Yea noticed them yesterday. Thanks everyone

So I finally took it for a trip (Houston to new Orleans), and first tank yielded only 20mpg with 100% hwy driving with a couple of places that were bumper to bumper due to traffic. maybe 30-45 mins in the traffic. Is this normal?
Although my way back using cruise control most of the time at 70 to 85mph I got 25mpg with little to no traffic

 

sounds pretty normal.. 20-24mpg seems to be the norm.

 

Yea, seems pretty normal. Don't expect huge numbers in this car. You're not going to get 35 MPG, but you get decent mileage and a very quick car! Makes driving it pretty fun compared to the rx350. We get around 24 MPG on average.

 

Doesn't seem nearly as good as it should be... Are you running 92 or 87? My wife forgot the last tank and put regular in and only got 25.1mpg over 350 miles or so. When we run super only, she usually averages 27.5-28.2mpg. On an 800 mile road trip with a lot of highway driving at 70+, the Lexus averaged 24.3mpg.

 

Wow!! That's good mileage!! I'm running 93 octane.

 

My mpg right now is 29.1 on the dashboard. I got it up to 30.2mpg until I tried to reset something following a procedure on the forum and it took the mpg down 24. If I really tried, the most I can get it up to would be 33mpg if I did a tune up and installing low resistance tires.

My guess as to why your mpg is so low is because you don't have a feel for the hybrid system. You have to harness the hybrid synergy system in order to maximize your mpg. You do that by coasting and softly applying acceleration whenever possible. I think everyone who learns hybrid driving, will not only drive safer(because coasting requires you to be alert of the situation further down the road) but also saving gas. Do a search on youtube on hypermiling tips

In my opinion, 30mpg for an suv isnt bad but it isnt good either. Considering all the work that goes into making a hybrid, mpg should be at least 40+ on any hybrid vehicle and 60+ on all electric.

 

Sounds like you got a great deal. Used cars (especially reliable cars) are a great value because there is so much utility left in the vehicle than sellers realize. I bought my wife's 2007 Rx400h back in 2010 for $18K with 80K miles on it (we've added another 80K miles ourselves so far). It had everything we wanted expect the Mark Levinson audio system, but it came with a brand new windshield (we noticed a tiny crack above the wiper at the dealership), new tires, new 12V battery, and all the maintenance records looked good. We saved about $5K, buying it from a Jeep dealership in Scottsdale, AZ compared to our local SoCal region.

Other than the radiator leaking at 100K miles and the brake actuator (replaced under warranty), we haven't had any issues. The car is so reliable and cheap to maintain. We spend about $2K/yr on fuel, $900 for tires every 40K miles, and about $150/yr on general maintenance. We've contemplated replacing her car with a used Tesla Model S, but we just don't want to take the risk with going away from something so reliable to something with a spotty record. We have a lifetime fuel economy average of 28.1mpg on 87 octane.

 

little update:
I've gotten a better feel on driving a hybrid (coming from a G37 coupe with 6spd manual and 93 RX7 5spd manual) so now I'm averaging upper 27-29mpg to even 30 mpg in the city!! which is great IMO. So far i'm loving this car. Didn't think I would but it's been such a great and smooth ride.easy on the gas too.

also, there's a black IPOD connector that runs at the bottom of the center console. is that standard? or is that an add-on? it works great, even charges my IPOD at the same time. And has anyone incorporated a bluetooth audio connection to the stereo? I'll go do a search.

 

The ipod thing was aftermarket.