lol i guess he was joking. you need to put an emoticon to tell people your joshing, cant tell otherwise

 

Jim: my wife and I resolved this simple: she will drive HER car (this 450) the way she wants and I can drive my car the way I want. When we are together I drive as she thinks I intimidate her when she drives--she deserves it. And we are still married.

 

450h does not have paddle shifters, you shift from the console. The CVT to me is flawless and only drones under full throttle. I absolutely love it. It is SO much smoother than the Nissan CVTs which I've driven tons in.

The CVT can "simulate" gears when u use the shifters. Its odd I guess but I know when I do use the shifter, the CVT will "hold" into a higher/lower gear depending on what gear I am in.

The owners manual in the 450h states "it will drive differently".

 

I apologize for joking :-)

this will be my wifes car and she is thrilled with the way it rides and handles--she constantly complains about the "whiplash" she gets when she rides in my Bimmer.

So with all the perspectives discussed in this rx site--RX is the perfect car for my wife.

Solidly built, more than enough performance, safe, luxurious, quality-- I forget anything?

 

It's good for the masses ??? I know you're old enough to have heard that before

 

availability of aftermarket parts to truly customize your RX.

 

My question is somewhat related to regenerative braking. How will this affect brake pad/rotor wear? I read somewhere it has improved but was wondering if anyone can confirm/elaborate.

 

Cruiter, the way I understand it....CVT uses two flywheels that can spread apart or com together. As they come together, it rides up to the top of the wheel, thus increasing the ratio. As the move apart, it decreases the ratio. Think of it like those yo-yo's that are tapered in the inside. Does that make sense?

 

Kitlz, from what I understand the regenerative breaking will add to the amount of friction and thus help to slow the vehicle. This should effectively reduce the amount of wear on both brake pads and rotors. I know this is true with my wife's Civic hybrid and the salesman mentioned it also before I purchased my 450h. Good news for us I guess.

Regarding the original topic of the thread, I noticed the slight whine when first driving the vehicle but upon reading this thread I realize I no longer even notice it. I guess I've gotten used to it... that or the 12 speakers tend to drown it out!