CraigA_UK

Long story short, someone pranged the front of my IS300h so it went in this week to Jemca in Bracknell for repair work. The third party insurance paid Enterprise to provide me with a courtesy car, which was a brand new c200 Mercedes (petrol). I've never driven a Merc before, so it was interesting to compare the experience with the Lexus. A few things I noticed: 1) The 7 speed auto box in the Merc felt so clunky compared to the smoothness of the Lexus. The gear changes jolted me a little in the seat, and seemed to be disconcertingly timed. 2) The engine was noisier than the Lexus, which you barely hear unless booting it hard 3) Economy was worse. I was driving sympathetically, and hit around 35Mpg average over the 150 miles I put on the car 4) Interior felt cheap with shiny plastics (probably the cheapest trim spec in the range, but still not a 'cheap' car) 5) Didn't like the gear selector being on a stalk from the steering column at first, but got used to it and kind of liked it by the end 6) Little cargo nets on the side pockets in the boot - neat and very handy 7) It had a reversing camera (but no parking sensors!!) which was better in low light/darkness than the Lexus. However, it had a slight video lag meaning you nearly hit things if reversing a little quickly. 8) Seats aren't as comfy as my F-Sport Needless to say, I was glad to pick up my car again today, and really appreciated just how silky smooth the ride quality is from the hybrid system. I've been slightly bemoaning only being able to average 46MPG on my best tanks of the Lexus, but won't any more after the thirsty and lacklustre Merc experience!!

Hey all, 3 months and around 4k miles on the car, and had the first real oddity at the weekend. The car was parked overnight at a hotel, and when we set-off the engine started while I was in P and appeared to rev a little higher than usual (enough to be noticeable). I rolled out of the car-park and through the side roads without noticing any issues, but wasn't going quick. When i pulled out onto the main road I had absolutely no acceleration at all. I planted the accelerator and nothing happened apart from a slow climb up to around 25 mph. Looking at the hybrid display, the car was running on battery with no engine input. No matter what I did with the accelerator the engine wouldn't kick in. Luckily it wasn't a busy road, so I pulled in and turned off the car. Turned it back on again and all was fine again. It's behaved since, but it was a little unnerving - and there were no faults/error lights when the problem was occurring. Has this happened to anyone else, and does anyone know how to fire up the engine without stopping the car? Craig

On another note, I was a bit shocked on the insurance side of things. Being a company car, on contract hire, limits the plans somewhat - but as a 33 year old, full no claims the best price i could get was £750. Makes my TVR Chimaera 4L insurance seem even cheaper than it is at £280!

Yeah, the reason I asked about the UI jumping thing was on the demo car I borrowed about 4 months ago, I could get the music view full screen with cover art, etc. I'll have a dig through all the menus, there is a lot of customisation to do. On another note, is there any way to have the dash dial auto-open to the split screen view - or do you have to select it every time? It's a nicer layout IMHO.

Picked up my new IS300h F-Sport yesterday, and already loving it. Sonic Titanium, F-Sport Rose leather, ML Audio, AVS dampers. Haven't had the time to geek out with all the trickery, but I will spend this weekend customising the dash and LCD to my liking. A few quick questions, which will no doubt be answered if I read the manuals that fill the glove box: 1) Is it possible to make the mirrors fold when parked? They dip on reverse. 2) When I click into something on the LCD, such as the music screen (so it's full screen) - it jumps back to a 3 panel view after about 15 seconds. Can you lock it into a view, or does it always hop back to the summary screen? I'm sure there will be more questions as I get playing. :-)

Looks like Drive The Deal have stopped offering Lexus cars...

OK - F-sport w/premium nav, leather, AVS and ML stereo. 15k miles p/a. 2 Year CH (no maintenance): Deposit £2,348.36 exc. VAT 23 monthlies of £391.39 exc. VAT 3 Year CH (no maintenance): Deposit: £2,393.98 exc. VAT 35 monthlies of £399 exc. VAT 3 Year PCP: Deposit: £6,500 Dealer contribution: £2,500 My contribution: £4,000 35 monthlies of: £519.08 (inc. VAT I assume) Final repayment/guaranteed value: £14,085 According to the rep: BUSINESS CONTRACT HIRE: I’ve quoted for both 2 & 3 years as our 2 year rentals are slightly lower. List price: £38850.00 Co2: 107g/km Tax Band: 16% If you pay tax at 20% you will pay £103.60 per month in company car tax and at 40% tax it will cost £207.20 per month. As a company the monthly rentals are allowable in full against profits before you pay corporation tax so your savings will be: 2 year agreement: Year one: £1330.73 Year two: £ 939.34 3 year agreement: Year one: £1356.60 Year two: £ 957.60 Year three: £ 957.60 My Situation: My company is VAT registered and FY ending March 15 finished with around £40k profit. I'm currently a 20% tax payer, on the cusp - so extracting extra money for PCP may push me to 40% - it would be a close call, but my gut feeling is it would. I need to double check. I run approx 15k miles per annum, with around 65% being business mileage. Thoughts please? :-)

