IS250 - what's not to like?

[Linas.P]

8 hours ago, johnatg said:

Or just leave it alone to its own devices - I guess that's what most people do and it's fine nearly all the time!

That is even applicable for the best 0-60 times. Leave in Auto + PWR for best acceleration. I have tried several times and it accelerates slower when changing gears with paddles, mostly because up shifts are just limiter and not actual gear change, so when you upshift car still going to rev-up to the limit and only then change the gear and if you late - will hit limiter as well. While in PWR it up shifts straight after sweet spot for torque and hp for best acceleration and is much more precise than any human being.

The paddles are really just a toy in IS250 so that you can feel little bit more involved from time to time.  

[johnatg]

That's true, but there are occasions when the paddles are handy. For example, if you're following someone at say a steady 40mph looking for an opportunity to overtake, the car will be in 6th gear in normal mode. When the opportunity arises you put your foot down and there's a delay in kickdown even in PWR and hence a delay before you start accelerating. It can seem like an age, particularly if the window of opportunity is a bit tight.

But if you drop down to third with the paddles in advance as you see the chance is going to arise, as soon as you put your foot down you're away

[Wisty]

Another handy aspect of using the paddles is descending steep hills.  I find that dropping it into third is really good for helping safely descend things like Woodhead Pass.  Leaving it in auto, it will just stay in 6th and offer little engine braking.

[Linas.P]

I think the OP point is that they are rarely useful, but both above are true and would account for those rare situation where paddles are useful. I would add that paddles can be used for engine braking on icy roads, or even to get on slippery hills with Snow mode. Again most of the time they just look nice behind the wheel and why not... that alone is good enough reason to have them.

[finest1]

i've had my IS250 SE-L since 2010. i love it! only thing i don't like is the boot lid does not open automatically...

[normski2]

On 15 October 2016 at 6:20 PM, johnatg said:

That's true, but there are occasions when the paddles are handy. For example, if you're following someone at say a steady 40mph looking for an opportunity to overtake, the car will be in 6th gear in normal mode. When the opportunity arises you put your foot down and there's a delay in kickdown even in PWR and hence a delay before you start accelerating. It can seem like an age, particularly if the window of opportunity is a bit tight.

But if you drop down to third with the paddles in advance as you see the chance is going to arise, as soon as you put your foot down you're away

Exactly what I do .... I find the paddles to be a useful addition.

[madasahatter]

I have used the paddles and the stick. I just leave it in drive and pwr,you can always kickdown if needs be. The gear box is not made for either and are just

a gimmick.

[Lex_utor]

Old thread, I know. :) 

But I have had my IS250 now for close to a year. What's not to like? Well not much. But:

*Fuel consumption.  Although that might be my fault. 

*Wish mirrors folded in on Start/Stop. I will have to buy the add on.

*Rear leg room is bad. No better than many coupes.Is it even better than a Golf? Almost defeats the point of a saloon. Head room also.

*Would be nice if rear seats folded. But wife has a SUV, so don't miss it.

 

That's about it! LOVE the rest! Sure more power is always good. But I find it enough. And more power would mean even more fuel!

Love driving it! Mine has an aftermarket sports exhaust and  sports air intake. Came with the car. So sounds really nice. A stock one I saw driving by the other day sounded much more muted.

I wonder if chipping could help fuel consumption or performance? 

[Sundance]

And don't forget the ...

*Small boot!

I'm still keeping an eye out for a good low mileage C (big boot when roof is up) but the prices are ridiculous ATM and look unlikely to drop any time soon. 🙄

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, Sundance said:

And don't forget the ...

*Small boot!

I'm still keeping an eye out for a good low mileage C (big boot when roof is up) but the prices are ridiculous ATM and look unlikely to drop any time soon. 🙄

IS250C just changes some space from rear passengers, to boot - I guess worthy compromise for some. Although boot even being larger it isn't much more practical.

2 hours ago, Lex_utor said:

*Wish mirrors folded in on Start/Stop. I will have to buy the add on.

*Rear leg room is bad. No better than many coupes.Is it even better than a Golf? Almost defeats the point of a saloon. Head room also.

*Would be nice if rear seats folded. But wife has a SUV, so don't miss it.

Non-folding rear seats really hurts practicality of mk2, I especially feel it after RC which despite being coupe was way more practical, just because of folding seats. 

Kind of funny to reflect on my own posts 6 years ago - seems I eventually found myself limited by engine power.

I will be fitting mirror fold kit!

[Sundance]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

IS250C just changes some space from rear passengers, to boot - I guess worthy compromise for some. Although boot even being larger it isn't much more practical.

On the contrary, the larger boot and improved access to same is much more practical and a very worthy compromise as my rear seats are rarely used.  My search continues.

[chr15gb]

Rear legroom bothers me more than it should considering there is only two of us.

Boot I don't find too bad, I can get my electric bike in when folded in half, with the seat removed and handlebars lifted out and folded over...just!

I was toying with replacing the IS2050 with a GS450H, a much larger car but from what I can tell, a boot 10cm shorter than the 250, which would prevent me taking my bike.

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, chr15gb said:

Rear legroom bothers me more than it should considering there is only two of us.

Boot I don't find too bad, I can get my electric bike in when folded in half, with the seat removed and handlebars lifted out and folded over...just!

I was toying with replacing the IS2050 with a GS450H, a much larger car but from what I can tell, a boot 10cm shorter than the 250, which would prevent me taking my bike.

