Hybrid as a viable option for fun car?

[CABC]

grumpynuts said:

. My daily driver is a Lexus UX250h, .

thread drift. i like the look of these for a comfy tool with a bit of extra ground clearance.
how do you get on with the mouse?
any rattles? (it is lo cost for a Lexus)
worst bits? (i'm happy with the plus bits and OH loved the interior and door clunk!)

[Chestrockwell]

Tabs said:

This is my whole point about learning to drive a CVT hybrid. Of course, if you mash the accelerator to the floor, the engine will rev it's nuts off. You have to learn to keep the revs just on the crest of the range, just before the revs take off. When you master it it becomes second nature. I make good progress, and rarely make it rev. Hence why I advised a 24 hour drive to get comfortable with one.

I’ve been driving my mums Hybrid RAV4 which is a 2.5 CVT with 200 bhp (same as the RC300h I believe) and I completely agree, I used to hate my mums car, whenever I had to drive it, I used to think it was a joke and wondered how people drove Hybrids but I just didn’t know how to drive it.

I’ve been using it for the past 3 weeks or so as I don’t have a car at the moment and I think the engine/electric combination is perfect and smooth. The car is quick when it needs to be at a price (the engine screaming) but that isn’t what it’s about.

The RAV4 does have some room for improvement, it tilts forwards and backwards when braking/accelerating, it doesn’t handle very well and there’s a lot of wheel spin as it’s only a 2WD model (electric motors very responsive and light the fronts up sometimes) but it’s a budget model, it’s an 8 year old design with a new hybrid power train.

I just put it in cruise control everywhere I go unless I’m in traffic in which case it would be electric mode. Over all with my driving I average 45 which may not be as good as a diesel but the car is almost always silent and very smooth, I’d sacrifice 10 MPG for that.

I can only imagine how good a Lexus Hybrid would be, in any application as they’re sort of built for it and designed to be a hybrid from the ground up.

I finally understand hybrids; they make sense, especially if you’re always doing short trips. The problem is that if you want a premium hybrid, you’re going to be paying top money and there are some more interesting cars that would sway my attention, this is at the moment though, I think, in years to come, cars like the RC300h will be highly sought after as a used purchase.

[Chestrockwell]

Mixed driving is 45, if you only do short journeys and trips, it can easily average 60, you’d need to be an old lady though