Betsy vs IS - thoughts after just over one week.

[Mincey]

I admit that I haven't had her long, but here are my initial thoughts and musings:

• Getting into the ES doesn't feel like getting into a fighter jet or racing car like getting into the IS did. The driving position does not feel so "snug". More of an observation than any criticism.
• Betsy's extra size has not caused any problems yet. Please God don't let me have tempted fate there.
• There seems to be less things to adjust on the ES. I haven't found a speed warning setting yet, and as there is nothing I can see about one in the manual, I'm guessing there isn't one.
• There are no "service checks", i.e. no details of the air filter, oil needing a change etc. which were on the 2IS and 3IS.
• The sliding seat and steering wheel is a nice touch. I've just discovered that the wheel can either tilt, or telescope or both, and that the extent of the seat slide can be adjusted. Just the thing for the gentleman with a fuller figure. I've found it best to put seat belt on first to get closer to the start button.
• Heated steering wheel? Nice.
• She is so quiet!
• She is so smooth!
• She is so comfortable! I discovered today that in the vehicle settings, Sport was set as the suspension setting. I must take Betsy out again soon to see whether putting her into Normal makes it even more wafty and comfortable.
• There is no lag when accelerating, she just goes. At roundabouts in the IS, I would often put it into S to make sure power arrived when asked.
• The indicator stalks are not as solid as on the IS.
• I love having confirmation of Betsy being locked when her ears, sorry mirrors, fold in.
• It may be me, but I've found that the Nav screen takes priority. Perhaps more playing around and reading the manual is required. My wife tells me that the navigation screen will take priority, and as she knows everything, that's probably the case.
• I liked the light on the IS wiper stalk to show that the auto wipers were engaged. 
• FWD Vs RWD? I have not noticed any difference at all yet, and to be honest I'm not what you'd call an enthusiastic driver anymore so it's probably not going to be an issue.
• People like it. I stopped to let a mother and her young son cross the road and he gave me a thumbs up. A future owner perhaps?
• Everyone comments upon the colour.
• Economy looks good at the moment - roundabout an indicated 45mpg with lots of (totally unnecessary) short journeys. I'd get about 40mpg in the IS for similar conditions.
• The boot is vast. When I discovered that my bass cabinet did not fit in the IS, I had to buy another one (well, didn't have to, but it was a good excuse). The old one would easily have gone into the ES.
• Android Auto is awesome. It's just a shame that it's not wireless but those very expensive adapters will come down in price soon I'm sure.
• The Rain free side windows really work!
• The phone holder is great, I love having a Qi pad and lots of deep cubby holes
• Tyre pressure display is nice but would like it in psi
• Betsy feels like my beloved IS250
• I prefer the button to unlock filler flap. With the IS, it was too easy to get out at the filling station, lock the car, then have to unlock it again to open the filler flap.
• Cruise control controls on wheel took some getting used to after having the stalk behind the steering wheel for so many years.
• OBD port is easier to find
• Heating controls - having a dial is much easier than the slider on the IS.
• I'm not sure that the road speed limit recognition is as good on ES as on the IS
• The auto main beam system in the IS seemed better than on the ES. I'm not sure if I have it on - there's a light on the stalk, so I'm guessing that I have.
• I have only seen it from inside Betsy, but I do like the way the lights swoop up when they come on. Much like my IS250's did (the 3IS lights just come on?)
• It is a very, very relaxing drive. Even though she's an F Sport, the seats are much more comfortable than my IS F Sport and I don't creak or ache at the end of a journey.

I'm sure that more surprises and observations will crop up in the coming weeks and months so I'll post any updates as and when.

[paulrnx]

A good post, thanks!

[Tonyw]

It all sounds good to me. Looking forward to my delivery next year

[Mincey]

I've just discovered that the dial behind the volume knob when turned moves to the next or previous track. Neat!