Yes because the batteries takes-up the space. Again that is why I found RC to be so practical. With seats folded I was able to fit two full size mountain bikes with wheels removed inside the boot, that they had quick release hubs obviously helped. There is no way I am fitting any sort of bike in IS250, the only option is to fit some sort of roof rack or something.

[markeyszoo]

On 9/24/2016 at 3:49 PM, J Henderson said:

I would gladly give up the rather unpredictable rain-sensitive wipers for a traditional intermittent wipe setting. Other than that, no complaints.

the speed of the rain sensitive can be adjusted easily enough?

[markeyszoo]

On 9/26/2016 at 4:04 PM, normski2 said:

It was not an option in the UK market. As far as I know it was only available in the US.

TBH I don't think its that clever an idea really. The glasses are being stored in a place that can get incredibly hot ...probably end up buckling the arms if you were unlucky.

available eBay

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, markeyszoo said:

the speed of the rain sensitive can be adjusted easily enough?

And there are standard intermittent options as on any other car without auto wipers, so I really don't understand this issue.  

As well I had US spec 2010 IS250 AWD and it had sunglass holder, it wasn't getting hot at all and I am sure it is easy retrofit. There must be plenty US IS being broken apart so should be possible to get part for cheap. Like so:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124054895434

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144366577555

[J Henderson]

2 hours ago, markeyszoo said:

the speed of the rain sensitive can be adjusted easily enough?

Yes it can. There are occasions though where the wipers just sweep constantly for no reason, regardless of speed setting.

Like, late at night when the car is cold with a light film of condensation on it. The auto wipers will quite correctly wipe this away when you start the car, but then they'll continue to keep sweeping a bone-dry screen for ages until I disable the wipers manually.

They can be a bit hit and miss in foggy conditions too.

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

And there are standard intermittent options as on any other car without auto wipers, so I really don't understand this issue.  

There's no intermittent setting. Otherwise I wouldn't have said what I did, erm 6 years ago.

[Linas.P]

yeah it is old thread... but the wiper stalk is as follows - single wipe, off, auto, medium intermittent, fast intermittent. So compared to car without auto, you only missing slow intermittent, which to be fair is fairly well covered by auto and single. Am I missing something? 

[J Henderson]

intermittent

/ɪntəˈmɪt(ə)nt/

adjective

occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.

"intermittent rain"

 

[Linas.P]

Thanks for definition, but you do realise that calling any wiper mode intermittent (except of automatic) is just incorrect based on what this mode does, because even slow setting would be "occurring in regular intervals", just with longer gaps between them. 

So if I understand you missing slow setting - which may be incorrectly called "intermittent"? Because if we go by what intermittent means then on "traditional" manual wipers there is no "intermittent" mode. Just slow mode which wipes then stops for 5 seconds, then wipes again. 

I think I did have few occasions where I was kind of annoyed to use single wipe manually (Lexus calls it "temporary operation") as automatic even on lowest sensitivity was too fast for conditions and I kind of wanted something that would be slightly slower than medium setting, but this is kind of exceptional circumstances.

[J Henderson]

53 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

not continuous

This is the key aspect of "intermittent" definition. Both of the speed settings are continuous. They just sweep endlessly until you intervene. No pauses.

29 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Just slow mode which wipes then stops for 5 seconds, then wipes again. 

You've just described an intermittent wiper setting. My car doesn't have this. 

It appears some IS250s without rain sensing wipers do have it though. The manual mentions South Africa only.

[Linas.P]

I know what you are saying, but you decided to include word definition as if I am illiterate and the definition does not correctly describe what "intermittent" mode actually does. I am just nit picking, as you know I like bit of this action, so don't take it too seriously, but you said:

2 hours ago, J Henderson said:

intermittent

/ɪntəˈmɪt(ə)nt/

adjective

occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.

And now you saying:

55 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

This[continuous] is the key aspect of "intermittent" definition. 

But now you saying disregard "the irregularity", as long as it is not continuous, it is "intermittent". So which one it is? Even then it is still technically continuous and it is steady, as it happens at regular intervals, steadily and continuously every x seconds until you turn it off. True intermittent would be a crazy mode where wipers operates completely randomly - it could 1 once every second and then once in 1 hour- you never know, because it is intermittent. 

My point is - word "intermittent" is used incorrectly in this context (not by you, but whomever decided to call it that way).

I am sure we can continue deep into linguistics and trying to find culprit who failed the humanity by incorrectly calling slow wipers mode "intermittent", but I know it is pointless, especially considering that we both know what we talking about. Yes IS250 with auto wipers does not have this mode, yes there were few occasions where I wanted it to have it, but it is rare. Just don't use definitions against me if you right away disregard them yourself. 

 

[SeanR]

Reading the recent additions to this old thread, was expecting some kind of grim tales of engine faults etc.

 

Glad its just folk being picky  haha

[Linas.P]

I noticed increased number of electrical faults, failed sensors, gearbox solenoids etc. But I don't attribute it to the car, I attribute it to covid restrictions and many cars spending nearly 2 years not being driven regularly. My conclusion is that cars don't like to sit for long periods of time parked. But it applies to any car, not just IS250.

[SeanR]

True that, 

Remember a firm that imported Japanese cars years ago telling me the same thing because some of the cars had been sat for such a long time.