LexFather

Well I have to agree with our "silly Americans" here b/c those performance figures, that price and that car make no sense. Not all things Euro are the best/what we need you know

SLegacy99

Clearly because you drive like a wuss.

Threxx

You lost me on that one. His highway mileage is about the same as his friend's RX hybrid because hybrid vehicles have almost zero benefit on the highway after their battery is discharged (which takes almost no time at all).

Their driving styles have very little to do with it.. and that aside how does a person drive like a wuss on the highway short of him driving right at or under the speed limit huddled over in the right hand lane, which I doubt is the case. It's an RX SUV for goodness sake... it's not meant to be hammered on... especially to high speeds.

IS-SV

Same here I agree as to why the highway mileage is the same, looks almost like "posting while intoxicated". or PUI instead of DUI

SLegacy99

It doesn't work that way. I've logged quite a few hours in the 400h and the battery maintains rarely drops below a 50% charge at speeds of 70-75. If you're doing 85 MPH, then yes you will get the forecasted 24 MPG. But holding a reasonable, legal speed will net you the mileage that the 400h was designed for.

Given the characterestics of the CVT in the 400h along with the topography of the road that you are on you don't neccessarily have to accelerate in order to maintain. Thus, this is time in which the electric motors reverse and charge the battery. Therefore, the battery is not depleted.

What I do know is that our RX300 was good for a whopping 20 HWY MPG, where the 400h can range from 26 to 32 given the driver and road and weather.

SLegacy99

Stone cold sober.

IS-SV

Good to know, clean living is the way to go.

SLegacy99

Happy hour is in 15 minutes however....

bagwell

+1

isn't the 335d like $5000 more than the gas powered 335i?

SLegacy99

The difference is $3600, unlike MB diesels that carry a $1000 premium last time I checked (which was probably a year ago). That being said, The 335d falls between the 328i and the 335i in performance. And the 328i $33,600. 36 MPG is an incredible accomplishment for a relatively quick performance car like the 335d. But at a cost of $10,300 more than the base 3 series, well it would take a lot to make money on fuel savings.

Having said all of that if BMW is like Lexus, they pack the 335d full of features that are options in the 328i. Thus the price difference may not be as drastic as it looks. However, I haven't explored this enough to verify it.

Threxx

If the battery charge isn't dropping past 50% then that's because it's not using the battery. It may be keeping the charge elevated for the health of the battery system which generally prefers to be charged. So again, the fact that the battery is not being used would again eliminate nearly all benefit of the hybrid powertrain.

I'm aware that the battery still gets used just a tad on the highway as I believe it recharges while coasting and also using brakes on the highway, but those two actions happen very little on road trips with cruise on, and any energy gathered while coasting (not sure of the 400h does this or not) is by default going to be at the expense of drag created on the drivetrain.

Um... what?

I used to be able to get high 20s routinely out of the RX300 and RX330 loaners I got at the Lexus dealer. Something was wrong with your RX300 if it was only getting 20 during normal highway driving. Heck our 4runner gets 21.5 at 70-75 mph.

Threxx

Last 335d thread we had Doug_999 and a few others were absolutely adamant than the 335d would be faster to 60 or so than the 335i. There were no tests of the 335d out at that point, but tests have come out since then and I haven't even seen a single tests where the 335d wasn't 2 tenths of a second behind the 335i even to 30 mph... much less 60 where the 335i is pulling well off into the distance. It's just not even close at any speed.

Stupid diesel stereotypes... everyone assumes they're super fast just because they have a nice low RPM torque curve. Wrong. And then everyone assumes they're always dirty and loud. Wrong. We need to re-educate the masses before anyone is ever going to buy a diesel BMW with the right ideas in mind.

SLegacy99

In general Highway driving pulls about 10-12 KW of power from the battery to work in conjuction with the gasoline engine to maintain speed. The CVT enabled the vehicle to coast (and repower the battery) far better than a conventional automatic would, thus constant acceleration is not required. This is where cruise control comes in really handy.

Look at it this way. The Prius was rated for 45 MPG Hwy. The similar in weight and size Corolla is rated for 35 MPG Hwy (MT). If the hybrid system were doing nothing during cruising speeds the difference would be more like 4 MPG, not 10.

You don't have to take my word for it. Go drive a 400h for yourself. Or a Prius for that matter. Watch the KW guage, the battery level, and where the power is derived from. I too expected the battery to deplete on my first 700 mile journey in the 400h. But it maintains, and cruising even with A/C on can get you a 28 MPG trip.

Threxx

Why are you comparing the very dissimilar Prius to the Corolla when we have similar cars we can compare?

The difference between the 2010 RX 450h and 350 is only 3 to 4 mpg highway (depending on 2WD or AWD). A significant portion of that difference is likely due to the tweaks to the gasoline engine in the 450h as well as the fact that it has a CVT... not the battery or electric motor.

Again I understand how it can come in handy for coasting, but unless you are driving on very hilly highways then it won't make that much of a difference.

IS-SV

Note: EPA gas mileage ratings for 2010 AWD RX's:
(apples to apples comparison, city/highway)

350 18/24
450H 30/28