Making the leap from an IS250 to an IS300h

[HoofHearted]

Got an IS250 and when I bought it I was on here beforehand for advice, reviews etc and found members exceptionally helpful so just sticking my head out again.

For anybody who has a 300h would you recommend it? For anyone who has moved from an IS250 how does it compare? What are they like in terms of reliability and so on?

 

any input as always is appreciated 

[agent_dess]

I love my IS300h for many reasons:

1) road tax virtually 0

2) wayyyy better on fuel economy

3) the ASC makes me giggle like a 17 year old when in sports mode I genuinely love it 

4) CVT isn't everyone's taste but Ive not been bothered by it.

[Bounce75]

I moved from Volvo to Lexus & love everything about the Is300h other than having to pay road tax.😀

Mine is a 2020 model so unfortunately costs about £140 a year, but I can live with that as it is such a lovely, relaxing, comfortable car to drive.

I quite like the eCVT personally, but understand some people don't.

I would say test drive one yourself & see.

 

[Linas.P]

There are no issues with reliability on IS300h, fuel economy is better in town, but you need to learn to drive it "like hybrid". It does not reward you if you want to drive it "hard", it does not like to be launched, it does not sound good and generally it is opposite from IS250 in that aspect i.e. the harder you drive IS250 the nicer it gets, the engine sounds better etc. with IS300h you just need to relax and cruise around. eCTV is not that bad, but don't expect to downshift with it and held the revs, as boring as it sounds it is best to let it do it's thing as it will get you where you going quicker. That said IS250 is faster car, this is fact and it is noticeable - I know many IS300h owners likes to fight it, but facts do not care about the feelings. But that kind of depends on your needs, if speed is not an issue for you then you will be fine, simply IS250 was already just borderline acceptable for me, if there is anything to fault on IS250 in my mind I would like it to be slightly faster, so going down to IS300 was just not acceptable for me.

Can't stand ASC - it is just so fake. But overall interior is more modern, just make sure to get better spec. car and make sure to get at least premium audio or preferably ML. On mk3 they really cut down on standard equipment and made differences between trims noticeable. Standard audio system in mk3 for example is awful (6 speakers compared to 15 on ML) whereas mk2 just got 13-speakers instead of 14. But premium Audio is good enough (10-speakers). Likewise if I would go for mk3, then the only model to get is F-Sport, this is because F-Sport cluster really elevates the car and makes it feel modern, therefore it's must have.

By all means try it yourself, I have driven many and I didn't like them at all, but that is because I need faster car which I can enjoy driving. 

[HoofHearted]

Thanks for the input lads. Love my IS250 and I know the 300h will be a downgrade on speed and I’ll miss that V6 roar, but it’s starting to rust in places and it’s just a major pain in the arse trying to keep on top of all of that.

[Bob99]

Hi Graeme,

I changed from a 2008 is250 to my current is300h in 2014. It was a 6 month old demo Premier edition. I loved the 250 but I think after 8 years I love the 300h more. It has everything I need in a car and has been totally reliable. The only fault has been a faulty wiper relay which was diagnosed with the help of this forum and a £2.50 replacement from eBay. I still love driving the car and I am a bit wary of what to replace it with as I think it will be a downgrade. I hope you find a good one and I am sure you will enjoy it

[Lex_1988]

The IS250 was a quicker car but I never found it an exciting car to throw round corners. So for just wafting along from A to B in luxury and with the peace of mind of complete reliability you can't go wrong with an IS300h. It sips the fuel and is cheap to tax on my particular model year (64plate). I like to think of it as one of my wiser purchases. 

The only downside for me is the sound it makes when you floor it. It's a sort of painful groan/cry. 

F sport trim still looks great and actually handles really sweetly but pushing the car goes against the efficiency ethos. It also means it has a hard ride compare to the other specs.

Ive looked at other more sporty saloons (Giulia, XE, 3 series etc) but reliability/ running costs are always the compromise. 

Worth a test drive depending on what your priorities are.

 

 

 

[HoofHearted]

Thanks lads. Had told myself answers would be slightly biased etc but the enthusiasm shows it’s not just bias that you all genuinely think the world of these cars. 
 

going to make the switch in the next few months after some financial jiggery pokery. Now at a cross roads between the f sport and the premier. Think the multi spoke alloys on the premier make the car look sensational but not sure of the differences between the two specs of anyone could help me out?

