IS300h Review

[Phooey]

Ok, so I promised that I would give my feedback on what I thought of my new IS300h 2017 Executive 

It is fair to say that I am enjoying her immensely.  First pull off from the dealer I forgot to release the brake! Never did that again! One embarrassed new Lexus owner - a bit of a clunk!

It took a few miles to become accustomed to the automatic; I've not driven an automatic for many year but once I settled in I forgot all about the gears.  She performed smoothly and quietly on the trip home of about 60 miles.  I took it really steady and focused on becoming familiar with all the dials and controls.

I have had her about 8 weeks now and covered about 1500 miles.  She is beautifully smooth, quiet and comfortable.  I find the steering very smooth and positive, no hint of under-steer or over-steer that I had in my Volvo S60. Point her to where you want to go and she goes there.  Power is sufficient and in sport mode and foot planted it moves more than quick enough for me.  If I wanted a '**** off of a shovel' car I'd have considered something else entirely.

I read and saw many reviews saying the car is noisy when accelerated hard.  I can't agree; or at least I've been lucky because I heard nothing more than an acceleration compatible with flooring any motor and it is about the only time I do hear the engine.  She is definitely responsive and quick enough for me.

The added button for simulated digital engine noise is switched off all the time.  If I wanted to hear the engine I would not have chosen a Lexus.  The rear camera is surprisingly useful despite many reviews I have heard to the contrary. It has helped in and out of one or two tight spaces already and although my driving experience would have still gotten me in and out safely, this addition assists and helps lower anxiety and fear of scratching my little baby. 🙂 

Fuel economy is coming in at an average 55 mpg.  Disappointing that I can't actually see this number in the info panel so I am having to 'guestimate' an average from the row of bars that I can see.  I am still trying to become familiar with all the info available so it might be there somewhere.  Generally I find the controls easy to operate and conveniently places once the initial space shuttle feeling wore off.  Added extras like Lane assist might be useful on those long tiring journeys but the vibration through the steering wheel is so gentle I doubt it would alert anyone who is less than fully coherent. Adaptive cruise control is handy though.  It responds very well to slower traffic ahead and even when the odd 2@ cuts in front.  My only criticism with this system is that I think the acceleration phase once traffic has cleared could be a little gentler.  It rather feels like I am flooring it and would not be doing that if I were in control of the accelerator. Road sign recognition system is a useful tool, although sometimes miss-reads ... it once told me that the speed limit was 120 mph.  As far as I can tell though, it only reads speed limits!

The radio, six speaker standard, is more than adequate for my needs.  I tend to listen mostly to Radio 4 and music is supplied by CD's - Yes I am an old git still using CD's.  I remember my Dad using 8-Track and cassettes so I have progressed a bit!  DAB doesn't seem to want to tune though.  It wouldn't at the dealers, he said there may be too much interference, and it won't outside my house either. Not a major problem but there you go.

I've had a Ghost Immobiliser  fitted since, for added piece of mind, and although nothing to do with Lexus, a quick getaway is not possible anymore. It takes between 20 - 30 seconds to start now as the code has to be entered quite slowly or it doesn't register.  And, the fitter strongly recommended that I did not change the code he set!  Almost insisted!  Of course, 5 seconds after he left it was changed and I've made it as complicated as possible - which probably causes the inability to make a quick getaway! lol - I wonder why he didn't want me to change the code?

All in all a magnificent car.  If you want a lovely smooth, comfortable ride with some class, it's the car to get.  If you want a bit more poke, power and sporty drive, maybe the IS Sport?  Or maybe Porsche or similar!  (Insert your own alternative here - other manufacturers available ... lol)

 

 

 

[Zotto]

Happy to read you are satisfied with your IS. About cruise and too much acceleration, try it using ECO mode.

[Phooey]

12 minutes ago, Zotto said:

Happy to read you are satisfied with your IS. About cruise and too much acceleration, try it using ECO mode.