Hi all, Lexus Reading have given me 3 quotes - 2 year CH, 3 year CH and 3 year PCP I specifically don't want to own the car, as I'm sure there will be some interesting developments over the next 3 years so would like to keep my options open. I'm a company director of my own business, which is in profit. I have the option of either taking a higher dividend and doing personal PCP, or bringing the car into the biz and paying the BIK to run it as a company car. The CH deal is between £40 - £50 per month cheaper, with a lower deposit (around £2k less) I'll have a chat with my own accountant next week, but wondered if anyone would like to look at the quotes and help me with the pros/cons? I'll not post the full financials up here as it may be against forum etiquette (unless told otherwise), so could anyone who would like to advise PM me? Thanks! Craig

I must admit, I dialed up the ASC and then dialed it down again. I quite like NOT having a growly engine noise! (I do have a fat V8 TVR Chimaera for when I feel noisy ) Oh, and those reviewers who moan about the petrol revving and wailing when booting it - are they nuts? This is a seriously quiet car, and the lack of gear changes makes wafting around a real joy.

This is a really nice car... just on a 1 day test drive courtesy of Lexus Reading. A polar white f-Sport with AVS and Mark Levinson, 2 options I didn't think I'd be able to test. I'm really impressed with how smooth it is, and all the different gadgets (I'm a tech head, so could spend a chunk of time just fiddling with things). I really like the ride, and it firms up nicely in sport mode. Can someone explain the difference between sport and sport+? (I assume just an even firmer ride) Either way, it's a very impressive piece of kit so far.

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far - very helpful! So, it sounds like the Sport+ mode with AVS is a firmer ride than the F-Sport standard ride then? Not that it's a bad thing, if you're planning on a bit of spirited driving on the B roads... :-)

I wonder how many other EV & Hybrid cars have been sold by people trying the Tesla? I had a test drive in one in January and it's the most incredible car I've ever driven from a 'gut punching' acceleration perspective, and I only drove the 85kw normal model - not the 3.2 second 0-60 P85D. Unfortunately I can't quite make the maths work for ownership of a new one, so that's why I'm looking at the IS300h. After a 3 year lease, I'm sure there will be a better range of EVs around, or some better Model S deals on the table. I have also test drove a Leaf. The first EV I'd ever tried, and it was very cool. Really like the silent motoring and torquey acceleration.Low initial range and range drop-off in the winter just makes it a bit too impractical for me. I need 200 miles on a charge to cover 99% of what I do. The thing I'm surprised about with most hybrids is how they don't better use the torque of the electric motor to give a more spirited drive, more like the way that the hybrid supercars like the McLaren P1 do (although obviously not to the same performance levels!). I assume it's an MPG improvement vs performance improvement trade-off, especially with the fairly small battery packs the hybrids have. The Infiniti M35h appears to be more sporty in performance - but it looks hideous compared to the IS 300h. Has anyone tried a drive in one?

Hi all, I've been taking a serious look at the IS 300h F-Sport for my next car, and I have a couple of questions for owners and Lexus enthusiasts, having never owned one before. 1) For those of you with F-Sport cars, did you plump for AVS? If so, does it soften up the ride a little in normal mode, and then sharpen it up in sport mode? Would you recommend this option, as the standard dampers are a little firm for normal running from what I hear. 2) How well does the leather hold up in these cars? The seats feel very nice quality. I ask because I may well opt for a 9 - 18 month old used car to kill the depreciation - most are very low mileage, but one of the cars I saw on the Lexus used page had very poor looking seats for a car under 2 years old. 3) How much functionality does the Premium Nav system pull 'over the air' - I.E: does it automatically update things like speed cameras, maps and traffic? 4) The infotainment system seems to get a bad write up by many, with slow responses and a slightly dated interface. Is this something Lexus may improve with firmware updates, or is it currently "as good as it gets"? 5) Lastly, how receptive are the dealerships when it comes to searching for used cars across the Lexus dealer network? The website is poor for searching for cars with specific options. I think I'd be looking for an F-Sport with Premium Nav, Rose Leather seats, AVS and Mark Levinson audio - probably a bit more limited in choice with those options. Thanks! Craig