commuter car. It currently has about 56K miles. No problems. MPG depends on how you drive it....in stop and go traffic in Los Angeles I get around 49 mpg consistently. However, in very high speed open road cruising outside of Los Angeles metro I get only low 30's/high 20's especially going up extended STEEP mountain climbs such as the I-5 Los Angeles area to Bakersfield CA (the so called Grapevine). It's paddle to the metal in order to keep the momentum going and it has enough power to even pass everybody going up on the extended steep climb (with BOTH the ICE and ELECTRIC MOTORS working!!). If I let off gas, then it will take A LONG TIME TO CATCH UP AND EVERYBODY BEHIND YOU WILL GET UPSET. Once you reach the top and then going down hill, I put it in B from time to time to let engine braking to it's thing instead of keep hitting the BRAKES. The mpg going extended downhill is in the 55+ mpg range.
So mpg is very dependent on the driver and road conditions. I found it gets more mpg by using regular gas vs premium gas!!!
Also in cold temperatures and very short trips (less than about 30 minutes), your mpg will be drastically lowered to something in the low 30's mpg bc all the energy is used to warm up the engine. (Meaning the ICE will be running longer and at higher rpms on initial cold start. And by the time you get to where you are going, say 5 km later and you shut off the engine, the engine had not even warm up yet. This is true also for the VW Jetta. It will help somewhat if your car is kept inside a heated garage or you have an engine warmer block connected to your cars engine block/oil pan......)
You are going to have more potential for things going wrong and headaches with the VW Jetta vs the Lexus CT200h. Warranty or no warranty, does not matter bc you are still going to have to deal with the problems and headaches.
One thing to check due to the fact you are in a cold climate in Canada is what's called COLD SOAK KNOCK NOISE where there is a crack in the intake manifold and will need replacement FREE under warranty/TSB:
TSB ID: L-SB-0004-13
I heard that Canadian Lexus has a totally different recall/TSB system and that the Lexus of Canada is not as generous as the US Lexus? IDK.
It's on the ORIGINAL FACTORY POWER TRAIN WARRANTY (at least the USA version. IDK about Canada or anywhere else though) for like 72 months or 70K miles (if I remembered correctly. It's on the PDF I had just posted earlier for this TSB. If you are in California, the coverage is a bit longer (84 months) than rest of USA..... that's one of the few joys of living in Cali). So if you have not exceeded the OEM warranty on mileage/time window, then you are covered.
It's on the ORIGINAL FACTORY POWER TRAIN WARRANTY (at least the USA version. IDK about Canada or anywhere else though) for like 72 months or 70K miles (if I remembered correctly. It's on the PDF I had just posted earlier for this TSB. If you are in California, the coverage is a bit longer (84 months) than rest of USA..... that's one of the few joys of living in Cali). So if you have not exceeded the OEM warranty on mileage/time window, then you are covered.
IDK. But it seemed like this occurs MORE frequently in "cold climates". The TSB even states 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees F).
Also I tend to think this is "rare" bc the Toyota Prius shared the same engine and drivetran and has a similar recall/TSB........AND out of the "millions" of Pruis/CT200h out there, there has been only a "hand full" of this problem that I noticed (but then again, I'm not an expert on this).
I'm I SoCal and it doesn't get too cold. But you are up in Canada.
I would get the car inspected by an independent third party (Lexus or an Indy very familiar with Toyota Pruis/Lexus CT200h). This will cost you a couple hundred dollars, but it's worth it. Ask the inspector to look into "carbon build up" which is another related TSB to the above cold soak engine knock issue.
Assuming no major issues from the above inspection, then I would ask the seller for additional discounts (as a hedge against any potential issues later) and set aside that money ....I do this for ANY car I buy.
I'm not trying to scare you or anything, it's just best to be informed going in vs blind. Even with all these "potential issues" with the CT200h, I would still get the CT200h, and not the VW Jetta bc I know odds are still in my favor with the CT200h.
Also you can find out by contacting a Lexus dealership what, if any, recalls/TSB's are outstanding on THAT CT200h (you will have to provide VIN#). There are some websites you can type in the VIN#, but I don't know off hand right now .....
UPDATE: Here is the link for checking recalls/TSB's
CT200h vs Jetta
Do you know if this is common or what is the likelihood of this occurring?
