I got back from a three week trip to Florida using my 2010 450h. I put a total of 3064 miles on the vehicle and used 121.753 gallons of premium fuel. This works out to 25.17 mpg for the trip.

It was interesting that we left PA in a snow storm and the further south we got my mileage went down!! I can only assume this was caused by regional gas mixtures and possibly the way the vehicle computer reacts to them, because the mileage improved on each tank coming north on the trip home. Go figure!! We went down using route 95 but came back using 77 and 81 so as to avoid Wahington on a Monday morning!

I reset the average fuel consumption display on departure and it showed 25.2 mpg when I filled up on my return. I was surprised that it was spot on with the manual calculation.

As for NAV Traffic, it was a waste!! It must have given me 50 warnings over the course of the 3 weeks and not one proved to be accurate!!

I did re-up my subscription to Lexus Enform before leaving. It was nice to put a bunch of addresses into a Florida Vacation folder and then send them to the car. I also made extensive use of the eDestination Assist function while driving. I found the people extremely friendly and even started conversations with several who might have commented on a destination we were looking for. (When I asked for Cirque du Soliel at Downtown Disney the operator asked what show we were going to see.)

My only complaint is that the 450h luggage capacity is not enough for me. We had two small dogs harnessed in the back seat (our first trip with the dogs) and everything else in the rear cargo area with the seats moved forward. I had to leave my golf clubs home and played using borrowed clubs. Not being able to use the floor behind the front seats because of the battery vents, was a definite hassle. That is where we usually might carry snacks and drinks for use on our trips or else put them on the rear seat. I may have to look into a roof carrier for next year.

 

You can use the floor space, just make sure that you dont have anything covering the air vent up. All you need is an inch or two space around it so it can pull air in as needed.

 

regarding the varying mpgs, my guess is the gasoline mixture as well.
Remember we are still on a "winter" season. and that plays a huge role.
as i have observed on our Prius, you get more milage with Summer blend gasoline vs winter.

 

How was the drive through the mountains just south of the I77/I81 junction? I am going to Florida via the QEW/I90/I79/I77/I26/I95 at the end of the month and am trying to decide if I should take my snow tires off. We'll be there for a month so I hope AWD and all season tires will do the trick BUT that hilly piece of I77 always scares my wife even in the summer. I'll post my mileage in a 350 AWD on here at the end of both the southbound and northbound trips.

 

I would imagine you would be fine. I drive all season tires with my AWD all winter in Winnipeg. Snow tires would be pretty loud down south.

 

Bob, sounds like you had a good trip. I agree the destination assist folks are very friendly, helpful and business like. Not sure what they use as their primary information source, but one day they had difficulty finding something I didn't know the name, just what it was. She dug around on the Internet and found a web page with some information.

Question for everyone. Covering the battery vents may overheat the traction batteries. Would there be a warning as they approach overheating and is the warning generic "check hybrid system" or specific "traction battery temp warning"?

 

Good question, I'm not sure. Maybe someone else has read something I missed in the manual.

 

Yes I know that can be an "interesting" stretch of road in bad weather. The southbound section is higher so it probably gets worse. I just kept my eye on the weather and kept my options open up until the time we left. It was a beautiful drive when we came up. It was certainly more relaxing than using 95.

I suggest watching the weather. If it is bad just respect it and take it easy. Your all season tires should be just fine in all but the worst conditions (that's when you get a hotel and spend the night).

Enjoy your trip. The temps were in the 80's the entire time we were there. (Davenport -- just west of Disney)

 

Glad you had a good trip down and back, but the mileage doesn't sound like it is anything to write home about. I did a 10,000 mile trip last summer and averaged 24.8 mpg on an RX350. Winter grade gas would have slight effect, but still.

 

The RX is a great road trip vehicle! I do an 1800 mile road trip bi-monthly in the RX300, and occasionally the RX450h. Both RX's are extremely comfortable on these long road trips, and they have plenty of passing power.

 

Bob,
I am also doing a 2000 mile trip in three months. And we have a beagle. You said you got your two small dogs harnessed in the back. Do you have any other helpful hints when driving long distance with a dog? Did you bring a crate? Any problem with getting a motel/hotel room with pets? Thanks.

 

Our dogs (Cockapoos) were harnessed into the seatbelts in the back seat. We had purchased a "hamock" that attached to the rear headrests and then the front headrest with openings for the seatbelts to clip in. The hamock protected the leather seats. We did not use a crate. Finding a hotel was not a problem. We stayed at a Quality Inn on the way down and a Comfort Inn on the way back North. Each charged $25 for the dogs.

What I did was to try to figure out how far I would get on each leg of our trip. I then used Google Maps to seach for hotels in that state and then zoomed in to the exit level on the highway. I then selected 1 motel at each exit (for about 5 exits) and then after verifying that each was pet friendly I used Lexus Enform to send them to a folder in my Nav system. When we finally decided how far we were going to go, I simply called the motel and verified rate and that dogs were allowed before making a reservation.

Before our trip our vet gave us something that would take the edge off for the dogs if we needed it. The one dog had no problems but the other became "barkey" after about 10 hours in the car. As a precaution we tried a pill the next day, but it had NO effect, so my wife ended up in the back seat with the one dog and the other ended up harnessed in the front passenger seat!!

Our vet recommended that we have all of our dogs' papers with us "just in case". Since we were going to Florida he also suggested that we increase the frequency of the flea and tick treatment that we use.

 

I am surprised as I have seen reports of 28mpg with the hybrid.

 

Thanks Bob that was helpful.