It has been about 2 months since we took delivery of our 2006 Lexus RX400h hybrid. Toyota has done a very good job at minimizing the transition of going from gas engine to just battery power. You will notice that the engine will turn off when you come to a stop but it is very subtle. Unlike my experience with the Honda Accord Hybrid. In the Honda Accord the whole car shakes when the engine engages. One thing that I wish the Lexus could do like Honda is to switch off half the cylinders when you're cruising on the highway. Overall we are averaging between 25-26MPG which may not some like much but the gas only version of the car (RX 330) gets around 18-19MPG. So there is a big difference. In comparison our 2005 Lexus ES 330 hasn't achieved more than 20MPG. Granted the ES has around 1,500 miles on it while the RX has 3,500 so time will tell if they get closer in average MPG as the engine "breaks in". Bluetooth works fairly well and I think the connectivity issue I've had are more related to Cingular than to the car itself.
The power steering has a different feel to it since it is powered by an electric motor. The torque of the motor tends to pull the wheel to the left. It does take more effort to turn the wheel to the right then to the left because of this. The dealer performed a 4-wheel alignment which minimized this effect. Since the RX400H is relative new most people aren't familiar with its specs compared to the RX330 which means most RX400hs' are aligned as RX330s at the dealership. I'm sure this will change (if it hasn't already) as the dealers get more of these in.
Overall the car has been great to drive (although it has taken some time to adjust to the "automatic wipers" since there is no longer an intermittent setting just AUTO/LOW/HIGH)and fairly nimble (for an SUV...my first one) It isn't like the Audi I turned in a few months ago. I'll see how it handles the first snowfall.