[e-yes]

20 hours ago, Mincey said:

I admit that I haven't had her long, but here are my initial thoughts and musings:

• Getting into the ES doesn't feel like getting into a fighter jet or racing car like getting into the IS did. The driving position does not feel so "snug". More of an observation than any criticism.
• It may be me, but I've found that the Nav screen takes priority. Perhaps more playing around and reading the manual is required. My wife tells me that the navigation screen will take priority, and as she knows everything, that's probably the case.
• FWD Vs RWD? I have not noticed any difference at all yet, and to be honest I'm not what you'd call an enthusiastic driver anymore so it's probably not going to be an issue.
• Economy looks good at the moment - roundabout an indicated 45mpg with lots of (totally unnecessary) short journeys. I'd get about 40mpg in the IS for similar conditions.
• The boot is vast. When I discovered that my bass cabinet did not fit in the IS, I had to buy another one (well, didn't have to, but it was a good excuse). The old one would easily have gone into the ES.
• Tyre pressure display is nice but would like it in psi
• Cruise control controls on wheel took some getting used to after having the stalk behind the steering wheel for so many years.
• Heating controls - having a dial is much easier than the slider on the IS.
• I'm not sure that the road speed limit recognition is as good on ES as on the IS
• The auto main beam system in the IS seemed better than on the ES. I'm not sure if I have it on - there's a light on the stalk, so I'm guessing that I have.
• I have only seen it from inside Betsy, but I do like the way the lights swoop up when they come on. Much like my IS250's did (the 3IS lights just come on?)

I'm sure that more surprises and observations will crop up in the coming weeks and months so I'll post any updates as and when.

• The ES is the opposite of snug. I am 178cm tall and my town driving setting is almost SUVish.
• Regarding the Nav screen, do you mean on the main central display or on the dashboard screen ? On the dashboard screen I also see the LSS taking priority for eg if you have DRCC speed set and a vehicle moves in in front of you, you will see the "notification" pop up and stay there for a good few seconds. Same with Lexus Nav, if you have a turn coming up, it will pop up and stick there for some time.
• RWD is really a hype I think. The Mazda6 I had was FWD and what a lovely sharp handling car that was. And the Germans don't even homologate their cars properly for UK market. Most of the gubbins stay protruding into the passenger space which in UK is actually driver's space ! I think these days even JLR products are conceived as Left Hand Drive. The worst offenders are Audi MLB platform cars. The engine points south, the drive shaft points north-east ! Works fine when the steering wheel is on the wrong side but I never sat comfortably in longitudinally mounted  Right Hand Drive car 😞 
• When I got the ES, it was showing 28mpg on day one. I haven't reset it since (almost 5000 miles done) and now it is over 51mpg. In one instance it showed 100mpg for a school run in the Lexus app !
• One reviewer on YouTube manually measured the boot to be around 550 litres. Not sure why Lexus underreport it. In US it is reported as 16.7 cu ft excluding the spare wheel well which is about 470 litres. In UK it is reported as 454 litres. It sure seems not all that much smaller compared to the 540 litres I remember from my A6.
  • BTW on the topic of underreporting, Lexus UK report 0-62mph as 8.9s, which makes 0-60mph as about 8.3s whereas recently a reviewer in California measured 7.4s on 300h F-Sport ! I would just say in my experience... not a slow car at all.
• The tyre pressure display is hopeless 😞  . In my experience 37psi from the place I usually fill up air works best. On a long journey, 37psi measures around 2.8 bar which seems in line with 2.5 or 2.6 bar when measured cold as mentioned on the door sticker.
• Do you have a dial for heating in your ES F-Sport ? Most ESes (mine included) I have seen have a rocker switch next to the OLED temp display.
• The road speed limit is not 100% reliable !
• The Auto light is enabled by a push button on the lights control stalk. That's how it came enabled on day one and I have never touched it since then.
• You should try the lights in an empty parking lot pointing at a wall. The beam pattern rises and then spreads out in wave like pattern. It is very cool to look at. The 2022 ES are equipped with Blade Scan I guess they will be different from current generation ES 3-Eye LEDs.

