TCKeyz

Just completed a 1000km road trip (to pick up my GS450H )It was -5 degrees C most of the way and was mostly highway driving at around 120km/h using snow tires. With cruise control I averaged 32.2 mpg. When I got into curvy roads with lots of hills to climb, the worst I got was 23.6 mpg. I'm really pleased with this car, not to mention the compliments I got just from the first day

L8Apex

I'm now averaging 25.3 When i try real hard I can get 30 but i find myslf paying waaaaaay too much attention to the gauge. My gas engine comes on too easily IMO. Its hard to run on batt even when its at full chg. When I stop caring and pick up my old driving habits the car seems to do better. The electric motors is constantly cycling on and off to assist the gas eng. I think this is the way the GS was intended to be driven.

L8Apex

Now, I seem to be averaging 23 city driving gentle, keeping the gas motor off as much as possible.

Get it on the hwy and drive gentle I yield only 25.5. On the highway rolling past traffic averaging 80MPH and I get 27.7

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

400 mile road trip this past weekend.

26.5 up, got an oil change at Lexus of Maplewood MN.
25.4 on the way back. WTF is that all about?!

Last summer I got 29mpg and had 3 adults. This time I had three kids and less crap.
I'm doing my plugs next. MPG better be back to normal.

Boron

Summer vs winter - colder air is denser, so AF ratio being the same, means more fuel needed.
Weight difference is likely to be negligible - accelerating, braking, tyres changed/pressure, etc will all come into play more than static weight being moved.
If it was 3+ mpg difference, I'd be more curious/concerned, but 1.1 - nah, I'd say that's an acceptable variance.

Brabusx2

hmm great post.. i really needed these tips. i live in Las Vegas and my GSh only giving me 23mpg city driving only. I don't expect much just want maybe 26-29mpg at most so maybe i will change to regular tires instead of run flat and use some chevron injector cleaner and drive the car on 6gears and see how it goes... car just reach 40k miles so i think maybe it wouldn't hurt if i change the plugs and a royal purple oil change..

Krstobond

I only drive 3miles to work. 1 night a week I sneak outfor a couple of hours. Tonight I am sneaking out. But I live in the Chicago land so the speed will be erratic. I'm guessing 21 to 25mpg.

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

Back to averaging 26mpg, and 30 on the highway.

Crappy air filter was to blame. I'm going to look into getting a good K&N, F-sport type.

Brabusx2

i thought its already confirm that air filter doesn't improve gas milage, but only performance, people actually did test putting a duct tape cover half of the intake, it found out the gas milage appear to be the same..

lemme know how it goes when you drop in a K&N! tempted to get one too hope its not too loud

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

Mine was so dirty it made the ICE run funky. Its the only thing I can attribute, besides summer gas.
Honestly...who knows. After changing it out. Normal MPG again.

Brabusx2

does chicago as any ethnol in the gas? do they make CIA for our car??

2008GSh

I easily do numbers like that.

I find that the trick is the distance, or the length of time of the trip, if you are using this car for short 5 minute, 2-3 mile trips, then you bought the wrong car.

For the first 2 or 3 minutes after start up the engine works like a some-of-a-beach to get to operating temperature, I assume, so that it can do the traffic light gas engine start/stop with Lexus like smoothness. After the warm up my car will produce 28ish mpg in the city... I also find that driven hard or driven grandma mode will not have that much of difference in city mileage.

Once warmed up in my normal 30 minute stop and go city commute I get almost 28 mpg (8.3 l/100 km).

I also find no difficulty driving around in parking lots and in my neighborhood in electric mode (its fun to sneak up on/show off for pedestrians ), but I agree, it would be cool if there was a button that would increase the electric involvement.

Other things I've noticed, the PCM on this car is really busy and really active, My car does a deepish discharge about once a month normally when my wife drives it... odd... Wife takes the car on a really short trip and I have a purple battery the next morning.

It would also be cool, if the PCM could learn the route that I drive... I often will see the engine busy charging up the battery right before I'm about to go down a huge hill. I need a "No not now, about to go down an big hill" button... They could label it "NNNATOGDABH", use the coin holder space...

JShort

I have owned and been experimenting with my 2007 GS-450h for just over 6 months now, and have the following observations to share:

- How I accelerate ranging from Grandpa (25kw) to normal (40 to 75kw) doesn't seem to make much difference on the mileage; of course absolutely flooring it really eats into the mpg but provides oh such a thrill!

- How I brake however, can make a huge difference; my mpg has improved by about 10% by braking earlier and less aggressively than when I first got the car (21.5 mpg tank average braking hard, 23.5 braking early and less aggressively). These tank averages are pretty much based on a daily commute of about 25 miles with lots of stop and go.

- Agree with others that for the first 5 or 10 minutes of driving mpg is way lower than after it has been running for awhile.

- Once warmed up city driving in town seems to range between 22 and 26, freeway driving for me is noticeably higher at 27 to 31, and when driving like a race driver wanna be, I can bring it down to stints of 10 to 15

- Possibly my most interesting observation has not been mentioned yet on this thread... When driving in freeway situations with traffic present and at speeds ranging from 50 to 80 mph, I seem to get about 10% better fuel mileage when using the TOTALLY AWESOME radar cruise control (distance set to closest setting) versus driving steadily but without the cruise on.

Possibly this is due to the computer control algorithm treating battery regeneration more effectively with the radar cruise on?

Maybe the constant slight acceleration / slight de-acceleration cycles are more efficient than just motoring along at a more constant ICE on mode?

On a similar note, a Prius owner friend shared that he thought his Prius eeks out better mpg over gradual rolling hills vs. flat land driving (cycles of ICE on / off vs. constant on).

Love this car!!!

Can anyone tell I'm an engineer?

Jim

JShort

Ooops, forgot one of my mpg observations...

- Recently had 60k tune up which included a new (Lexus oem) air cleaner and new plugs and so far as I can tell, it did not change either engine performance or mpg effeciency in any measurable way. The plugs including labor were way expenisve too BTW.

Jim

1scGS450h

huh.. Very interesting.. Thanks for sharing.. i'm gonna give this a try.. I was wondering why would a hybrid have a tiptronic shifting.? maybe this was the soul purpose!!