I tend to keep it in ECO to be honest mate. 🙂 

[malcolmw]

2 hours ago, Phooey said:

Fuel economy is coming in at an average 55 mpg.  Disappointing that I can't actually see this number in the info panel so I am having to 'guestimate' an average from the row of bars that I can see. 

You can change the display to show overall mpg since reset or since refuelling. Check out the display settings in the manual.

[Thackeray]

2 hours ago, Phooey said:

Fuel economy is coming in at an average 55 mpg.  Disappointing that I can't actually see this number in the info panel so I am having to 'guestimate' an average from the row of bars that I can see.  I am still trying to become familiar with all the info available so it might be there somewhere. 

I think this is a shortcomiing of the display. There are a number of figures you can choose to have disiplayed but you have to choose them in advance. You can't simply disiplay them when you want to see them. I think this could have been designed more helpfully so that you can always select anything you want without having to stop the car and change the settings.

However, when you have stopped the car, you can use the right hand four-way controller on the steering wheel to go into settings. You can then choose to display:

• Current fuel consumption
• average fuel consumption (since reset or since start or since refuel)
• average speed (since reset or start)
• Elapsed time (time since reset or start)
• Range you can drive on fuel in tank
• Distance travelled since start

It's not very intuitive but with the help of the manual you can place a selection of two (or is it three?) of these items in each of two preset displays.You can then see the preset displays while driving. But if you've chosen the wrong options, you're not allowed to see them until you've stopped the car and made a different choice of options. This is not, sadly, the best of designs but you get used to it.

Bear in mind that the mpg figure displayed, like in many cars, is an over-estimate and the real fuel consumption will be 3-4 mpg lower than the figure shown.

[Thackeray]

3 hours ago, Phooey said:

DAB doesn't seem to want to tune though.  It wouldn't at the dealers, he said there may be too much interference, and it won't outside my house either. Not a major problem but there you go.

The design of the DAB tuning system is even worse than the mpg presets! (I don't want to put you off the car; almost everything else on the car is delightful but the DAB radio tuning is dreadful.) Here's a link to an earlier thread where someone else was struggling to make it work.

The problem is that you have to choose which Ensemble or Multiplex you want to get stations from. If this Ensemble is out of range, you'll get nothing until you choose another Ensemble. I didn't know what an Ensemble or Multiplex was when I started but eventually discovered that it's a collection of stations combined into a single digital stream.

Have a look at the earlier discussion linked to above if you want to read some more background.

Otherwise, this is what I wrote at the time, copied and pasted to save you looking for the main instructions. This works on my car, but of course your model may be different in some way.

1. "Using the Audio Controller (that's the one to the left of the gear selector), starting from the DAB screen, move the Controller wheel to the right and then select "Manual". Instead of the list of stations, you should now see the name of one station, preceded by the name of an "Ensemble". You may already know what an ensemble or a multiplex is - I didn't before I had to grapple with this system. More on this later. If you still see "Signal Unavailable" this means that this "Ensemble" or group of stations is out of range so you need to switch to one that is in range.
2. On the radio itself, press the small button labelled with a right arrow (I expect left works just as well). This should take you to the next Ensemble, where you may have some reception. Give it four or five seconds to decide whether it's working or the signal is still unavailable. If it's also unavailable, press the arrow button again to try the next one until you get a working station. If none of the stations work, the problem is elsewhere but if one of them does go on to step 3.
3. Move the Audio Controller to the right and then select Stations. A list of the stations on this Ensemble should now appear. You can select from them using the Audio Controller, the arrow buttons or the tuning knob."

When you've found the stations you want (ie Radio 4!) save it on a preset. Then you can forget about selecting Ensembles.

[Phooey]

2 hours ago, Thackeray said:

The design of the DAB tuning system is even worse than the mpg presets! (I don't want to put you off the car; almost everything else on the car is delightful but the DAB radio tuning is dreadful.) Here's a link to an earlier thread where someone else was struggling to make it work.

The problem is that you have to choose which Ensemble or Multiplex you want to get stations from. If this Ensemble is out of range, you'll get nothing until you choose another Ensemble. I didn't know what an Ensemble or Multiplex was when I started but eventually discovered that it's a collection of stations combined into a single digital stream.

