GS450H Spanish / Portugal roadtrip MPG

Northern_Si · December 21, 2017

I’m currently in the middle of a bit of a road trip.

I started in Manchester and drove to Portsmouth for the ferry,
Drove from Bilbao to Galicia
Drove over the border to Portugal and visited Porto, Lisbon and Albufeira
Drove back of the border and drove along the coast to Mojácar (including some beautiful views of the Straights of Gibraltar)
Drove just north of Valencia avoiding toll roads.

Car is currently showing 6.9km/l which equals about 41mpg. Considing I’m on my winter tyres (which is funny when I was so close to Africa), not driving economically and includes driving into cities .... I’m pretty impressed. I think this in on par with my old E350CDI and the Lexus is a much nicer car to drive.

I have picked up an annoying habit. When overtaking cars which have slowed me down, I do now rev the car and growl at them which is not very Lexus like.

Also I’ve only seen one over GS450H on the whole trip and that was in Porto. The number of people who takes second look at the car and try to work out what is it makes me smile.

royoftherovers · December 21, 2017

17 minutes ago, Northern_Si said:

I’m currently in the middle of a bit of a road trip.

I started in Manchester and drove to Portsmouth for the ferry,

Drove from Bilbao to Galicia

Drove over the border to Portugal and visited Porto, Lisbon and Albufeira

Drove back of the border and drove along the coast to Mojácar (including some beautiful views of the Straights of Gibraltar)

Drove just north of Valencia avoiding toll roads.

Car is currently showing 6.9km/l which equals about 41mpg. Considing I’m on my winter tyres (which is funny when I was so close to Africa), not driving economically and includes driving into cities .... I’m pretty impressed. I think this in on par with my old E350CDI and the Lexus is a much nicer car to drive.

I have picked up an annoying habit. When overtaking cars which have slowed me down, I do now rev the car and growl at them which is not very Lexus like.

Also I’ve only seen one over GS450H on the whole trip and that was in Porto. The number of people who takes second look at the car and try to work out what is it makes me smile.

Nice post Simon.

I guess the relatively high ambient temperature down there coupled with the relatively quiet roads and your undoubtedly sensible driving make for excellent fuel economy ?

I drive down there from Wirral twice each year to just North of Velez Malaga. I drive through France using the Toll Roads and average over 50 mpg in my 15 year old E class Merc Estate.

I cannot take the Lexus as its carrying capacity is low and the Spanish drivers are not kind to cars generally.

Have a great trip.

Northern_Si · December 21, 2017

6 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

Nice post Simon.

I guess the relatively high ambient temperature down there coupled with the relatively quiet roads and your undoubtedly sensible driving make for excellent fuel economy ?

I drive down there from Wirral twice each year to just North of Velez Malaga. I drive through France using the Toll Roads and average over 50 mpg in my 15 year old E class Merc Estate.

I cannot take the Lexus as its carrying capacity is low and the Spanish drivers are not kind to cars generally.

Have a great trip.

Weather in Northern Spain was horrendous, heavy rain and fog. I was glad I had new wiper blades fitted the previous week.

Regarding speeds, let’s just say was making progress and staying with 15% of the speed limit most of the time. Some of the legs I managed to reduce the estimated travel time by 20%.

Driving into the centre of Porto was pretty bad and makes London feel quiet.

Once I got down south, the sun did shine, the temperature did increase and for most parts the roads got quieter.

Big lesson for me is in the future checking the expiration on my Via-T tag as reversing out of the lane is pretty embarrassing.

Usually I do drive through France or drive straight from Santander but fancied a change this time.

Regarding parking and the Spanish use of bumpers as a parking sensor.... I always find nice underground car-parks near the hotels and my apartment has one. I did find the modern Parador hotels in Spain do have big spaces

Zotto · December 21, 2017

Ehm, not to be too picky but probably you scored 6,9 liters/100 km , as 6,9 km/l is awful :) .

6,9 l%km are about 14,5 km/l= 40.6 mpg

Not bad for the power of GS 450h :) , with my GS 300h I would make not more than 47 mpg.

Northern_Si · December 22, 2017

21 hours ago, Zotto said:

Ehm, not to be too picky but probably you scored 6,9 liters/100 km , as 6,9 km/l is awful :) .

6,9 l%km are about 14,5 km/l= 40.6 mpg

Not bad for the power of GS 450h :) , with my GS 300h I would make not more than 47 mpg.

Yep, it is l/100 km 😀

If I drived more sensibly and to the speed limit, my expectation is that it would be 43 / 44 mpg.

Toll stations are just an excuse to go from 0 to 80 mph as quickly as possible.... I just can’t help myself.

Still love the feeling overtaking cars on 5% descents with the petrol engine turned off. Beats the VAG valve deactivation technology 😀

But it does make the GS a great tourer. I would struggle to go back to a V6 diesel.