[Las Palmas]

It is good to be happy with a new car. After the description I am going to have a look at one next time I have an excuse to visit Lexus. Not sure they have ES there though. SUV seems to be what is being sold most and even though a CT is a micro-SUV (at least not a sedan) and we are happy with it, these big bulky SUV things are for transporting big bulky things and not for comfortable bringing people from where they are to where they want to be.

[Mincey]

2 hours ago, e-yes said:

• Regarding the Nav screen, do you mean on the main central display or on the dashboard screen ? On the dashboard screen I also see the LSS taking priority for eg if you have DRCC speed set and a vehicle moves in in front of you, you will see the "notification" pop up and stay there for a good few seconds. Same with Lexus Nav, if you have a turn coming up, it will pop up and stick there for some time. It's the main central display. I must admit I've not tried navigation on the dashboard display yet, so you've given me food for thought.
• RWD is really a hype I think. The Mazda6 I had was FWD and what a lovely sharp handling car that was. And the Germans don't even homologate their cars properly for UK market. Most of the gubbins stay protruding into the passenger space which in UK is actually driver's space ! I think these days even JLR products are conceived as Left Hand Drive. The worst offenders are Audi MLB platform cars. The engine points south, the drive shaft points north-east ! Works fine when the steering wheel is on the wrong side but I never sat comfortably in longitudinally mounted  Right Hand Drive car 😞 
• When I got the ES, it was showing 28mpg on day one. I haven't reset it since (almost 5000 miles done) and now it is over 51mpg. In one instance it showed 100mpg for a school run in the Lexus app ! I'm still struggling to get over 45mpg but then I've only really done Leicester-Peterborough, Peterborough-Leicester-Peterborough and many Peterborough shopping trips. When I'm back in sensible mode and not driving to the shops when I should walk, I'll zero the counter and see what I get.
• One reviewer on YouTube manually measured the boot to be around 550 litres. Not sure why Lexus underreport it. In US it is reported as 16.7 cu ft excluding the spare wheel well which is about 470 litres. In UK it is reported as 454 litres. It sure seems not all that much smaller compared to the 540 litres I remember from my A6.
  • BTW on the topic of underreporting, Lexus UK report 0-62mph as 8.9s, which makes 0-60mph as about 8.3s whereas recently a reviewer in California measured 7.4s on 300h F-Sport ! I would just say in my experience... not a slow car at all.
• The tyre pressure display is hopeless 😞  . In my experience 37psi from the place I usually fill up air works best. On a long journey, 37psi measures around 2.8 bar which seems in line with 2.5 or 2.6 bar when measured cold as mentioned on the door sticker. I will stick with my trusty tyre pressure gauge then to be on the safe side. 
• Do you have a dial for heating in your ES F-Sport ? Most ESes (mine included) I have seen have a rocker switch next to the OLED temp display. Yes it's a rocker switch, sorry. I find it much easier to set the temperature this way.
• The road speed limit is not 100% reliable !
• The Auto light is enabled by a push button on the lights control stalk. That's how it came enabled on day one and I have never touched it since then. I need to go down a country road at night to make sure mine's doing what I expect. I've got the green light on the control stalk, so it sounds like it's good to go.
• You should try the lights in an empty parking lot pointing at a wall. The beam pattern rises and then spreads out in wave like pattern. It is very cool to look at. Will do!

BTW, the heated steering wheel came on automatically this morning which made for a pleasant start to the day!

[Mike246]

I was intrigued that your wife knows everything. I have a similar model (wife as well as car) and never need to use Google. Could they be related?

Surprisingly, you never mentioned the auto parking-brake when engaging Park which is a great initiative. It does make handbrake turns a bit difficult.

