Impressions after a week and one road trip

[francorossobianco]

Bought it 10 days ago. It had 7 miles on it. I like that. Feels like really really new
Price. There was one dealership here in Alexandria Virginia that was removing the sticker and placing a used car sticker on it with a markup of $10,000. I was kind of naïve and didn’t understand the salesman's explanation about how they bought it from a third-party to get it ahead of everybody else. After a little more shopping around I figured out that they were just doing it to mark up the price and I shopped elsewhere and found one for sticker price. I checked a lot of places and nobody was giving any discounts off of sticker price.
Color. I love the heritage blue color but I got one in white because it was available. Got the LC with premium package and 20 inch wheels.
For the first week I drove it local and the mileage was around 18 MPG. Short trips on the highway where I reset the mileage computer it would go up to 20 or so. I was interested in taking a road trip so I drove it down to Blacksburg Virginia this weekend. it rolled over 1000 miles on the way home today so I reset the mileage gauge and it still gets about 22.5 MPG on the highway going between 65 and 80. it is a little puzzling to me how a car that’s a hybrid doesn’t really seem to use the battery to drive the car much at all. I have a 2024 Lexus ES 300 H and it gets twice the mileage that this does, around 40 to 44. I traded in a 2022 Ram 1500 for the LC, the Ram got about 20 MPG on the highway with regular gas. I'm not impressed with the range of it, about 300 miles per tank. I’m hoping now that I’m over 1000 miles it’ll get better, but so far I’ve had to go to the gas station four times in a little over a week. Oh well, it is what it is.
Road noise. I just have the rails on the roof and no crossbars or roof rack. I’m attaching a picture of the decibels from my Apple Watch at speed on the highway and to me it’s very quiet.
Cruise control. I absolutely love the adaptive cruise control. I just lightly put my hands on the steering wheel and let it do its thing. Don’t tell anybody but if you rest your knee against the steering wheel the system thinks that you’re still holding onto it
The infotainment system is good. I use an iPhone with Apple CarPlay and for years I’ve been subscribing to SiriusXM for three cars but I think I’m just going to subscribe to one car from now on and just use the Apple CarPlay with SiriusXM app and save some money. I like to be able to switch between Waze and my Sirius app easily and not even bother going to the main Toyota screen. The Sirius app is seriously good and I haven’t tried to do anything using the steering wheel controls except skip songs but overall I’m happy.
I like the electronic instrument cluster screen and I’ve been playing around with lots of different views and haven’t really settled on what I like best yet. For now I’m using round gauges for the Engine RPM and speed and switching around between the various displays that go in the middle of them.
Ride. I love the ride and the comfort of the seats. I leave the seat ventilators on. This weekend I drove probably 20 miles on gravel roads and it feels very nice I didn’t really notice much difference between pavement and gravel. One thing I did notice is that the steering is very light compared to my 2024 Lexus which has a much more solid feel to it.
Cool box. I think the cool box is cool except that it’s pretty much a solution in search of a problem. I left it on for the first week and I noticed a lot of condensation inside the box and since there’s nothing in there that needs to stay cool I just turned it off and I’ll probably leave it off from now on. If I was 18 again and brought roadies with me I could probably keep a six pack cool in there....
20 inch wheels. Not much to say because I’m not a serious off-roader and I like the way they look.
Nag-ware. Obviously with a new car I’m playing with a lot of stuff while I’m driving and I get a lot of nagging telling me to pay attention. I turned on every single option they have and I’m leaving them on for a while so I can figure out what I like and don’t like. The collision avoidance system I’m still trying to figure out if it works or not because I’ve never felt it brake for me so I guess I haven't been close to a collision yet.
Bottom line I LOVE this truck. My main complaint is it doesn’t seem to get as much mileage as I thought a hybrid wood but it’s also a truck with a 5000 pound towing capacity so what did I expect right? Also the sticker tells you exactly what mileage you’re going to get so no complaints.
I might’ve forgotten a few things but I’ll add them later when I remember.

