The day I started driving the Lexus 400h, I turned on the Mark Levinson audio system and turned the knob to, well, the news, which would probably profoundly disappoint the people who engineered that superb audio system.  And I heard—mind you, this is pre-Katrina—that the price of oil was making a climb upwards beyond $60/barrel, a run-up in price that was interrupted only by the jolt given it by the hurricane.  It occurred to me at that point that while miles per gallon matter to me (trust me, this won’t be all about me), miles per gallon probably don’t matter as much to the well-heeled (think Manolo Blahnik or Bally).  Sure, sure, they’d rather spend money on things other than gasoline, but if you’re going to pay upwards of $52K for a vehicle, then chances are you’re not comparison shopping at BP and Mobil.

The fact that the sticker says 31 city and 27 highway is probably not something that is a deal maker nor a deal breaker.  It’s just another number that probably isn’t as interesting as the $1,840 for the DVD rear seat entertainment system—because a rear seat entertainment system is something that interests you.  It doesn’t bother you that Consumer Reports has recently reported that the numbers on the stickers are all way off.  It probably won’t make you excited to know that during my week behind the wheel I averaged 24.1 mpg—which seems entirely respectable to me because this is a luxury SUV!!!!    (Given that it weighs 4,365 lb., that ain’t all bad, either.)

The more important aspect, of course, is that this vehicle is meant to be a performance vehicle.  Add the electric motor power to the 208-hp V6 and you get a total of 268 hp.  It may not be VROOM!, but it is certainly VROOMish.  The nature of the electric motors means that there is torque at low speeds.  This is not meant to be a Prius, where you can buzz along at low speed without the engine running.  This is meant to provide the SUV driver with a bit of a kick.

Critics decry the fact that the mpgs provided by the 400h aren’t “hybrid-like,” meaning that they aren’t really high.  Which is true.  But which isn’t the point.  This is a Lexus.  This is a luxury SUV.  This is what you buy when you just want something beyond the RX 330 from which it has been cloned (far more than “based”).  The 400h is something different.  What’s somewhat unusual is that many of those who find the mileage of the 400h to be unhybrid-like aren’t environmentalists but car enthusiasts.  They talk about the return on investment and through their tortured calculus “prove” that it isn’t a good deal to buy a hybrid because, “You’ll never make it back on gasoline prices.”  Gee, I wonder how many people who buy, oh, hemi-powered vehicles or sports cars or many of those other things that the enthusiasts get geeked by pull out their calculators at the fuel pump?  What’s the ROI on one of those?

Bottom line: If you’ve got it (as in cash), if you like it (as in the 400h), buy it.