http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/automobiles/autoreviews/07hybrid.html?hpw Note: If asked to sign in, you can use priuschat as both the username and password. "Hybrid fans can breathe easier around the new RX 450h, and for more than its lowest-in-class emissions, including 20 percent less carbon dioxide output than a 4-cylinder Honda Accord. This is the first Lexus hybrid that lives up to the hype and puts up big numbers: an impressive 35 miles a gallon in town and 31 on the highway, for a combined average of 32 m.p.g. over a week of driving a pre-production model. That makes the RX 450h the highest-mileage midsize crossover I’ve driven — by far." "Bottom line, if you manage 30 m.p.g. in the RX hybrid — trust me, it’s easy — and the typical 20 m.p.g. in the standard RX 350, the hybrid will save you $700 a year in premium fuel (at a current national average of $2.77 a gallon), balancing out its added cost in roughly seven years of ownership. You’d also cut your gas consumption by a substantial 1,750 gallons over those years, and make far fewer stops to refuel."
Holy Moly! 31mpg-35mpg for an SUV! I thought it was crazy high on the 400h. Ours 400h is AWD, and I've posted over 31mpg here on occasion. And if the 450's mpg numbers aren't incredible enough (stricter EPA guidelines for establishing mpg estimates), and like the Prius, I understand it's got more power to boot, via its V6 atkinson ICE / EV power plant?
Amazing engineering! My previous car 2 doors Celica that weighted 2,400 lbs got 30 MPG (now 26 MPG per 2008 standard). I thought that car was fuel efficient. 450h makes it look like a gas guzzler!