 

[Smokester]

Bought it 10 days ago. It had 7 miles on it. I like that. Feels like really really new
Price. There was one dealership here in Alexandria Virginia that was removing the sticker and placing a used car sticker on it with a markup of $10,000. I was kind of naïve and didn’t understand the salesman's explanation about how they bought it from a third-party to get it ahead of everybody else. After a little more shopping around I figured out that they were just doing it to mark up the price and I shopped elsewhere and found one for sticker price. I checked a lot of places and nobody was giving any discounts off of sticker price.
Color. I love the heritage blue color but I got one in white because it was available. Got the LC with premium package and 20 inch wheels.
For the first week I drove it local and the mileage was around 18 MPG. Short trips on the highway where I reset the mileage computer it would go up to 20 or so. I was interested in taking a road trip so I drove it down to Blacksburg Virginia this weekend. it rolled over 1000 miles on the way home today so I reset the mileage gauge and it still gets about 22.5 MPG on the highway going between 65 and 80. it is a little puzzling to me how a car that’s a hybrid doesn’t really seem to use the battery to drive the car much at all. I have a 2024 Lexus ES 300 H and it gets twice the mileage that this does, around 40 to 44. I traded in a 2022 Ram 1500 for the LC, the Ram got about 20 MPG on the highway with regular gas. I'm not impressed with the range of it, about 300 miles per tank. I’m hoping now that I’m over 1000 miles it’ll get better, but so far I’ve had to go to the gas station four times in a little over a week. Oh well, it is what it is.
Road noise. I just have the rails on the roof and no crossbars or roof rack. I’m attaching a picture of the decibels from my Apple Watch at speed on the highway and to me it’s very quiet.
Cruise control. I absolutely love the adaptive cruise control. I just lightly put my hands on the steering wheel and let it do its thing. Don’t tell anybody but if you rest your knee against the steering wheel the system thinks that you’re still holding onto it
The infotainment system is good. I use an iPhone with Apple CarPlay and for years I’ve been subscribing to SiriusXM for three cars but I think I’m just going to subscribe to one car from now on and just use the Apple CarPlay with SiriusXM app and save some money. I like to be able to switch between Waze and my Sirius app easily and not even bother going to the main Toyota screen. The Sirius app is seriously good and I haven’t tried to do anything using the steering wheel controls except skip songs but overall I’m happy.
I like the electronic instrument cluster screen and I’ve been playing around with lots of different views and haven’t really settled on what I like best yet. For now I’m using round gauges for the Engine RPM and speed and switching around between the various displays that go in the middle of them.
Ride. I love the ride and the comfort of the seats. I leave the seat ventilators on. This weekend I drove probably 20 miles on gravel roads and it feels very nice I didn’t really notice much difference between pavement and gravel. One thing I did notice is that the steering is very light compared to my 2024 Lexus which has a much more solid feel to it.
Cool box. I think the cool box is cool except that it’s pretty much a solution in search of a problem. I left it on for the first week and I noticed a lot of condensation inside the box and since there’s nothing in there that needs to stay cool I just turned it off and I’ll probably leave it off from now on. If I was 18 again and brought roadies with me I could probably keep a six pack cool in there....
20 inch wheels. Not much to say because I’m not a serious off-roader and I like the way they look.
Nag-ware. Obviously with a new car I’m playing with a lot of stuff while I’m driving and I get a lot of nagging telling me to pay attention. I turned on every single option they have and I’m leaving them on for a while so I can figure out what I like and don’t like. The collision avoidance system I’m still trying to figure out if it works or not because I’ve never felt it brake for me so I guess I haven't been close to a collision yet.
Bottom line I LOVE this truck. My main complaint is it doesn’t seem to get as much mileage as I thought a hybrid wood but it’s also a truck with a 5000 pound towing capacity so what did I expect right? Also the sticker tells you exactly what mileage you’re going to get so no complaints.
I might’ve forgotten a few things but I’ll add them later when I remember.

