JonBoy

I think you need to sit back a minute and run those numbers again to see why they are a huge improvement. The hybrid tech gives a 20% improvement over the old RL and is a 50% improvement over what you're getting plus it adds AWD (compared to your V8) so you're adding weight and complexity and STILL handily beating the old tech and the big V8.

Not to mention, this is a single data point for the RLX. The car is rated for 30/30/30 mpg (city/hwy/combined) so chances are there are people doing a whole lot better as well, which would only make the old RL and your big V8 look even worse in comparison (for mpg).

neuronbob

The mileage listed above is a lifetime average. Official mileage is 28-32-30.

I leased the car just before a long cold snap. Batteries are less efficient in cold weather, and the GDI engine spends more time on and charging the battery, so more fuel consumed during the winter months. Seven months of extreme cold (worse than usual for us in Cleveland) meant lower mileage.

I also do a fair amount of city block driving. This doesn't allow the battery to charge up enough to use as primary propulsion at times. My city mileage is about 24-25 rather than 28 as advertised. That's still way better than I was getting in my 2G RL, which was about 16 mpg in the same circuit.

On the highway, driving at my standard cruising speed of 70-75 mph, mileage is 28-34 depending on whether I'm driving downhill (which it is into downtown Cleveland from where I live) or uphill (the opposite).

The last component of the mileage is my heavy throttle. The electric motors offer so much instant torque that it's really hard to keep from using it.

I will admit some disappointment with the mileage, but the city mileage is still far better than the 2G RL I had before it. I've also had my local dealership look at the car and they didn't see anything obviously amiss.

rob-2

Jon you can get better mpg out of a diesel with awd. Merc and BMW make them.

My point on comparison is that sure going from 25mpg freeway to 32 seems like a lot as a percent, its not a huge improvement and it's not vastly better than regular gas cars. We are only talking 28%. Somewhat funny is the v6 shawd tlx gets 31mpg, hardly impressive to get that with hybrid.

As for my odd ball comparison on v8 to hybrid was to show that for all that money on hybrid Tech it is hardly vastly better. maybe worth $15 a week in gas for the average person.

I mean 45mpg freeway, now we are talking but it's a far cry from that.

JonBoy

Sure, but you can't get the power and acceleration. Trade-off, plus the obvious 30% more unit energy in diesel is nowhere near a fair comparison. That's apples to oranges.

Wait, what? A lot as a percentage is EXACTLY how to look at it. That's a direct reflection of your cost savings for fuel (2 mpg doesn't save you the same amount of money on a car that gets 35 mpg vs one that gets 37 mpg). If you look at your costs in strict mpg increments, it hides the value of the actual change. Percentage improvements are what make sense.

You're stuck on the dollar, rather than the improvement. No one said it has a huge impact on the wallet. But percentage improvement is still impressive for the size of the car.

Also, we're not all driving on the highway for most of our driving. Day-to-day driving is what's worth talking about, which means 17 vs 24 mpg. That adds up to anyone that's driving a decent amount. Yes, it's "only" $15 a week but that's a pretty good chunk of money for a lot of people ($700-$800 a year). It's a car payment or two, if they're financing their vehicle. Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves, and all that.

I just bought my wife a new car and have been using her Civic for daily driving, rather than my pickup, now that winter's nearly here. I went from 14 mpg to 30 mpg overnight and it's nice not shoving $50 in fuel in the truck every week (the difference gets even worse in the winter, as the truck just sucks fuel due to warm-ups when I'm about to leave work). I save about $120 a month by driving the Civic, even after the additional insurance. I was tempted to sell it but it's not worth a lot anymore and I actually save more by driving it into the ground than just selling it and using my truck.

neuronbob

Rob, with due respect, you are missing the point of the Sport Hybrid. The point of this car is not to save gas. The point is the same as with the new NSX: to provide V8-type torque and power with a V6 engine. It's in the same line of thought as the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 hybrid, but much cheaper. It's an engineering marvel meant for those of us who are real geeks, and a throwback to the 1990's tagline "precision crafted performance". It's a complicated, Rube Goldberg-ian way to do hybrids, but it works and is certainly unique. It's certainly not meant to be a volume seller, else Acura would be marketing it more and ignoring it less.

Whether it's worth the price of entry is another, and completely appropriate, question. Just like its even more unfortunate and unloved brother the PAWS RLX, the Sport Hybrid, even with its rarity, is likely doomed to awful depreciation and underappreciation before an ignoble death from lack of entropy. It's a key reason I leased instead of purchased a year ago.

rob-2

Well gents you cannot even buy one. We just tried after the site was updated in the US.

The fact they tested this car out on the Canadian market is, well silly.

The rlx is not the sedan version of the NSX. Also it's yet to hit the market.

Frankly people don't buy cars for tech that doesn't matter.

Jon boy. Buying a new car to save fuel never makes financial sense. The future value of money and how much parted with today, you got to be hard up to justify. $800 in savings, hardly covers taxes paid.

JonBoy

If you're buying a car and you buy the car that uses the least amount of fuel, it makes perfect sense. Why spend more than you have to spend on fuel?

Buying a NEW car to save fuel costs over an older car (that uses more fuel) rarely makes sense, of course, but no one was arguing otherwise.

neuronbob

Agree, they are almost impossible to find and you have to really, really want one to go through all the effort. You'd have to drive or fly to find one of your preferred color combination and features.

I understand very little that Acura does nowadays.

No argument there, I agree.

The tech may not matter because Acura hasn't marketed it at all. Really, at all.