What would you like to improve to your car?

[dutchie01]

Just wondering if we all come up with more or less thesame weak spots. I have been driving an IS300H Fsport for 2.5 yrs now and truly like it. 

However there are some things i would like to see improved ( and maybe already are with the facelift ). I am not talking about shoehorning another engine in or fitting 22'rims but here we go.

I find that

the heated seats are not strong enough. I cannot find a difference between 1 2 or 3 setting.

rear window demister is too weak. i consequently have it on constantly this time of year

of course the satnav and entire IT platform is dated, looks and feels old and not user friendly.

the Battery is too weak would love to have more miles on electric only.

service intervals are too short

i would like to have F sport looks but without the F sport chassis. Please give me the looks alone and let me have the comfort dampers the IS is not a performance car.

i want LED lights inside the cabin. Everywhere.

Opening the trunk can be bloody dangerous as it flips back with force smashing your skull. This i find a big  and dangerous design fault.

Sometimes the electronics get confused if you dont follow the correct order to shut down the car ( i.e  open the door before turning the engine off).

For the rest i like it great standout looks and every time a nice feeling when driving it. Not bland and the car gives me a feeling im driving something special.

How about you?

 

 

 

 

[Pompeyscouser]

 

Dutchie01,

I have had my f sport for 2 years (65 reg) and agree with most of what you say below (see additional comments):

the heated seats are not strong enough. I cannot find a difference between 1 2 or 3 setting. Don’t have a problem with the heated seats and particularly like the ventilation in the summer.. ooooh.

rear window demister is too weak. i consequently have it on constantly this time of year. Absolutely agree with this. Weakest I have ever come across.

of course the satnav and entire IT platform is dated, looks and feels old and not user friendly. Completely agree, had a much better system in a Mercedes 10 years ago.

the Battery is too weak would love to have more miles on electric only. Agree, but until Battery efficiency improves, more Battery means less room in the boot, probably.

service intervals are too short. 12k should be normal. 

i would like to have F sport looks but without the F sport chassis. Please give me the looks alone and let me have the comfort dampers the IS is not a performance car. No comments on this one. I am happy with the status quo.

i want LED lights inside the cabin. Everywhere. Why? 

Opening the trunk can be bloody dangerous as it flips back with force smashing your skull. This i find a big  and dangerous design fault. Never had this problem. When I unlock the boot, it only opens a few millimetres and I have to lift the rest.

Sometimes the electronics get confused if you dont follow the correct order to shut down the car ( i.e  open the door before turning the engine off). Never seen this issue.

I would like a bit more legroom in the rear.

Overall, I am very happy with the car and can’t think of a better alternative. I have previously had BMW 323i, 320d touring (really liked the convenience of the estate), Mercedes C200, C250d and VW Golf GTD. None of these compared to Lexus for quality!!

[ColinBarber]

I had no issue with the heated seats on my F Sport, which had the upgraded heated/cooled seats. They heated up very quickly and leaving on the highest setting for too long would get uncomfortably hot.

I found the suspension was a little too harsh.

Never had an issue with the boot, it never opens when released other than popping off the catch.

[rayaans]

I again have no issues with the heated seats. Mine get warm quickly, not as quick as in the 4RX but quicker than 3RX. 

I think the suspension on the F Sport is quite comfy tbh. I've driven the Premier and despite having softer suspension, there wasn't a massive difference in ride.

My boot only pops. It won't open all the way unlike other brands so don't find it a safety issue

[65mike]

Hi all.

I find the seats take about 3 miles to get warm and the sat nav is a joke 

65mike

[Blisteringblue]

Android Auto / apple Carplay

 

And who knows we may even eventually get it https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/15/16892804/toyota-lexus-apple-carplay-2019-models-avalon-naims-detroit-2018

[Thackeray]

16 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

the heated seats are not strong enough. I cannot find a difference between 1 2 or 3 setting.

rear window demister is too weak. i consequently have it on constantly this time of year

of course the satnav and entire IT platform is dated, looks and feels old and not user friendly.

the battery is too weak would love to have more miles on electric only.

service intervals are too short

i would like to have F sport looks but without the F sport chassis. Please give me the looks alone and let me have the comfort dampers the IS is not a performance car.

i want LED lights inside the cabin. Everywhere.

Opening the trunk can be bloody dangerous as it flips back with force smashing your skull. This i find a big  and dangerous design fault.

Sometimes the electronics get confused if you dont follow the correct order to shut down the car ( i.e  open the door before turning the engine off).

Interesting post. Let's hope Lexus designers read this forum.