I've had a very similar experience except I have not yet had the opportunity to take that long highway trip and try out the cruise control.

I'll also add that dealer in Alexandria is a local legend for their markups. Early on they had a FE with a $30k markup, binging the total price over $100k. Even after everyone else was selling them for MSRP, they were still banging them at least $10k.

 

[laughnpup]

I've had a very similar experience except I have not yet had the opportunity to take that long highway trip and try out the cruise control.

I'll also add that dealer in Alexandria is a local legend for their markups. Early on they had a FE with a $30k markup, binging the total price over $100k. Even after everyone else was selling them for MSRP, they were still banging them at least $10k.

Agreed on the northern Virginia dealers especially Koons.

 

[ultane]

My other vehicle, a 2015 Ford Transit 350, rides so rough that my Apple Watch routinely asks me if I want to ‘record this outdoor activity’. I’ll have to figure out how to measure sound like you did. Did you do that from the watch app on your iPhone? Or from the watch itself? (I guess is is google-able)

 

[MJE]

My other vehicle, a 2015 Ford Transit 350, rides so rough that my Apple Watch routinely asks me if I want to ‘record this outdoor activity’. I’ll have to figure out how to measure sound like you did. Did you do that from the watch app on your iPhone? Or from the watch itself? (I guess is is google-able)

The app should be part of your normal watch ones & is just called Noise.

 

[MJE]

My other vehicle, a 2015 Ford Transit 350, rides so rough that my Apple Watch routinely asks me if I want to ‘record this outdoor activity’. I’ll have to figure out how to measure sound like you did. Did you do that from the watch app on your iPhone? Or from the watch itself? (I guess is is google-able)

It can come up automatically to warn you of loud events. For example when the neighbors get an Amazon delivery…

 

[Captain Trips]

It can come up automatically to warn you of loud events. For example when the neighbors get an Amazon delivery…
View attachment 10132

I don’t understand. Which one is warning you, the watch or the dog?

 

[ultane]

The app should be part of your normal watch ones & is just called Noise.
View attachment 10128View attachment 10129

Thank you VERY much MJE!!

 

[MJE]

I don’t understand. Which one is warning you, the watch or the dog?

I couldn’t help but take the pic when she was the cause of the watch warning!

 

[ghettomedic]