[Phil xxkr]

5 hours ago, e-yes said:

• The ES is the opposite of snug. I am 178cm tall and my town driving setting is almost SUVish.
• Regarding the Nav screen, do you mean on the main central display or on the dashboard screen ? On the dashboard screen I also see the LSS taking priority for eg if you have DRCC speed set and a vehicle moves in in front of you, you will see the "notification" pop up and stay there for a good few seconds. Same with Lexus Nav, if you have a turn coming up, it will pop up and stick there for some time.
• RWD is really a hype I think. The Mazda6 I had was FWD and what a lovely sharp handling car that was. And the Germans don't even homologate their cars properly for UK market. Most of the gubbins stay protruding into the passenger space which in UK is actually driver's space ! I think these days even JLR products are conceived as Left Hand Drive. The worst offenders are Audi MLB platform cars. The engine points south, the drive shaft points north-east ! Works fine when the steering wheel is on the wrong side but I never sat comfortably in longitudinally mounted  Right Hand Drive car 😞 
• When I got the ES, it was showing 28mpg on day one. I haven't reset it since (almost 5000 miles done) and now it is over 51mpg. In one instance it showed 100mpg for a school run in the Lexus app !
• One reviewer on YouTube manually measured the boot to be around 550 litres. Not sure why Lexus underreport it. In US it is reported as 16.7 cu ft excluding the spare wheel well which is about 470 litres. In UK it is reported as 454 litres. It sure seems not all that much smaller compared to the 540 litres I remember from my A6.
  • BTW on the topic of underreporting, Lexus UK report 0-62mph as 8.9s, which makes 0-60mph as about 8.3s whereas recently a reviewer in California measured 7.4s on 300h F-Sport ! I would just say in my experience... not a slow car at all.
• The tyre pressure display is hopeless 😞  . In my experience 37psi from the place I usually fill up air works best. On a long journey, 37psi measures around 2.8 bar which seems in line with 2.5 or 2.6 bar when measured cold as mentioned on the door sticker.
• Do you have a dial for heating in your ES F-Sport ? Most ESes (mine included) I have seen have a rocker switch next to the OLED temp display.
• The road speed limit is not 100% reliable !
• The Auto light is enabled by a push button on the lights control stalk. That's how it came enabled on day one and I have never touched it since then.
• You should try the lights in an empty parking lot pointing at a wall. The beam pattern rises and then spreads out in wave like pattern. It is very cool to look at. The 2022 ES are equipped with Blade Scan I guess they will be different from current generation ES 3-Eye LEDs.

This is turning out to be a really comprehensive real-world review, you should consider a YouTube video 😉

[e-yes]

On 10/28/2021 at 2:52 PM, Mincey said:

 

• It may be me, but I've found that the Nav screen takes priority. Perhaps more playing around and reading the manual is required. My wife tells me that the navigation screen will take priority, and as she knows everything, that's probably the case.

Oh I see what you meant now. On the centre main display, the Nav remains as the main occupant of majority of the display. It is not possible to make the other two items larger.

Also another minor niggle… when in traffic the front parking sensor activates, it only shows up in a pop up in the dashboard screen and not on the central display. Sometimes it is hard to see.

EDIT : And that same “UX philosophy” carries over into the new Lexus screen, the Nav or Map is always there and there is no concept of a “home” screen as such. If you operate the system to access some other functionality or setting, then you always “come out back” to the Nav/Map display.

[Tonyw]

1 hour ago, e-yes said:

Oh I see what you meant now. On the centre main display, the Nav remains as the main occupant of majority of the display. It is not possible to make the other two items larger.

Also another minor niggle… when in traffic the front parking sensor activates, it only shows up in a pop up in the dashboard screen and not on the central display. Sometimes it is hard to see.

EDIT : And that same “UX philosophy” carries over into the new Lexus screen, the Nav or Map is always there and there is no concept of a “home” screen as such. If you operate the system to access some other functionality or setting, then you always “come out back” to the Nav/Map display.

Surely apple car play would overule this though?

[e-yes]

17 minutes ago, Tonyw said:

Surely apple car play would overule this though?

Yes. apple CarPlay will take over the entire screen.

[peniole]

There is a speed warning at +1 +3 and more. Just make sure you've engine/ready on but parked, lots of options are greyed out or even not reachable when moving. Make sure you go though options in drive display as well as center stack, not all options duplicated.