Have a look at the earlier discussion linked to above if you want to read some more background.

Otherwise, this is what I wrote at the time, copied and pasted to save you looking for the main instructions. This works on my car, but of course your model may be different in some way.

1. "Using the Audio Controller (that's the one to the left of the gear selector), starting from the DAB screen, move the Controller wheel to the right and then select "Manual". Instead of the list of stations, you should now see the name of one station, preceded by the name of an "Ensemble". You may already know what an ensemble or a multiplex is - I didn't before I had to grapple with this system. More on this later. If you still see "Signal Unavailable" this means that this "Ensemble" or group of stations is out of range so you need to switch to one that is in range.
2. On the radio itself, press the small button labelled with a right arrow (I expect left works just as well). This should take you to the next Ensemble, where you may have some reception. Give it four or five seconds to decide whether it's working or the signal is still unavailable. If it's also unavailable, press the arrow button again to try the next one until you get a working station. If none of the stations work, the problem is elsewhere but if one of them does go on to step 3.
3. Move the Audio Controller to the right and then select Stations. A list of the stations on this Ensemble should now appear. You can select from them using the Audio Controller, the arrow buttons or the tuning knob."

When you've found the stations you want (ie Radio 4!) save it on a preset. Then you can forget about selecting Ensembles.

That is interesting.  Thanks Thackeray.  As you said, the car is a delight apart from those points.  

[Martin J]

3 hours ago, Thackeray said:

The design of the DAB tuning system is even worse than the mpg presets! (I don't want to put you off the car; almost everything else on the car is delightful but the DAB radio tuning is dreadful.) Here's a link to an earlier thread where someone else was struggling to make it work.

The problem is that you have to choose which Ensemble or Multiplex you want to get stations from. If this Ensemble is out of range, you'll get nothing until you choose another Ensemble. I didn't know what an Ensemble or Multiplex was when I started but eventually discovered that it's a collection of stations combined into a single digital stream.

Have a look at the earlier discussion linked to above if you want to read some more background.

Otherwise, this is what I wrote at the time, copied and pasted to save you looking for the main instructions. This works on my car, but of course your model may be different in some way.

1. "Using the Audio Controller (that's the one to the left of the gear selector), starting from the DAB screen, move the Controller wheel to the right and then select "Manual". Instead of the list of stations, you should now see the name of one station, preceded by the name of an "Ensemble". You may already know what an ensemble or a multiplex is - I didn't before I had to grapple with this system. More on this later. If you still see "Signal Unavailable" this means that this "Ensemble" or group of stations is out of range so you need to switch to one that is in range.
2. On the radio itself, press the small button labelled with a right arrow (I expect left works just as well). This should take you to the next Ensemble, where you may have some reception. Give it four or five seconds to decide whether it's working or the signal is still unavailable. If it's also unavailable, press the arrow button again to try the next one until you get a working station. If none of the stations work, the problem is elsewhere but if one of them does go on to step 3.
3. Move the Audio Controller to the right and then select Stations. A list of the stations on this Ensemble should now appear. You can select from them using the Audio Controller, the arrow buttons or the tuning knob."

When you've found the stations you want (ie Radio 4!) save it on a preset. Then you can forget about selecting Ensembles.

Had to smile at this. I'd almost forgotten about the misery of setting up the DAB on my NX when it was new. That was an afternoon I'll never get back.

[200h]

i have the premium nav and i've never had to do anything like this

i know what you mean though as our previous Auris had a system like that

and due to the interface it wasnt used

[PaulWhitt20]

The lack of noise when the car is accelerated hard seems a common fault for most owners. This feature only seems to work for motoring journalists.

Glad you are enjoying the car. Welcome to the enlightened minority.

Paul


Thanks
Paul

[Shada]

Personally I would have bought a better after market pump. Blueprint or something reputable. After market is fine if its good quality. First-line however I see as the money would be better set on fire!