Heated seats - I don't have a problem with them. I quite like the idea that the heat fades as the cabin warms up.

Rear window demister - it could certainly be more powerful. It's quite slow to demist, unlike the front. Though again, when the cabin warms up, unlike some other forum members, I don't need to keep it turned on, as long as the air conditioning is on and working properly.

Satnav, audio - entirely unintuitive. Even after reading the manual it was hard to get it to work. Lexus clearly didn't do any user testing. If I was in Toyota/Lexus management I'd want to know why the satnav/dab radio etc had not been put through proper professional user testing. That means getting users who have never seen the system before - but have some basic knowledge of the conventions used on computers/audio systems - to try and make it work. This is a flaw in the design process. Lexus take note! 

Service intervals too short - agree.

Boot lid - I don't have this problem; it just releases by a few millimetres and stays almost shut until you lift it. Maybe yours needs adjustment.

Electronics - Haven't had this problem.

Battery capacity too small. 

I've left this one till last as it's an interesting point. Although it feels fun to be running on the Battery and it's nice and quiet, and the mpg gauge says you're doing 99 mpg, I think this is misleading. In reality, whenever you're running on electricity alone it's only efficient use of energy when you're using electricity recouped from braking. Using the engine to generate electricity and then using that electricity to drive electric motors can't be as efficient as just using the petrol engine - there must be losses as heat when you introduce the intermediate stages.

So that means if you're going to design a hybrid, rather than an all-electric car, you have to size the Battery to make best use of the regenerated electricity you can get from braking. There's no point in saving the energy generated by the petrol engine when it can be used to drive the wheels directly. And you have to balance the weight and space taken by the Battery against how much output it can store. I don't know how much that is but it's obviously a trade-off. 

So what about quietness when using electricity? Personally, I find being able to tell whether you're running on Battery alone is only perceptible at very low speeds, say, around 5 mph, 10 mph max. Above that I mostly can't hear when the petrol engine is running and when it isn't. I've turned off the EV light, as I found it was too much of a distraction. (Yes, I like the fun of knowing when it's running on Battery only, too. But ultimately I decided it's an unnecessary distraction from watching the road, so I turned it off.)

What I'd like to add to your list is the indicators. As I've mentioned in another thread, they turn off too soon. If you're turning right at a roundabout, they turn off as soon as you enter the roundabout and turn the wheel a bit to the left. This is irritating as you have to turn them on again to keep indicating right.

 

[ColinBarber]

27 minutes ago, Thackeray said:

What I'd like to add to your list is the indicators. As I've mentioned in another thread, they turn off too soon. If you're turning right at a roundabout, they turn off as soon as you enter the roundabout and turn the wheel a bit to the left. This is irritating as you have to turn them on again to keep indicating right.

I don't get this at all. The indicators not having a mechanical return means it is the only car I've driven, expect for my current GS, where I don't have to fight with the indicators at roundabouts. I'm disappointed to see that Toyota/Lexus haven't fitted these to all their models.

With regards to the Battery too small, the vehicle isn't a pull-in hybrid. It isn't designed to be run in EV only except for very short distances and the Battery capacity has indeed been sized to offer the best compromise between space, weight and fuel saving. The actual amount of energy recovered from the brakes is very small.

[malcolmw]

I also don't like the way the indicators on the IS work. The press and return to centre operation is fiddly and difficult to cancel manually. The "standard" arrangement on the 4RX and the LC is much more user friendly and is just like almost all other cars. 

[Thackeray]

9 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

I don't get this at all. The indicators not having a mechanical return means it is the only car I've driven, expect for my current GS, where I don't have to fight with the indicators at roundabouts

Here's a link to the discussion of when indicators cancel. It turns out that other people's cars work the same way mine does. Whether this is an irritation or not may come down to what your local roundabouts are like and how sharply you have to turn your steering wheel to the left when entering them. The roundabouts I use often cause this irritation.

 

[rayaans]

I dont mind the indicators but ultimately prefer a more mechanical feeling. I guess its similiar to having a manual and an automatic I guess.

The trick with the indicators is simply modulating how hard you push on them and once you've done it enough, it works fine including manual cancelling.

BMW have recently gone to these one touch indicators and its a 50/50 mix on preferences. I guess they now have an excuse for not using them....

 

What would I like to improve - not sure really. The car is generally great. I dont have any major issues with the nav or infotainment system either. Im probably used to it over having different Lexus vehicles so just know where everything is.

I guess having a paintcode for the F-Sport alloys would be an improvement though - its a pain having to get the colour matched!

