I find it hard to believe that Lexus develop hybrid technology & launch a car onto the world market tailored around a local tax in a single city.

Last year, we were changing our diesel Land Cruiser which we use for towing a caravan (stop sniggering!).

We took the hybrid Lexus 400 for a test drive, and were very impressed. Fuel consumption was on a par with our Land Cruiser and it was very quick. It was spooky to drive because it was almost totally silent. Lots of gadgets. The dealer was a very nice chap, and left us to decide what we thought.

I said I'd give him a call later in the day, with the intention of seeing if I could do a good deal on their demonstrator. Anyway, when we arrived home there was a message from the dealer to give him a call back. On talking to him he explained that he was a bit worried about us using the vehicle for towing our rather heavy caravan, because the extra torque required would almost certainly mean that the Lexus would be running on both electric and the petrol engine, giving absolutely lousy fuel consumption as well as increased noise.

Good on him for being so honest, and I told him it seemed to me the car was really designed for mostly pootling around town, which he agreed with.

quote:

Originally posted by Ewan Aye:
I find it hard to believe that Lexus develop hybrid technology & launch a car onto the world market tailored around a local tax in a single city.

I'm sure it wasn't, but as most of the road tests of it said that the hybrid drive only worked without the petrol engine under 25 mph it was clearly designed for cities with obscenely slow moving traffic, it's quite easy to see why Lexus UK would focus on London.

Heavy vehicles, which most "4 wheel drive trucks" are, get better fuel economy when powered by diesel engines. That is why big rigs are mainly powered by diesels. The engines have more torque and use less fuel.

Power to all 4 wheels constantly will also decrease fuel economy!