Zotto · December 22, 2017

Totally agree. My GS 300h is quite better than my 2008 GS450h but I remember with nostalgia that V6, may be my next Lexus will have a V6.

Northern_Si · January 5, 2018

3.5k miles completed and my road trip has come to an end.

The final indicated MPG is 41mpg with an average speed of 58mph. I’m well impressed especially as this was a total mix of driving including driving 1.4k meters up a mountain to find the road shut.... although the Battery was fully charged by the time I came back down.

This biggest thing for me was how comfortable the car is and how I was able to get out of the car after 6 hours driving and go sightseeing.

royoftherovers · January 6, 2018

15 hours ago, Northern_Si said:

3.5k miles completed and my road trip has come to an end.

The final indicated MPG is 41mpg with an average speed of 58mph. I’m well impressed especially as this was a total mix of driving including driving 1.4k meters up a mountain to find the road shut.... although the battery was fully charged by the time I came back down.

This biggest thing for me was how comfortable the car is and how I was able to get out of the car after 6 hours driving and go sightseeing.

Glad you are back safe Simon and without incident.Testimony to the Lexus and your driving skills no doubt.

I fly out on 19 Jan to retrieve the Merc which I had to leave in Sept last due to illness. Will come back via Madrid, Bordeaux, Rouen and Calais.

The worst part of the journey will be the 300 miles from Folkestone to Wirral !!

Farqui · January 6, 2018

Ditto, it sounds like you had a great time and travelled in comfort [emoji106]

I'm contemplating a trip this summer maybe heading to lake Como and then back to Belgium via Austria, etc. Haven't really nailed it down yet.

sorcerer · January 6, 2018

2 hours ago, Farqui said:

Ditto, it sounds like you had a great time and travelled in comfort

I'm contemplating a trip this summer maybe heading to lake Como and then back to Belgium via Austria, etc. Haven't really nailed it down yet.

Get yourself out to Poland, Czech Republic and/or Slovakia. Some absolutely beautiful places with warm, friendly people - and beer at 85p/pint

The-Acre · January 6, 2018

2 hours ago, Farqui said:

Ditto, it sounds like you had a great time and travelled in comfort

I'm contemplating a trip this summer maybe heading to lake Como and then back to Belgium via Austria, etc. Haven't really nailed it down yet.

I'm planning a trip with my wife for the Spring. We're planning to drive to Vienna with a stop on the way, and if all goes well slipping into Italy. Probably 10 days in all. My fuel economy may not be so impressive as I'll be taking the LS430 (assuming it isn't sold by then) or a GS300 if the former has a new home. Common sense tells me to take my diesel Volvo, but what does common sense have to do with it I ask myself!

Malc · January 6, 2018

when I did my Grand Tours of Spain/Portugal and Italy in 2014 and 2015 doing about 5.5/6k miles each trip, the most galling interruption was the pretty constant flagging down by the police so they could look at this strange car and wonder at the style, shape and age doing such trips ............. no other reason that I could fathom for stopping me for a chat !

( other than my amazing personality )

Malc

The-Acre · January 6, 2018

20 minutes ago, Malc said:

when I did my Grand Tours of Spain/Portugal and Italy in 2014 and 2015 doing about 5.5/6k miles each trip, the most galling interruption was the pretty constant flagging down by the police so they could look at this strange car and wonder at the style, shape and age doing such trips ............. no other reason that I could fathom for stopping me for a chat !

( other than my amazing personality )

Malc

That was in the LS?

sorcerer · January 6, 2018

The first time we drove to Czechoslovakia was in 1991 before it became two separate countries again (Czech Republic and Slovakia; in 1993 if I remember correctly). At that time there was only one company producing a guidebook (Fodor's) so almost all tourists were turning up at the same places.

We spent some time in a beautiful little place called Český Krumlov and we were very surprised to see, outside the hotel, a UK-registered Morris Minor with a split windscreen, which I think ages it to before 1956-58ish when they went to the single-piece windscreen, so it would have been at least about 33 years old when it did that road trip. It's still the oldest UK-registered car I've ever seen on the road abroad.

Northern_Si · January 6, 2018

3 hours ago, Malc said:

when I did my Grand Tours of Spain/Portugal and Italy in 2014 and 2015 doing about 5.5/6k miles each trip, the most galling interruption was the pretty constant flagging down by the police so they could look at this strange car and wonder at the style, shape and age doing such trips ............. no other reason that I could fathom for stopping me for a chat !

( other than my amazing personality )

Malc

The only other GS450h I saw on the whole trip was in the centre of Porto. I did see a few 300h's but the GS is a rare breed.

Malc · January 7, 2018

18 hours ago, The-Acre said:

That was in the LS?

yes, my Ls and absolutely zero other big Lexus anywhere . the one or two very odd 200 types though and if I remember an amazing Lexus badged supercar the likes of which I have never seen ............. did they ever make and use a prototype on the road around Milan ?

Malc