Cheaper servicing would be welcome too as the price is genuinely extortionate

[Mr Vlad]

The only improvement I'd like for my car is the introduction of soft materials above the door frame areas. Why? Coz if I have the seat height set to perfection I'd be banging my head on the hard plastic used causin me to curse.

Otherwise my car is superb. Great speed and economy. Sound system top notch. Nothing wrong at all with the infotainment system. Happy days really.

[Thackeray]

Another slight irritation are the climate control temperature sliders.

Ergonomically poor.  You can't operate them without looking at them. Blind passengers are unable to set a preferred temperature. Sometimes I'm turning on the demister and graze my hand against the slider and it resets the temperature. I then can't correct it until the road is clear and I can look away from the traffic to the temperature display. Meanwhile, I freeze or boil (depending on the season) as the temperature is reset. This, however, is just a slight irritation.

Much more irritating is the way most car journalists say how great they are. "Wow, this is so cool!" they say, echoing what the Lexus marketing department probably said (only in Japanese) in a pointless meeting about how to make the car more cool.

Never mind the engineers at the meeting who probably said nervously , "But wouldn't it be more practical to have just a round knob with a pointy bit at the top so that you could set it to the mid-way position by feel alone? Then you could adjust it higher or lower while driving, without having to look at it."

"But that wouldn't look cool at all," the marketing people probably replied (in Japanese, of course). "That would look simple, practical and easy to use, which we definitely don't want. This isn't a Volvo. And not only that - it wouldn't trick British car journalists into thinking it was a super modern feature that they could copy from our press release."

[Martin F]

One major irritation for me, which was on my IS but is exactly the same on the RCF, is if you set the infotainment system to randomly playback songs from a USB stick, then when you stop the car and start it again you have to go through the whole rigmarole of setting it back to random play again. 

I know it's a first world problem, but it's such a stupid bug in the firmware. 

[Guest]

One major irritation for me, which was on my IS but is exactly the same on the RCF, is if you set the infotainment system to randomly playback songs from a USB stick, then when you stop the car and start it again you have to go through the whole rigmarole of setting it back to random play again. 
I know it's a first world problem, but it's such a stupid bug in the firmware. 

Ahhhhhh yes +1 . Just plays the folder you were in when switched off.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[J Henderson]

Something else about playing music via USB.... There's always a pause between tracks, which is annoying if they're supposed to be seamlessly-mixed together.

Is this just a foible of the USB format rather than Lexus's fault? I'm one of those that still buy CDs, so I'm not sure. 

 

[Guest]

Something else about playing music via USB.... There's always a pause between tracks, which is annoying if they're supposed to be seamlessly-mixed together.
Is this just a foible of the USB format rather than Lexus's fault? I'm one of those that still buy CDs, so I'm not sure. 
 

No, think it's how they are written to the USB. There is a setting in some software to control this I think?

I thought of another though. Doesn't play FLAC files.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[Ben1001]

The traction is awful, an AWD option in the UK would of been good.

[Bob99]

I always use music from my usb stick and have had no problems with it. When I restart it carries on from where it stopped even mid song, 

[rayaans]

4 hours ago, Ben1001 said:

The traction is awful, an AWD option in the UK would of been good.

I dont agree with this.

The traction is pretty epic - you can't get the car to slip no matter what unless you turn everything off - and even then, just a tad of slip.

[Ben1001]

You are kidding me. I see the traction control light come on all the time, rear wheels spin in less an inch of mud. In the snow it was atrocious - got stuck in slush. Might be down to tyres but mine has the same brand as new.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bob99 said:

I always use music from my usb stick and have had no problems with it. When I restart it carries on from where it stopped even mid song, 

It does, but it stays within that folder the song was in. What's the file structure of your USB? Answer could lie there.

[Mr Vlad]

1 hour ago, Ben1001 said:

You are kidding me. I see the traction control light come on all the time, rear wheels spin in less an inch of mud. In the snow it was atrocious - got stuck in slush. Might be down to tyres but mine has the same brand as new.

I agree with Rayaans. Altho you have the same brand tyres then they're either at the wrong pressures or sub standard which is possible. Yes there are copies of tyres with bad consequences. 

[Ben1001]

What pressure do you recommend?

[ColinBarber]

32 minutes ago, Ben1001 said:

What pressure do you recommend?

depends on which size wheels you have but I think they are all around 36 psi.

I never really had a problem with traction with my F Sport, no worse than any other RWD vehicle. Obviously it isn't going to be good in mud.