[agent_dess]

1 hour ago, HoofHearted said:

Thanks lads. Had told myself answers would be slightly biased etc but the enthusiasm shows it’s not just bias that you all genuinely think the world of these cars. 
 

going to make the switch in the next few months after some financial jiggery pokery. Now at a cross roads between the f sport and the premier. Think the multi spoke alloys on the premier make the car look sensational but not sure of the differences between the two specs of anyone could help me out?

I would go F-Sport any day but that's just me...

[Linas.P]

6 hours ago, HoofHearted said:

Thanks lads. Had told myself answers would be slightly biased etc but the enthusiasm shows it’s not just bias that you all genuinely think the world of these cars. 

going to make the switch in the next few months after some financial jiggery pokery. Now at a cross roads between the f sport and the premier. Think the multi spoke alloys on the premier make the car look sensational but not sure of the differences between the two specs of anyone could help me out?

I like F-Sport wheels look, Premier is actually better equipped standard (I believe they go ML as standard and few other bits) with one massive caveat - it get the "ugly dials from 2003 hybrid" and that would be deal breaker for me. Whereas F-Sport get LF-A style digital dials. After all you spend more time inside than outside and spend more time looking at dials than wheels 🙂 

vs 

Other thing you can only get on F-Sport is Dark Rose Leather, but obviously it is not for everyone.  

By the way - how about mk3 IS250? Sadly they are rare and could command premium, but they don't have any downsides of IS300 (and no upsides). To be fair I personally never considered mk3 IS250 amazing (but to be fair the same goes for IS300h), because Lexus kind of was lazy and put exactly same 4GR-FSE from mk2 without any modifications. On IS350 they have improved 2GR-FSE quite a bit, added atkinson-cycle and engine makes more power, reaches peak torque earlier and is more efficient, but with IS250 they just didn't bother and it almost feels like the car was obsolete at launch. Still much more fun to drive than IS300h and you get new shape car which looks more modern. 

... P.S. checked and it is literally the only one on sale for stupid price at the moment https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207057485814

[agent_dess]

4 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I like F-Sport wheels look, Premier is actually better equipped standard (I believe they go ML as standard and few other bits) with one massive caveat - it get the "ugly dials from 2003 hybrid" and that would be deal breaker for me. Whereas F-Sport get LF-A style digital dials. After all you spend more time inside than outside and spend more time looking at dials than wheels 🙂 

vs 

Other thing you can only get on F-Sport is Dark Rose Leather, but obviously it is not for everyone.  

By the way - how about mk3 IS250? Sadly they are rare and could command premium, but they don't have any downsides of IS300 (and no upsides). To be fair I personally never considered mk3 IS250 amazing (but to be fair the same goes for IS300h), because Lexus kind of was lazy and put exactly same 4GR-FSE from mk2 without any modifications. On IS350 they have improved 2GR-FSE quite a bit, added atkinson-cycle and engine makes more power, reaches peak torque earlier and is more efficient, but with IS250 they just didn't bother and it almost feels like the car was obsolete at launch. Still much more fun to drive than IS300h and you get new shape car which looks more modern. 

... P.S. checked and it is literally the only one on sale for stupid price at the moment https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207057485814

You really don't like the IS300h do you 🤣

[Alan305]

We had the F Sport.

Enjoyed it, positives gauges, negatives hard ride and really easy to kerb wheels. We had red leather, the only choice for two pensioners.

[Linas.P]

12 minutes ago, Alan305 said:

We had the F Sport.

Enjoyed it, positives gauges, negatives hard ride and really easy to kerb wheels. We had red leather, the only choice for two pensioners.

I have not noticed any difference between Premier and F-Sport in terms of comfort, as they both have 18" wheels which in my opinion contribute more than suspension to "harsh ride". The Luxury and other trims with 17" wheels will be softer. Yes F-Sport can be made to ride harder with electronically adjustable suspension and sadly the issue on early cars is that you can't set suspension independently i.e. if you set car to sport, then car will be firmer, but to have suspension in comfort you have to set whole car to Eco. Whereas my preference would be to leave suspension on comfort and only turn gearbox and engine to sport. Face-life I believe allows to set these individually, but then we are talking about 2018 cars. Other thing to consider is the tyres - depending on times Lexus had either Yokohama or Bridgestone tyres and they were just not the best tyres, kind of noisy and Bridgestone's were unnecessary "sporty". Simply going for better tyres could improve the ride a lot. Obviously IS will never ride like NX... after all it is entry level sport/exec car so it will be more planted, sporty and less comfortable, bouncy and wallowy around the corners. 