Bought it 10 days ago. It had 7 miles on it. I like that. Feels like really really new
Price. There was one dealership here in Alexandria Virginia that was removing the sticker and placing a used car sticker on it with a markup of $10,000. I was kind of naïve and didn’t understand the salesman's explanation about how they bought it from a third-party to get it ahead of everybody else. After a little more shopping around I figured out that they were just doing it to mark up the price and I shopped elsewhere and found one for sticker price. I checked a lot of places and nobody was giving any discounts off of sticker price.
Color. I love the heritage blue color but I got one in white because it was available. Got the LC with premium package and 20 inch wheels.
For the first week I drove it local and the mileage was around 18 MPG. Short trips on the highway where I reset the mileage computer it would go up to 20 or so. I was interested in taking a road trip so I drove it down to Blacksburg Virginia this weekend. it rolled over 1000 miles on the way home today so I reset the mileage gauge and it still gets about 22.5 MPG on the highway going between 65 and 80. it is a little puzzling to me how a car that’s a hybrid doesn’t really seem to use the battery to drive the car much at all. I have a 2024 Lexus ES 300 H and it gets twice the mileage that this does, around 40 to 44. I traded in a 2022 Ram 1500 for the LC, the Ram got about 20 MPG on the highway with regular gas. I'm not impressed with the range of it, about 300 miles per tank. I’m hoping now that I’m over 1000 miles it’ll get better, but so far I’ve had to go to the gas station four times in a little over a week. Oh well, it is what it is.
Road noise. I just have the rails on the roof and no crossbars or roof rack. I’m attaching a picture of the decibels from my Apple Watch at speed on the highway and to me it’s very quiet.
Cruise control. I absolutely love the adaptive cruise control. I just lightly put my hands on the steering wheel and let it do its thing. Don’t tell anybody but if you rest your knee against the steering wheel the system thinks that you’re still holding onto it
The infotainment system is good. I use an iPhone with Apple CarPlay and for years I’ve been subscribing to SiriusXM for three cars but I think I’m just going to subscribe to one car from now on and just use the Apple CarPlay with SiriusXM app and save some money. I like to be able to switch between Waze and my Sirius app easily and not even bother going to the main Toyota screen. The Sirius app is seriously good and I haven’t tried to do anything using the steering wheel controls except skip songs but overall I’m happy.
I like the electronic instrument cluster screen and I’ve been playing around with lots of different views and haven’t really settled on what I like best yet. For now I’m using round gauges for the Engine RPM and speed and switching around between the various displays that go in the middle of them.
Ride. I love the ride and the comfort of the seats. I leave the seat ventilators on. This weekend I drove probably 20 miles on gravel roads and it feels very nice I didn’t really notice much difference between pavement and gravel. One thing I did notice is that the steering is very light compared to my 2024 Lexus which has a much more solid feel to it.
Cool box. I think the cool box is cool except that it’s pretty much a solution in search of a problem. I left it on for the first week and I noticed a lot of condensation inside the box and since there’s nothing in there that needs to stay cool I just turned it off and I’ll probably leave it off from now on. If I was 18 again and brought roadies with me I could probably keep a six pack cool in there....
20 inch wheels. Not much to say because I’m not a serious off-roader and I like the way they look.
Nag-ware. Obviously with a new car I’m playing with a lot of stuff while I’m driving and I get a lot of nagging telling me to pay attention. I turned on every single option they have and I’m leaving them on for a while so I can figure out what I like and don’t like. The collision avoidance system I’m still trying to figure out if it works or not because I’ve never felt it brake for me so I guess I haven't been close to a collision yet.
Bottom line I LOVE this truck. My main complaint is it doesn’t seem to get as much mileage as I thought a hybrid wood but it’s also a truck with a 5000 pound towing capacity so what did I expect right? Also the sticker tells you exactly what mileage you’re going to get so no complaints.
I might’ve forgotten a few things but I’ll add them later when I remember.

Well considering it’s a tiny battery under 2 kilowatt heavy ass vehicle and a small engine. So to give you that extra power they installed a turbo and to eliminate the turbo lag they installed the electric motor. All that stuff is to help move the vehicle forward and not really for fuel economy.

 

[Marinna]

hybrid are not created the same. For most drivers’ understand of how hybrid works, you might as well treated it as a non-hybrid power trained. Toyota did’t put the battery in the car so it can drive like a Prius.

 

[Nuke]

It would be interesting to know how much MPG the hybrid adds, if any. Possibly the Tacoma provides the answer. 21/26 normally aspirated, and 23/24 for the i-FORCE MAX. So, essentially no economy gain for the hybrid/turbo, just performance, and considerable at that, but at a steep price penalty. Ironically, and elsewhere discussed in detail, the Taco does not suggest premium fuel, as the LC wishes to consume.

 

[Marinna]

It would be interesting to know how much MPG the hybrid adds, if any. Possibly the Tacoma provides the answer. 21/26 normally aspirated, and 23/24 for the i-FORCE MAX. So, essentially no economy gain for the hybrid/turbo, just performance, and considerable at that, but at a steep price penalty. Ironically, and elsewhere discussed in detail, the Taco does not suggest premium fuel, as the LC wishes to consume.

You can compare with the LC sold overseas to get that number, I would guess it would be similar to other vehicles at the same class.

I would love to see other owner to do a long term experiment on using regular gas, though I don’t want to do it myself. Using the car within the recommendation of manufacturer is always a safety bet for extended life cycle.