0930 to 1815 is quite a while to spend with any car when it is uninterrupted by anything other than bathroom stops and a single gas fill-up.
During a continuous time such as this, one becomes familiar with those elements of a car that bring comfort or angst to one's car purchase decision.
Comfort items -
The HS250 is a breeze to see out of. Glass everywhere, allows for a clear view of hazards in all directions.
Once mastered, the entertainment system works reasonably well. The iPod interface is a touch weird - if the car is turned off while the iPod is playing, it won't play the iPod again until one disconnects and resets the iPod.
The gear selector is a hoot and a half to operate, and the regen braking feature is AWESOME when exiting a freeway.
The seat BACK is extremely comfortable (for me).
The graphic display for the driver that shows fuel economy, charging status, and status is terrific and fun.
The rain sensing wipers are great.
Annoying, irritating and displeasing things -
The HS250 is LOUD on the freeway. The tires, being designed for fuel efficiency and low rolling resistence whine loudly, and pound on the expansion strips. There is a lot of wind noise along the entire upper window line.
The freeway noise washes out entertainment system performance.
The HS250 cruise control does NOT disengage with a light tap or a medium tap on the brake pedal; I could only get it to disengage by canceling with the cruise control stalk. When traffic ahead changes unexpectedly and the car continues to drive forward while you press on the brake, you are presented with quite a stressful, conflicted environment.
The lower seat cushion is woefully inadequate - combined with the lack of a dead pedal, one finds oneself exhausted after hours of micro movement and pushing back to stay in the seat.
Interior storage space in the HS250 is just weird - no cubby is deep enough to hold an average phone or iPod when connected to the charging cable. Also, when plugged into the console, iPod and charging cables have to be strung along the console to the center cubby under the armrest. Putting the USB/mini-plug and charging jacks inside the center cubby would seem to make more sense.
The interior materials are grossly inappropriate for a $42,000 Lexus. The center stack design is completely indistinguishable from a Toyota Venza, equipped with the identical entertainment unit, HVAC switchgear and secondary switches.
The entertainment (non-nav) has an LCD display that's light blue with black lettering. The other displays are LED, with lighted letters on a flat background. At night, the entertainment display is difficult to read in the extreme.
550 miles, 34.7 average MPG 75 average MPH. Not very impressive.
My thoughts, so far -
Without price weighting, the HS250 is not an impressive car. It is compromised in the driving experience, is agreeable for a moderately priced car, but wholly inappropriate for a luxury brand. The storage space and seating capacity isn't competitive. The car is, frankly, unattractive.
Price weighted, this is a turd. Ford would do very well by keeping one of these at each of their stores for comparison with their Fusion Hybrid that has far more room, better seating, equal features, better fuel economy and $32,000.
The HS250 has not moved today, and is currently covered in about five inches of snow.
Tulsa in Christmas -
I am "enjoying" being in Tulsa during their first ever blizzard warning. Tracey's parents are as charming as they ever have been, and I'm noticing that the absence of gift exchange provides more focus on human communications and reduces stress greatly.
I have some more political observations and social thoughts to share tomorrow -
DJHJD
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Lexus HS250 drive day two
If I were more committed to alliteration, I'd have said "drive day dos".
It's not as much fun, being up and functional before all of one's online friends are up and chatty - true, there was no competition for the laundry equipment, and I'm still on schedule for an 0830 departure. However - will I make it to my destination in time for our 1830 dinner reservation?
Today promises nine hours of driving through forecasted rainshowers and thunderstorms. The HS is going to be tested against these conditions.
Yesterday's partial day was unremarkable and remarkable in several ways. We picked up the HS from Sterling McCall Lexus at around 2:00 pm - the store is standard Lexus fare, but without parking for more than about ten customer cars.
Unremarkable elements of the day's experience -
Driving the HS250 around the streets of Houston, during rainy conditions would not have provided many opportunities to really understand the car. Add in Christmas frenzy in my fellow auto pilots, and you get a lot of time spent focusing on not being mushed by an SUV, and being gleeful at having found any parking space at all.
We braved Galleria traffic AND Spec's main warehouse store - my resident Lexian Billy and I roamed the streets on Christmas related errands.
Remarkable elements of the day's experience -
The HS250 rides HARD. Harder than either of my Pontiac GXP cars, much harder than the Audi A4 prestige with sport package I drove a few weeks ago, and far harder than Guy's Prius. Which leads to the revelation that Houston's roads are atrocious for a major city in the southwest. Hint, hint, new mayoress.
The HS250 sits very, very high - think "Ford Five Hundred" high. This makes ingress much easier, but in this car it gives a sense of tippiness. At least to me.
The HS250's trunk is VERY small. It's well shaped, but it is VERY small. The American tendency to evaluate cargo space by how many sets of golf clubs can be carried will be stymied, as there isn't a way to get other than a collapsible set of irons in the car.
The aircraft like center stack is partly to accommodate the very high seating position, and partly because it's "a hybrid". It looks very cool and functional, but in operation, it keeps getting in the way of intuitive hand and arm movement.
While no Audi with MMI in terms of complexity, the car is loaded with buttons and things to push, which require study to understand. I didn't feel secure trying to operate some of the primary controls until after reading the entire quick start guide and supplementing with the owner's manual. By primary controls, I include "putting the car into gear" and the windshield wipers.
