About to buy a 400h

[mommus]

Hi Everyone, 

   I was looking to get an RX400h for around the £7k to £8k mark, but have just discovered threads about a sinister-sounding inverter failure that seems to be affecting the kind of age I've been looking at (2007-2008)

  How common actually are these faults? It's very hard to judge from web forums, as people only tend to post horror stories. 

  Some of the repair bills quoted just seem berserk - £5k plus in some cases - which is almost as much as the cars are worth. 

   There are a few warranties available, but I suspect most would not cover hybrid component failure. Lexus' own extended warranty is expensive - annually it works out about the same price as finding a used inverter online and getting it fitted. 

   What was the forum's thought on this? I'm assuming that there are a few isolated instances of nightmares doing the rounds no matter what car you're interested in, but as I said above, I'm keen to know the feeling about how common pricey disasters are with a 400h

cheers

M

[ISJason]

Hi as far as I know there has never been a case of inverter failure , well thinking about it maybe one but I leave myself to be corrected, but in other words it is extremely rare.

There has been a recall that happened about two years ago for the RX 400 owners to go in and have The faulty module changed free of charge so you'll probably find yours is either had it done or can have it done at the local Lexus dealer. I'd ask who you have you bought it from or whoever you are buying from , if it has had it done

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[GSLV6]

According to the Lexus mechanics's I've spoken to it's very rare indeed.  Consider this.  If you've owned a 400h for 10 or more years and it's never gone wrong, would you feel the need to come onto a Lexus forum and start a thread about your inverter still working?  If you have suffered a failure, you're far more likely to post something in the hope of finding a cheap fix.  Point is, you will always hear more horror stories on forums than success stories, and comparing this site to say the Mercedes owners club, or Volvo for that matter, it's plain to see that Lexus are a much less reported brand when it comes to reliability problems.  All an inverter does is to convert DC to AC (either by an electronic switching and smoothing circuit or via a torroidal transformer and electromagnetic switches) and a by-product or efficiency loss of doing this is heat, which is one reason you have cooling vents under the rear seat, to help cool Battery packs and inverters.  If they become blocked, then there's a chance of failures due to overheating but as long as they are kept clear, a simple inverter ought to work for many years trouble free.

[mommus]

thank you both for your insight

I had pretty much assumed the same things.

If you look at the reliability index for the RX, its something like 80 out of 100, where an S-class is 0 out of 100

[GSLV6]

If you check out the Warranty Direct Reliability index, the S-Class comes in with an appalling score of 324 (rated "Poor") with an average time off road over 4.6 years of 2.5 hours with an average repair bill of almost £450 with a majority of the problems being related to suspension, axle and engine problems.

By comparison, the RX scores 68 (rated "Good") with an average time off the road over 5.2 years of 2.2 hours and an average repair bill of £439 and a majority of issues with heating or cooling system issues (although you wont find many of those issues on a 3RX or a 4RX looking at other reliability surveys).

It's a fair bit more reliable than a Mercedes S Class, which used to set the standard back in the day (not any longer).

Lexus were rated 6th overall and Mercedes 30th overall. 

The Volvo XC90 rated poorly in this index coming in with a score of 198 (Poor), the Kia Sorento, surprisingly didn't fair a lot better with a score of 148 and the BMW X-5 rated at a bottom basement 244 with big average bills and 2.75 hrs off road.

The RX450 does very well compared with most of it's competitors.  Hyundai also do very well, but their equivalent SUV doesn't really compete in this class, ditto Mitsubishi (which in the reliability stakes matched the Kia Sorento), making the RX one of the most reliable and dependable SUVs available today.

[rayaans]

Yep as mentioned already, the inverter problem seems to be an extremely rare thing. 

Its more likely you'll suffer from binding brakes or something like that.

However, having said that - the Lexus Extended warranty is very comprehensive and should cover it (worth checking beforehand though) and should be thought about if you're worried. Covers a lot of other things as well so one thing goes wrong and its paid for itself

[julian1969]

I've just done exactly the same as the OP - purchased a 2007 400h in the 7-8k range. I had pretty much the same reservations but in the end it was the car I wanted and so went for it. The alternative was a 300 (couldn;t find a good one without travelling too far), or something german and as has been pointed out this would have meant a severe drop in reliability.

The non standard big ticket items (Battery and inverter) can be fixed for substantially less than the money Lexus charge at knowledgeable independents bringing the cost into line with items such as DMF, DPF and turbos on the alternatives which are much more likely to go wrong at the age / mileage of the cars I was looking at.

In the end I found a 85k miles, 1 owner, FSH silver '57 SE with nav, levinson, etc. slap bang in the middle of my price range. The dealer threw in a 1 year warranty, new pads and disks on the front and a caliper service on the rear as they were starting to stick. So far it's lived up to expectations totally. The only issues I have is some tyre wear, noisy wipers( replacements on the way), 1 key has a dead battery( replacements inbound too) and the seat heaters don't work - but i suspect this is a fuse either blown or pulled due to a known runaway heating issue requiring a seat rebuild, anyway I've never used the seat heaters on any of the cars I've had so it's irrelevant.

I've done a few trips and see 29 - 34mpg depending on traffic and how rushed i am so efficiency is better than i was expecting during the cold months.

To the OP I'll say, read the forums, there's lots of information out there on spotting a good one and what can go wrong, then test drive a few and don;t be afraid to walk away if something doesn't click for you. 

[Shortandstrange]

On 1/26/2017 at 10:02 AM, mommus said:

thank you both for your insight

I had pretty much assumed the same things.

If you look at the reliability index for the RX, its something like 80 out of 100, where an S-class is 0 out of 100

Never even heard of the Reliability Index before you mentioned it, that's a very cool tool...

[mommus]

Haven't bought one yet. All the sub-£9k cars I looked at were a little bit tired and/or total wrecks. 

 

[sorcerer]

2 hours ago, mommus said:

Haven't bought one yet. All the sub-£9k cars I looked at were a little bit tired and/or total wrecks. 

 

Any particular reason you're drawn to the hybrid?

I like the CVT and being from an electrical/technical background I also sort of fancied just having a 400h for the technology used in the car. Plus, I thought it would have worked out much cheaper in the long run but it doesn't, so I decided against it in the end and went for a petrol RX300 then had it converted to LPG.

I was surprised to find that road tax for the 400h is just £30 cheaper (£260 instead of £290) and that fuel consumption is a bit better than purely petrol, but not hugely so and certainly less than I would have thought.

[julian1969]

I looked at 300s but found it very difficult to find the spec I wanted. Specifically ML without air suspension. Move to a 350 and fine but on a 300? Hens teeth. 

350 was a consideration in se trim but they are imho overpriced 2nd hand and cost a fortune to run. 

If you can find a 300 that meets the spec you want then great but it'll be older than a 350 or 400. 

In the end buy the car you want and that you are happy with. Plenty will come up so just play the long game and wait it'll pay off in the end.