moolman

Hi folks,
I live in Northern California, weather is never really cold. I drive 10 miles to work one way. I went on a 5000 mile road trip over the summer. I have about 10000 miles on the car now. I get 32-33 mpg on normal driving and got about 35 on my road trip.

I was just casually glancing over at the edmunds customer reviews and some people claim to consistently get close to 40. One person even said that they got some kind of update that improved their mileage. Is there a TSB out for the car and is 32-33 what most people are experiencing.

Thanks

KGenaidy

I believe the numbers you are reporting are in the range of most of the HS owners.

There are a few individuals that have reported better mileage. Depending upon your driving environment (terrain, traffic, weather, etc) ... 32-33 might actually be very good.

Now, I work out of the home and only take short trips (2-3 miles) and my mileage dramatically decreased (33-35 mpg) from when I was commuting 32 miles to work (45 mpg). I don't really sweat it since I know it's a result of the types of trips and driving environment.

hyperme

Exactly, and frankly I'm impressed that you can still get 33-35mpg with only 2-3 mile trips. Your ICE must never warm up.

Magellan55

A lot depends on how fast you drive. EPA ratings I believe are for driving speed limits - it used to be 55 but now I think they include 65 mph testing. But if you drive 75 on the highway like me, then 35 mpg is right around what I get. City/traffic mpg all depends how many stops and starts you have, how aggressively you drive, etc. But 32-33 seems average, and not any kind of problem.

moolman

Thanks for the replies, as an experiment, I tried driving slower, as in slower accelerations where eco light stays on and I'm starting to get 36mpg. I must admit that it is annoying as heck accelerating so slow and good luck getting up to speed on the freeway. The folks getting 40mph plus must be accelerating at a snail's pace and pissing off the drivers behind them. I start feeling bad and I step on it becaues I don't want to be the a-hole hybrid driver. I had a 06 Prius and without even thinking about how to drive I got a consistent 44mpg. On the HS without being a douche bag hybrid slow accelerator, I get the 32-33mpg. I still hate driving behind Priuses, especially when I'm late for work..haha...

hyperme

Wow, I must be the "a-hole hybrid driver" and the "douche bag hybrid slow accelerator" because my ECO light is always on. Ouch, that hurts.

Magellan55

moolman, unless you're into seeing how high an mpg you can get, I'd just enjoy the car for what it is - a premium entry-level sort-of sport sedan that gets better mpg than anything like it, especially if you do a lot of city driving (Euro diesels will top it on the hwy). Forget that it's a hybrid and drive it like a normal car.

moolman

haha.. you are... when you start to notice that the car next to you is a couple of lengths ahead of you and the car that was behind you, passes by you, that's a douch bag hybrid driver.

I didn't buy the car because it was a hybrid, even tough I did own a 06 Prius before, I buy cars because I like them, I had a GS before and when my lease ran out, I didn't want an ES, RX or IS, so my only choice if I wanted to stay Lexus was the HS since my wife will eventually end up getting a GX or LX when we start to have kids. I drive it normal but for the last fill up, I started to accelerated a bit slower, not too slow to be a douche but none the less easier on the gas and now the MPG reader reads 35.6 miles, so I am getting the advertised MPG when before the best I could do was 33.

hyperme

Congrats on getting your MPGs up. Just be careful you don't catch that MPG bug and start driving for gas mileage, it's contagious and addicting.

cardalums

+1. wierdly addicting. we get about 35.x, but that requires light acceleration. never tried "normal" acceleration.

IS-Fly168

iTrader: (1)

Haha,,, coming from an IsF,, It is indeed very weirdly addicting driving the HS and trying to run the car on "electric" only,,, I accelerate extremely slow when theres no car behind me and try to stay all electric as long as possible.... I average 35mpg with the HS,, my Gf averages 32mpg.. we are still on our first tank of gas since new... lol

moolman

I gave up on trying to keep my MPG at 35. It was just too annoying for me, I have to keep thinking about it and the streets are just too congested most of the time to be a slow, douchy hybrid driver. Besides that I always run late in the mornings so I need to get up to speed asap. I'm a consitent 31-33mpg with just normal driving without any mileage tricks and that's good enough for me. I would get about 44 on my Prius with the same driving habits.

wdm

I dont't even get close to the MPG that others report. My dash readout shows 30 to 32MPG, but when I check it when I fill the tank I'm geting 28 to 29MPG. I drive up a hill to my home which seems to use more gas than when I go down the hill. About 1/3 of my driving is freeway.
I've asked Lexus to check the car out and the dealer said everything is ok. So if someone is looking for the advertised 34/35 MPG and that's important to them think twice about purchasing this car.

Magellan55

Did you get the EPA rating mpg on the last car you owned? It seems most people don't, due to driving habits or whatever. So if you got less than EPA on your previous car(s), you shouldn't expect EPA mpg on the HS either.

rajeev6

I live in NY and its already cold here (34F this morning )
I've about 6000 miles and even in this cold weather I'm getting 37-38.
As others have said, it does take little different driving habit but not a lot.
I did get 39.5 one time - a 100 mile trip to an outlet mall - all hilly roads and 55 miles speed limit and another trip to a city around 200 miles most of this too on state routes with 55 mph limit.

There was another time when my wife got an average of 43 for her trip - but this was a girl scouts trip - sort of a caravan with 3-4 cars. She was following the car ahead of her and mostly driving within speed limit - can't count it as normal driving though.