The stereo quality in the base car is very disappointing. The sound is muddy, and without depth. Bass notes just thump without definition. The two line LED display makes it very challenging to be sure of what station/song/track one is hunting for.
When we picked the car up at Sterling McCall, the salesman basically handed me the keys and said "see you on Tuesday" and fled. We had no introduction to the car, and no introduction to its controls. None of the terms of the loaner agreement were reviewed or discussed. Just "put your address here and sign here".
I guess they think I am not an HS250 customer at all. The salesman DID tell Billy and me that they do not and would not allow a test drive of the new, $76,000 LS460 sport model "because they're so unique". Um. Audi will encourage one to hop into one of their $120,000 S8s with far more sporting capabilities and take it out for some wringing. While friendly enough, the experience at the dealer did not encourage one to return, and was little different than the experience one would have at the Chevy store just up the street.
The interior materials of the LS250 (base model) are unremarkable - in fact, nearly identical to Dina's new Toyota Venza. The design lines are pleasing enough, but - for $42,000, the interior quality is indistinguishable from a $28,000 Prius, which has more interior space, more cargo space, rides better and gets better economy.
Speaking of economy - I reset all the stored values when I picked the car up (which took some doing, since I didn't discover the owner's manual in the trunk until a few hours later) and running around on surface streets yesterday, we were averaging about 27 mpg.
Now, to wrap up with something nice. My long time coach Jenny always used to say that if you had bad news, you must wrap it in good - the hamburger bun method, she called it.
My head doesn't hit the roof of the HS, which is nice.L
It's not as much fun, being up and functional before all of one's online friends are up and chatty - true, there was no competition for the laundry equipment, and I'm still on schedule for an 0830 departure. However - will I make it to my destination in time for our 1830 dinner reservation?
Today promises nine hours of driving through forecasted rainshowers and thunderstorms. The HS is going to be tested against these conditions.
Yesterday's partial day was unremarkable and remarkable in several ways. We picked up the HS from Sterling McCall Lexus at around 2:00 pm - the store is standard Lexus fare, but without parking for more than about ten customer cars.
Unremarkable elements of the day's experience -
Driving the HS250 around the streets of Houston, during rainy conditions would not have provided many opportunities to really understand the car. Add in Christmas frenzy in my fellow auto pilots, and you get a lot of time spent focusing on not being mushed by an SUV, and being gleeful at having found any parking space at all.
We braved Galleria traffic AND Spec's main warehouse store - my resident Lexian Billy and I roamed the streets on Christmas related errands.
Remarkable elements of the day's experience -
The HS250 rides HARD. Harder than either of my Pontiac GXP cars, much harder than the Audi A4 prestige with sport package I drove a few weeks ago, and far harder than Guy's Prius. Which leads to the revelation that Houston's roads are atrocious for a major city in the southwest. Hint, hint, new mayoress.
The HS250 sits very, very high - think "Ford Five Hundred" high. This makes ingress much easier, but in this car it gives a sense of tippiness. At least to me.
The HS250's trunk is VERY small. It's well shaped, but it is VERY small. The American tendency to evaluate cargo space by how many sets of golf clubs can be carried will be stymied, as there isn't a way to get other than a collapsible set of irons in the car.
The aircraft like center stack is partly to accommodate the very high seating position, and partly because it's "a hybrid". It looks very cool and functional, but in operation, it keeps getting in the way of intuitive hand and arm movement.
While no Audi with MMI in terms of complexity, the car is loaded with buttons and things to push, which require study to understand. I didn't feel secure trying to operate some of the primary controls until after reading the entire quick start guide and supplementing with the owner's manual. By primary controls, I include "putting the car into gear" and the windshield wipers.
The stereo quality in the base car is very disappointing. The sound is muddy, and without depth. Bass notes just thump without definition. The two line LED display makes it very challenging to be sure of what station/song/track one is hunting for.
When we picked the car up at Sterling McCall, the salesman basically handed me the keys and said "see you on Tuesday" and fled. We had no introduction to the car, and no introduction to its controls. None of the terms of the loaner agreement were reviewed or discussed. Just "put your address here and sign here".
I guess they think I am not an HS250 customer at all. The salesman DID tell Billy and me that they do not and would not allow a test drive of the new, $76,000 LS460 sport model "because they're so unique". Um. Audi will encourage one to hop into one of their $120,000 S8s with far more sporting capabilities and take it out for some wringing. While friendly enough, the experience at the dealer did not encourage one to return, and was little different than the experience one would have at the Chevy store just up the street.
The interior materials of the LS250 (base model) are unremarkable - in fact, nearly identical to Dina's new Toyota Venza. The design lines are pleasing enough, but - for $42,000, the interior quality is indistinguishable from a $28,000 Prius, which has more interior space, more cargo space, rides better and gets better economy.
Speaking of economy - I reset all the stored values when I picked the car up (which took some doing, since I didn't discover the owner's manual in the trunk until a few hours later) and running around on surface streets yesterday, we were averaging about 27 mpg.
Now, to wrap up with something nice. My long time coach Jenny always used to say that if you had bad news, you must wrap it in good - the hamburger bun method, she called it.
My head doesn't hit the roof of the HS, which is nice.L
Monday, December 21, 2009
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