Both heated steering and seats are set to come on automatically when climate concierge is on.

You can have another window be the main and nav the side small one. Although I didn't see the point. But then again I'm still getting used to my new surroundings.

Manual definitely worth the read.

Have you rolled down the windows and peaked at the top edge of the glass?

Well written observations

[Mincey]

8 hours ago, peniole said:

There is a speed warning at +1 +3 and more. Just make sure you've engine/ready on but parked, lots of options are greyed out or even not reachable when moving. Make sure you go though options in drive display as well as center stack, not all options duplicated. That speed warnings is currently on, it's the warning when going over a specific speed I was looking for. In the IS you can set (and have to set it after each start up, it doesn't stick which is annoying) a warning to sound if you go over say, 75mph. 

Have you rolled down the windows and peaked at the top edge of the glass? Not yet - you've piqued my interest now!

 

 

[Mincey]

11 hours ago, Tonyw said:

Surely apple car play would overule this though?

 

11 hours ago, e-yes said:

Yes. Apple CarPlay will take over the entire screen.

As does Android Auto. I've had Spotify and Waze running on it and it's a great improvement on the Bluetooth link, far easier to control.

[PaulWhitt20]

Nice review, but I’ve got to ask.Why is she! called Betsy?

[Mincey]

34 minutes ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

Nice review, but I’ve got to ask.Why is she! called Betsy?

Because she's blue! I couldn't call her Betty as that didn't sound right 😄

[Mincey]

Ok everyone, here is a perfect example of why it is advisable to follow the advice of the very wise @royoftherovers and read the manual before a) panicking or b) making yourself look foolish on an Internet forum.

Whilst driving to Leicester yesterday, the weather was foul. It was raining, but not enough to use the wipers (manually or automatic) and at one point, the windscreen needed a good squirt and wipe. This was the first such operation I had done in Betsy and I was surprised. Perplexed in fact. Why was there no single sweep a few seconds after the washing/squirting had finished? My IS250 did this, and so did my IS300h. Was something not enabled somewhere? Had I bought a pup? My immediate thought after of course thinking I'd bought a pup or that something was not enabled somewhere, was to look in the manual. I found this:

"The wipers will automatically operate a
couple of times after the washer squirts.
(After operating several times, the wipers
operate once more time after a short delay
to prevent dripping. However, the dripping
prevention does not operate while the
vehicle is moving.)"

Well, there you go. A quick search through the manual prevented me looking even more of an utter clot than usual on here. 
 

[Mincey]

18 hours ago, Mike246 said:

I was intrigued that your wife knows everything. I have a similar model (wife as well as car) and never need to use Google. Could they be related?

Surprisingly, you never mentioned the auto parking-brake when engaging Park which is a great initiative. It does make handbrake turns a bit difficult.

That's a very good point Mike - I think we should investigate! 

Thanks for the reminder about the auto parking brake. I had forgotten about that. 

[Mincey]

17 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

This is turning out to be a really comprehensive real-world review, you should consider a YouTube video 😉

I'd love to, but I shrivel up and die in front of a camera unfortunately. I remember having to do a presentation skills course at work many years ago where our performances were recorded and then played back to the group for appraisal. I hated it. And this is from the person who plays in a band...

[Phil xxkr]

27 minutes ago, Mincey said:

I'd love to, but I shrivel up and die in front of a camera unfortunately. I remember having to do a presentation skills course at work many years ago where our performances were recorded and then played back to the group for appraisal. I hated it. And this is from the person who plays in a band...

Then use a proxy? 

[Mincey]

40 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Then use a proxy? 

I'll ask Colin Firth what his diary looks like for the next few weeks.

[beyond the blue]

Put me out of my misery, what's with the top of the window glass???

[Mincey]

There's a small channel with rubber seal on the leading edge (I think that's what it is...)

[Mincey]

And another thing, I'm wondering whether she has cornering lights. They're described in the manual and I'm convinced that when I made a left turn in the dark yesterday on the way to Leicester, more of the road was illuminated. I may be wrong - it happens quite a lot.