[Linas.P]

33 minutes ago, agent_dess said:

You really don't like the IS300h do you 🤣

I was really disappointed with it as I had high expectations for the car, the reality is harsh contrast from marketing. They said it is like 3L car with fuel efficiency of 56MPG, smooth and effortless, and fast and sporty and comfortable at the same time. Can argue with comfortable and build quality is very good, design is good and interior let's say is "special". But if I can't drive it the way I wasn't I may as well take public transport, engine is simply not there, it is not powerful, it does not sound good, it is not fast and if you push the car it isn't even really that smooth. 

The way Lexus sold it was like it is "upgrade" to IS250, half way there in power towards IS350, but more fuel efficient. Sadly it is straight on downgrade. Looking from other perspective - it is massive upgrade for IS220d, that it is really the car which it has replaced and made great job of it, not IS250 thought. 

[wharfhouse]

Ad you can see the IS 300h is a very personal choice - maybe sort of Marmite. My strong recommendation is have a decent (few hours minimum) test drive and drive it like you usually would your current car and make your own mind up. You may live it or you may hate it but it really is the only way to know. 

[HoofHearted]

Is it a massive ballache to have a reversing camera fitted to a 2016 onwards f sport? One niggle putting me off the f sport 

[Linas.P]

F-Sport had reversing camera together with "Premium Navigation" or "ML" (because to have ML you had to have Premium Nav). To my surprise it was not standard on F-Sport, because I have driven many and never seen one without reverse-camera.

But that should not be an issue, because you should be looking for car with ML or at least Premium Nav anyway. The last thing you want is to find car with "standard" audio which has no business being in any car nevermind Lexus, it is just horrible and has the level of sound quality and definition of radios fitted in 1980s cars. I am exaggerating a bit, but it is only suitable to listen to radio, listening to music on it is just painful. So go for Premium Nav which comes with 10-Speaker decent audio system (in my opinion on par with ML in mk2) or ML which was segment leading quality (with 15 speakers), and then reverse camera will be there.

As for retrofitting the camera - everything is doable, I guess you would need to get aftermarket widescreen sat-nav (which I would do anyway as it is much better than Lexus one) and then it would come with required connections for camera and likely camera itself, but that will be ~£500.

 

[agent_dess]

I don't have ML and sound quality is just fine, but I do have premium navigation thus reverse camera.

@Linas.P I do get what you mean about the car, but I do think it comparable to the IS250 in many ways, but ultimately in the end it comes down to personal taste like marmite, best advice for anyone is to test drive it.

[Linas.P]

As I said Premium audio you get with premium navigation is good, I would argue even better for pop-songs than ML, more bassy. ML is more high definition and more clarity, but not necessary for listening to the loud music. And the whole 10 vs. 15 speakers things is semantics because, they are in same locations and the difference is just that ML get's 2/3 way coaxial speakers in few locations, so they count single speakers as 2 or 3. Likewise 6 speakers is not what makes standard system bad, what makes it bad just generally bottom of the barrel speakers which costs probably 20p each (I am not even joking, you can get better quality speakers for £2 on ebay) and that car doesn't even have dedicated amp, so it is all driven from head unit itself.

And yes IS300h is comparable to IS250 in many ways, it is in the car which in same segment, same target market, same size... same body, same equipment levels. The difference is just the engine and gearbox, so it would be hard to argue it is not similar. However, is harder to argue it is better as there are many compromises in IS300h.

[PaulWhitt20]

To put a more balance view.

I love my IS300h Advance with the traditional dials and standard sound system which is fine for my ears.

Its comfortable and quiet to waft around and is effortless to drive.

A test drive is the beast way to find out.

Paul

[wharfhouse]

4 minutes ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

To put a more balance view.

I love my IS300h Advance with the traditional dials and standard sound system which is fine for my ears.

Its comfortable and quiet to waft around and is effortless to drive.

A test drive is the beast way to find out.

Paul

I agree with you Paul having bought an Executive (2014) trim and having driven a car with the F sport dials I'm not a fan as I prefer the analogue dials rather than digital speed readout but that's just my personal preference.

