NY Times: Lexus RX 400h is pointless

Hey, you've been reading my odometer. Most of my destinations are little more than 2 miles, and my wife, who is semi-disabled sits in the car for at least 10 minutes at each stop with the a/c on while I do the errands. And I do mash the accelerator sometimes at stop lights just to prove a Prius isn't lame. Mpg=35 almost exactly.

But I am not screaming. That's almost double the mpg I got with the Camry I traded for the Prius, which is a hell of lot more fun to drive.

 

You know, Tideland, I had never thought of that before. I thought that the HAH and 400h had focused on performance too much rather than MPG.

You have a great point though that we had great mileage vehicles but then we get the Saturn commerical that talks about being passesd by mopeds. So now we will see stories like this about it has great performance, but pointless because of fuel economy.

Is this indicative of what the average consumer thinks? Why not focus on the message that nothing is free, the better performance you get, the lower the MPG will be, or that the higher the MPG, the lower the performance. Maybe someday we can have awesome MPG and awesome performance, but I am not optimistic.

I would just rather see people's perception of good performance change since that could happen more quickly than we get the perfect car (it didn't take long for me to change my mind).

 

I bet if you asked people what MPG they currently get and how to make that calculation, the vast majority would know neither. I had been viewing the MPG situation as if everyone was as informed/obsessed with their MPG as I was.

But now that I think about it, if I talk to people about their cars, most people really have no clue and if they have a clue, it is only that they know what the EPA says about their car.

That mathematical illiteracy makes them easy prey for the people who scoff at hybrids for not getting their EPA "guaranteed" MPG.

 

Ironic point: The saturn in the commercial gets better milage than the HX400 hybrid.

 

exhuman, from what i have known by sometimes extreme measures (had to pay for, track and fill the tank of my sister's car) you are dead on.

most people dont have a clue to what their mileage is. my neighbor who has a jetta was nearly 10 mpg off on her estimate.