450h

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Lexus RX 450h – Ever Been Asked To Fill Up A Stranger’s Car At The Pump?

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So I’d just finished filling up my Lexus RX in Whitney today (still grumbling over a hybrid that only manages 30.8mpg) when an elderly lady next to me asked if I would show her how to take the fuel cap off her new car.

Judging by the state of the interior, I’d say she’d owned it for years but being a decent chap, I showed her the mechanism. It soon became apparent that she could barely see the car, let alone the filler nozzle! She was so shortsighted I honestly wondered if I should call the police.

It didn’t end there, as I moved back towards the Lexus to fetch my wallet, she then asked if I would fill her car up for her. This presented me with something of a dilemma – should I be polite and oblige, or explain that she really needed to understand how to fill her own car up for the next visit to a filling station.

I opted for the second option. After paying, I returned to my car and there she was, holding the key out to me so that I could put the cap back on again. This struck me as weird but we’d love to hear from anybody else who has had an equally bizarre experience at a petrol station…

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Lexus RX 450h – A Navigation System On The Road To Nowhere…

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It’s been car buying day for Freddie. Now, that’s usually right up my street, except Freddie is over from Australia and only has £1500 to get a set of student wheels. Considering my first car was  a £200 Morris Minor, I accepted the challenge, naturally thinking there would be plenty of options.

Almost 100 miles later and seriously hacked off, we still hadn’t seen anything worth his hard-earned drinking money. There was an MG Rover that looked as if the interior had been eaten by a dog, a Peugeot 306 that smelt like a dog and a Ford Focus estate that featured an engine that ran like a dog.

None of this was helped by the RX 450h which, we soon discovered, has a terribly complicated multi-media system. The sat nav is not intuitive at all. I lock horns with a different navigation system each week and Freddie is in his 20s – so together we are the perfect pair for understanding a digital map.

The system does not accept seven digit UK postcodes and the process of actually getting the map up and running is over-complicated. The route is also highlighted blue, which is the same colour as dual carriageways on the screen.

So while the screen is large and easy to read, Freddie ended up using his phone to navigate us to the next bad car of the bunch. Surprising? I think so. I’m sure that after a couple of weeks owning a Lexus the system would be simple. However, after a couple of minutes of driving a BMW, Audi or even a Peugeot, I can map a route anywhere…

 

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Lexus RX 450h – 30.8mpg? Surely Some Mistake?

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30.8mpg – I thought I was seeing things! The RX 450H may be super refined and comfortable but I imagined that bolting two electric motors to the V6 petrol engine might also boost economy.

Not so, it seems. In fact, quite how Lexus achieved the official 44.8mpg figure is a mystery. I’ve been on a big economy drive today, treating the accelerator pedal with the utmost respect. However, it appears to have made no difference to my mpg figure at all.

I accept that the 145g/km emissions is exceptionally good for a big SUV but it’s really no better at the fuel pump than the Range Rover Sport we tested two weeks ago.

This might make you question why you would buy a 450h in the first place. Yes you save £120 per annum in road tax over other diesel SUVs. Yes you get a feel-good ‘Hybrid’ badge on the side but is that enough for your £50,000?

 

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Lexus RX 450h – It Ain’t Pretty But It’s Clever

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Let’s get one thing clear from the start – the RX isn’t the prettiest SUV on the market. It’s not as muscular as the BMX X5 and even looks skinny next to a Freelander.

To address this issue, opt for the next model up, the F Sport. It boasts a little more visual panache and at least looks like it could pull the skin off a rice pudding.

I’m walking around our ‘standard’ 450h now and I just can’t seem to find an angle where it excites me – unusual for a car in the £50k bracket.

From side on, only a ‘Hybrid’ badge catches my eye and I suppose that’s what this latest RX is really all about – technology.

Over the next week we’ll be seeing just how good that technology is. And whether it’s enough to make the Lexus worth your hard-earned cash…