I had a specific set of must haves and then nice to haves when I bought my car and I think it all underlines the need for logical thought and a test drive to make sure whatever car/spec is chosen it meets the needs of the buyer as of course everyone is different in that respect. 

[agent_dess]

The F-Sports dials are to die for 😍 I personally think the Is250 mk2 dials look better than mk3 dials which is another reason why I wanted the f-sport

[Linas.P]

42 minutes ago, agent_dess said:

The F-Sports dials are to die for 😍 I personally think the Is250 mk2 dials look better than mk3 dials which is another reason why I wanted the f-sport

It is fair to say there is difference between Premier dials and Executive, SE, Luxury dials. Premier gets more like textured metal faces and other just gets drab grey plastic. Premier dials are sort of equivalent to mk2 in the way they look, but the rest really looks even older not newer, hence I said "2003 hybrid looks", or probably something one could expect to find in Dacia from 2010. The F-Sport dials are real party piece, every time you turn on the car is just like "wow I am in the space ship" sort of feeling. To be fair after few months you kind of realise that apart of looking nice they are not much more functional. I mean they are slightly more functional as you can get more information there, but Lexus didn't really utilised them to full extent. Having this real estate with very good quality sharp screen could have been game changer. They could have develop like apps, or widgets for the dial and literally had unlimited functionality, like showing map on the dial or really unlimited number of options, whereas currently choice of what you can do on the screen is quite limited. 

Not sure what is there not to like about F-Sport dials, as they are not only "nicer", but as well objectively better with slightly more information and easier to read, because you can selectively choose only the information you want to know, but I guess everyone to their own. 

[Mr Vlad]

My lexus ownership started with the is300h. It was advertised by lexus leeds as Premier Premium. It wasn't a patch on the 2nd Premier Premium I bought. Both identical colour year spec but like chalk and cheese. The 2nd one was sublime. The ML was Awesome (1st one with ML was Awful). The handling too was fabulous. How does that 300h compare to my current is250? Well the fuel economy wipes the floor. Never got less than 50mpg. Yes I drove it hard most of the time. As for the engine noise when you floor it yes the 250 is oh so much better but the 300h isn't that bad ( just have the music on loud as I do). How did my 300h accelerate? Well with a full traction Battery it went off the line like a scalded cat. I'd say there's nothing in it compared to the 250. Ride quality better due to the 300h being so much newer. Would I go back to an is300h? Yes. I loved that car and only let it go for the awesome RX450H f-sport which was fully loaded.

I wouldn't worry one bit about getting an is300h. Just take the potential purchase for a damn good test drive. They're not all the same. I had 2 identical top of the range yet they were like chalk and cheese. 

[wharfhouse]

34 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

It is fair to say there is difference between Premier dials and Executive, SE, Luxury dials. Premier gets more like textured metal faces and other just gets drab grey plastic. Premier dials are sort of equivalent to mk2 in the way they look, but the rest really looks even older not newer, hence I said "2003 hybrid looks", or probably something one could expect to find in Dacia from 2010. The F-Sport dials are real party piece, every time you turn on the car is just like "wow I am in the space ship" sort of feeling. To be fair after few months you kind of realise that apart of looking nice they are not much more functional. I mean they are slightly more functional as you can get more information there, but Lexus didn't really utilised them to full extent. Having this real estate with very good quality sharp screen could have been game changer. They could have develop like apps, or widgets for the dial and literally had unlimited functionality, like showing map on the dial or really unlimited number of options, whereas currently choice of what you can do on the screen is quite limited. 

Not sure what is there not to like about F-Sport dials, as they are not only "nicer", but as well objectively better with slightly more information and easier to read, because you can selectively choose only the information you want to know, but I guess everyone to their own. 

Personally I just don't like digits for the speedo - call it old age if you like! I much prefer an analogue dial - similar for watches - still prefer an analogue dial watch too! I had an NX 350h F Sport as a courtesy car last week while my IS 300h was in for a service and that had the F Sport look dials but now just as a tft (or whatever tech the display is) and not the actual mechanical moving face like on the IS F Sport - not sure what other new NX's have for the dash though. That had the speed just as a number too which I wasn't keen on - unless it could be changed - didn't find any way to do that in the time I had it though. Mind you, I did like the rest of the car - first time I have really warmed to an SUV style and IMHO it's a nice step up from the old NX 300h that I never really got on with.