Dad's Delightful Dinner Guests Designed to Drive Dual Hybrids

It's a tag line my dad made up, but it's sooo much better than what I thought of.

Dad and Mom went out to eat with friends this past weekend, "... Logan's Roadhouse (peanuts on the floor) for lunch". (So I think they went Dutch, not "guests", just for disclosure!) One couple in the group happen to have two hybrids. He has been driving a leased Prius for a couple years. She now has the new Lexus RX 400h. Gotta love those pivoting headlamps! They gave rides in the Lexus.

I think my parents were impressed. Certainly, I was excited to hear about it. Dad's words: "we road in a Lexus hybrid; [Mom] in the back parking lot, I got to go all the way around the building; very interesting, back brakes are disc - and open to the street - I could actually touch the disc; transition from elec to gas was smooth; diagram of power source in operation was cool, but I would have to study it; ..."

Are exposed discs for show? They seem to be common these days (hybrid or not). They also distract from the "regen braking" message.

Lexus flies the Hybrid Synergy Drive banner, but the RX 400h is quite different from a Prius. Not only does the Prius have drum rear brakes, but it also carries ye olde 4-cyl gasoline engine. The gasoline side of the Lexus is a V6, a screamer!

Dad's is the first report I have heard of the Lexus hybrid.

-- R;