michaelH

Yes, it will sit all day at 70-80 uphill or down and without breaking sweat. A very relaxed refined and economical fast cruiser, and well-equipped too. Mpg may be a little lower than some four pot turbo diesels on the open road, but then petrol is cheaper and it won't sound like a tractor when you start up. I get about 45 actual / 48 displayed from mixed winter driving and was getting 50 mpg on summer tyres in warmer weather. It is very quick off the mark if put into sport mode (and very easy then to flick it back into either normal or eco mode once you are away). Or leave it in sport and it feels very responsive, and corners and rides well on 17" tyres (I have heard mixed reports about a harder ride on 18s but have not tried them myself on this model) The revs will soar for a short time if you floor it to overtake on a short straight,which can be a bit disconcerting for the first couple of times. But if you want a true rocket ship sports saloon then it isn't one of those and doesn't pretend to be. The new coupe or (as suggested above) a used ISF might appeal if that is what you want.

I suppose someone must have said this already but I don't recall it so there is no harm in saying it again: one problem with space saver wheels is that the one you have to replace it with will be full sized and almost certainly filthy. If the boot is half empty, then OK, but if not (and on a longer journey it may well be full) then the only way out may be to empty the boot and put any clean bags etc on the back seat - assuming you have space there , of course. Perhaps someone can be told to walk?

Broadly similar experience to dochybrid - mpg had dropped to mid 40s with combination of cold weather and new winter tyres, but has picked up recently. Just got back from a trip up to Yorkshire with two passengers, driving around Yorkshire with four passengers and back to Leicester again with the two I started with. MPG now reads 53.1 and on past evidence that will mean about 50.5 mpg at the pumps. Not much chance to speed on the M1 (cameras and road works for much of the journey) but Yorkshire was hilly and we were heavily laden. Filled with Shell V power Nitro the last two times, so there goes the saving, but I have always got slightly better mpg out of that fuel - never enough to do more than cover the pump price, perhaps even less than that, but the car seems to like it.

Steve is right of course, but some of use can't resist the challenge to squeeze 700 miles from a tank one day (will have to wait for summer for that - I can't get better than 620 ATM). Not at the risk of running out of petrol, however. Running down to zero on the range scale should be OK as long as there are petrol stations nearby - my calculations are that I have about 6 litres left at that stage.

You will get much better mpg in the summer, but in any case you are getting a good saving on VED because of the low emissions and the amount you would save by achieving better mpg figures would be pretty small. Does anyone else find that the average speed display is always surprisingly low?

I have done that longer motorway journey at or below 60 mph. well, it was a mix of motorway and A-road, and in summer. The lowish speeds were necessary because of a passenger with spinal injuries. The mpg was impressive at around 60. The readout on the dash suggested even better figures, but like most users I find it to be about 3 mpg out.

was this on summer tyres? My old is250 was hopeless in the snow. I have fitted winter tyres to my is300h, but have not yet driven on them in anything worse than sleet and slush.

Cold weather and new winter tyres have made a big dent in my typical mpg. I was getting around 52 mpg (actual, brim to brim measured) in the summer, but am now getting closer to 44 for the same kind of journey. In the summer, I would sometimes see 60+ on the readout. I never see that now. But its no big deal and no doubt mpg will go up again next summer. The sums of money involved are relatively small, unless you are covering an enormous annual mileage

Carl, sorry to be slow in replying. My old car was top spec (except for the radar adjusted cruise control) and I miss some of the features. Yes, perhaps I ought to have hung out for a premier model on 17 inch wheels. Next time perhaps. I miss the top spec seats and proper leather interior, but not that much, now that i have (at last) adjusted the driver's seat just as I want it. I don't really miss the ML stereo. Now I am very serious about hi fi, but didn't regard the ML as proper hi fi. The DAB/FM radio/DVD in my car (Luxury with premium nav) is I think the one between the basic version and the ML version. The radio seems as good (and more versatile); the DVD isn't quite as good but I have bluetooth and USB audio so I can use my Apple devices. The car is essentially quieter at speed so the music eventually sounds just as good overall. Also, the premium nav is essential if you want the excellent reversing camera. The new car has bi-xenon headlights, which is a big plus if (like me) you do a lot of night driving on unlit roads. I had xenons on the old SE-L, but is yours an SE-L or SE-l? If the former then you have them too, but otherwise this will be a useful improvement. One difference with my old car is that the old xenons were adaptive and coupled with a halogen pair for full beam. The adaptive bit made no practical difference that I could see. The new one has bi-xenons which I think are not quite as powerful on full beam as the old xenon-halogon combo, but better on dipped (better lens/projector?) which is where it really matters. The nav system is more advanced, but more fiddly, as many have said before. No spare wheel, which is a minus. I might try to get hold of an old same saver, but in the event of a puncture I would need to find space somewhere for the old full size wheel, so that limits its value when fully laden.

I made the switch back in July (IS250 SE-L to IS330h luxury /prem nav) and would endorse just about all these observations, especially that concerning the ride over uneven roads. The newer car does seem a little more planted and stable as well. Eco friendly or not, it is certainly more wallet friendly, especially when driving around town. In the old IS, I would get a very promising mpg reading after a long journey (say 38 mpg over 300 miles) only to watch it fall like a stone after a few short trips (probably averaging 20 mpg) around town. In the 300h, not only can you get over 50 mpg on a long trip (in summer, anyway), but you can get something like that around town as well. Not in winter and on new winter tyres, however, as I have been finding out recently. 45 seems the best I can get ATM, but having just gone over the Cambrian hills last night with the higher parts covered in slushy snow, I don't regret fitting them.

so that button DOES exist!

I have just noticed a significant drop in MPG (from about 51 mpg (readout saying 54) to about 47 mpg (readout saying 49) and the indications are that it will fall again to about 45 (current readout says 47). There are three possible factors, and perhaps all three are at work. First, I tried driving most of a 165 mile journey from Aberystwyth to Leicester in sport mode; second it has been getting a lot colder, and I know mpg drops in the cold; and third, I have changed my half worn summer tyres to new Dunlop winter sports. See Changes to Expect When Switching from Worn-Out to New ... on www.tirerack.com › Of the three, I suspect that the use of sport mode made the least difference, because the journey was mostly at main road or motorway speeds, where the engine is working anyway. The new Dunlops have respectable economy stats, but they also have full treads and that may also help explain why the car's own mpg figures have got a little more accurate (?) perhaps.