Appalling transmission and build quality

[Unhappy from Nottingham]

Am I the only one who finds the transmission in the LC500H appalling?  In spite of a supposed software upgrade, I have grown to really dislike the car for the jolt the car gives you on mild acceleration in going from 3rd to 4th, 6th to 7th (the worst) and 9th to 10th.  I have raised it repeatedly with the dealer over the past 9 months, Lexus UK have only just told me in the nicest possible way to go forth and do one.  Along with a number of other build issues, I share earlier views that this is by far the worst quality Lexus I've owned of the 6 I've had in the last 20 years.  Also the customer care experience has been a very unpleasant shock. 

[Jules640]

I would agree with everything you are saying. I found the LC500h to be gutless due to the 'rubber band' transmission. I also had a number of build quality issues and found the SatNav to be almost unusable with the touchpad and so I sold mine after a year. Eight months on and it still up for sale at a Lexus dealership so there is obviously very little demand for them.

 

[Malc]

I find it quite amazing that cars need, what ?? 10 gears  ?

I'm driving my third Ls400 in and constantly over 19 years and quite honestly, the old and well proven technology seems to work absolutely fine for me ( but I am very old too I guess )

Masses of power and oomph  0  to  60 in a faster time than I would ever need and a still top speed of something I'm never going to reach  .....  wot's with all this super gears etc

I can just about overtake anything else on the road, beat boy racers away from the lights and stop on a pinhead too

BUT I do sympathise with you for having your problems with a really expensive new car ......  might be the same with a Lamborghini or huge BMW too maybe 

Malc

[RgrWynne]

Don’t forget that much of this development is driven by emissions requirements and has a detrimental effect on the way newer engines operate. I say engines not cars because the same type of problems occur in new marine outboard engines, where the old technology was supremely reliable,  as Malc indicates with older Lexus’s, but now new ones have real issues, I am told caused by the requirement to meet emissions legislation. Whilst I am happy to trundle along in my 4.3 V8, a time will come to change, but I suppose it will then be electric.

[rayaans]

1 hour ago, Unhappy from Nottingham said:

Am I the only one who finds the transmission in the LC500H appalling?  In spite of a supposed software upgrade, I have grown to really dislike the car for the jolt the car gives you on mild acceleration in going from 3rd to 4th, 6th to 7th (the worst) and 9th to 10th.  I have raised it repeatedly with the dealer over the past 9 months, Lexus UK have only just told me in the nicest possible way to go forth and do one.  Along with a number of other build issues, I share earlier views that this is by far the worst quality Lexus I've owned of the 6 I've had in the last 20 years.  Also the customer care experience has been a very unpleasant shock. 

Are these not synthetic gears from the multistage transmission? Something which I suspect would have been very obvious from a test drive?

The V8 LC500 is the one to go for. Doesn't make sense to go for the LC500h whatsoever unless its for a company car.

[malcolmw]

@Unhappy from Nottingham

From your description, the gear changes you list are those produced by the "secondary" gearbox and not the main eCVT. This is what rayaans is saying above.

When I test drove the hybrid LC500 it did not display the behaviour you describe so a test drive would not have shown this up. It sounds like there may be an actual problem here. Has the dealer technical rep. test driven yours?

Can you tell us the age and mileage of your car? Did you have it from new? Has this problem got worse over time? What are the "other build issues" which you have experienced? All this would be very helpful to others on here.

I can confirm that the V8 does not suffer from "jerky" shifts. 

@Malc

Yes, 10 gears seems a lot but I think this is to compensate for the non-turbo engine. Most competitors have more torque but the LC500 just changes down until you get in the power band. It also promotes reasonable economy (I get 25mpg).

[rayaans]

2 hours ago, malcolmw said:

@Unhappy from Nottingham

From your description, the gear changes you list are those produced by the "secondary" gearbox and not the main eCVT. This is what rayaans is saying above.

When I test drove the hybrid LC500 it did not display the behaviour you describe so a test drive would not have shown this up. It sounds like there may be an actual problem here. Has the dealer technical rep. test driven yours?

Can you tell us the age and mileage of your car? Did you have it from new? Has this problem got worse over time? What are the "other build issues" which you have experienced? All this would be very helpful to others on here.

I can confirm that the V8 does not suffer from "jerky" shifts. 

@Malc

Yes, 10 gears seems a lot but I think this is to compensate for the non-turbo engine. Most competitors have more torque but the LC500 just changes down until you get in the power band. It also promotes reasonable economy (I get 25mpg).

Also I believe only the first 6 "gears" are used most of the time. The rest are for motorway cruising and overdrive to eek out maximum economy.

[wendle]

As others have said, you shouldn't get a jolt when it changes gear when in Auto, but if you have it in sports +, and in manual and you're giving it some stick then the gear changes can be a bit, i think the word is snappy. As for the 10 gears, the last four are for economy, on a recent trip to Portsmouth, 200 mile round trip i got 32 m.p.g, Ok i was driving at around 65/70 m.p.h, with the cruse control on for 70% of the trip, and no traffic jams, pretty amazing i think. 

[bvhout]

I would consider testdriving another LC500h and see whether it is something that you recognise in all LC500h's. If it is, I suppose your dealer can't do anything about it. If it isn't, you may make him aware of this and let him have another look at the problem. 

[Guest]

As others have said, you shouldn't get a jolt when it changes gear when in Auto, but if you have it in sports +, and in manual and you're giving it some stick then the gear changes can be a bit, i think the word is snappy. As for the 10 gears, the last four are for economy, on a recent trip to Portsmouth, 200 mile round trip i got 32 m.p.g, Ok i was driving at around 65/70 m.p.h, with the cruse control on for 70% of the trip, and no traffic jams, pretty amazing i think. 

Does it have a locking torque converter?

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