Pink

Thanks Jason, I’m intrigued now and will check mine out when I next get the chance !

My Next base. Easy to instal, works a treat. Great quality footage and wireless retrieval to your device.

I came from a 530d E60, different engine but still a 6 pot beemer. All I can say is “what Wharf said above ^^” Try the various driving modes mentioned. While the 300h is no beemer through the bends, the Sports mode gives a fairly reasonable pick up 0-15mph. Only other thing I’d add, is that the 300h doesn’t really want to be pushed and harried around. It’s best at smooth cruising, and whether you wish it or not you may find your driving style changes to accommodate this! You say you sit in traffic most of the time, the IS is absolutely excellent through slow rush hour commutes.

Anthony, most of my mileage is motorway and I find the IS300h a very comfortable and relaxing cruiser, especially if you’re not pushing hard. The seats are particularly comfy and supportive too, meaning you’ll step out from a long drive still refreshed, although coming from an LS you’ll know all about that! If I had one small niggle, it’d be the tyre noise, partly I’m sure exaggerated by the fact that the cabin is otherwise so much quieter than most other cars. Rear seat comfort is great too, but for 2 only, the 3rd will fight the transmission tunnel!

You can see the blog for details on the e-cvt. In terms of how that translates to practical driving is a different experience from traditional engines and gearboxes. Gearless acceleration is seamless and linear, very relaxing and smooth. Downside is the inverse experience with engine revs when you push on at pace, where the car jumps immediately to high revs to build up speed and then progressively comes back down, rather than a build up of revs in a conventional car as it progresses through the various gear ranges. Some people like it, some don’t ! I personally find the initial noise as the revs jump quite unsophisticated under hard acceleration, but feel it’s more than compensated for with the overall relaxing smooth progression when driving normally. No gearboxes or clutches to worry about, so mechanically pretty bullet proof compared to conventional set up.

I’ve had similar annoying rattles and buzzes in particular, which seem to come from the front passenger area. Having taped every possible contact point around the door, window, seatbelt and seat adjusters with anti-rattle tape, I finally managed to quieten the buzzing by padding out the area of trim by the passenger’s right leg area. One panel just popped out and I taped behind it, on the other I just prised a gap using a flat head driver and put some padding tape down the gap. Appreciate that everyone’s rattles may be different, but for now at least it’s seems to have cured most of mine

Last time I experienced something like that the inside of one of my tyre walls had been damaged - probably due to a speed hump. There was a clear bulge on the inside tyre wall where the structure of the tyre had been compromised and broken. The symptom was the wobbly ride exactly as you’ve just described, especially at low speed, so worth a quick check for that.

I’ve just ordered some anti-rattle felt tape to give this a try. Does putting tape on affect the waterproofing of the car much, if the rubbers now close against the felt tape rather than the metal?

How funny, I was reading exactly the same article in the latest autoexpress magazine at a friend’s house yesterday. Great result for Lexus, and the IS also came top of the Reliability list too.

As mentioned above, the main issues if you’re seriously considering any diesel (especially one approaching 100k) will be the state of the EGR valve and DPF, aswell as the turbo. If your driving mainly comprises short trips or commutes through slow & heavy traffic then the petrol option will be a better bet. Diesels need regular long distance motorway hauls and stellar mileage to ensure sufficient heat soak to keep the engine de-clogged, and even that’s no guarantee of problem-free driving. You could delete those components from your car, but that’s now a technical mot fail. Given the fuel cost differential, pending city zone restrictions and the general demonisation of derv, you need a pretty solid reason to buy one right now. Used prices are clearly fairly attractive at the moment given all the above. It might look like a short term bargain but you’ll need to weigh in the points raised by contributors above. Lexus doesn’t possess the years of diesel heritage compared to many of the German brands. It was a short term venture for them and now firmly shunned. If it was my money, I’d be looking at the green pump, but best of luck with whatever you choose. (Ex diesel driver now in an Is300h and loving it).

The Atkinson cycle ICE is optimised for economy rather than power, so I don’t imagine there’s much BHP advantage with the higher octane. I just run regular Shell but put in V-Power around every 5th fill for the cleaning additives.

Thanks for replies, I just let it do it’s thang 🙂

I don’t think I’m imagining this, but for the last few days my traction battery monitor doesn’t seem to be updating bar movements as regularly as before It used to show the bars moving up & down as the battery discharged & charged but now seems to hardly change at all, even though all the blue/red/orange arrows appear to be responding normally I’ve proved that the monitor is actually working by driving in EV mode round some quiet roads, and it did finally show a discharge, and the recharged again. But in normal driving it seems to hold steady at the same bar numbers much more so than usual Is this just a feature of the weather warming up a bit? No change in MPG or anything to indicate there’s an issue though

I came from a 530d with 19” wheels on M Sport suspension to an IS300h exec on 17” wheels, so more compliant than the 18” on the F Sport you’re considering. Have to say that whilst it’s definitely more comfy than the M Sport, even on the 17s its still fairly firm - more so than I was expecting. Given there’s the F Sport option, I’m a tad disappointed that the Exec model isn’t more compliant as standard. So would be interested to see how you find the FSport Compared to the LS I’m pretty sure you’ll also notice much more road / tyre noise. Again, slightly disappointing but actually a victim of the relative quietness of the hybrid drive. But the LS would’ve been equally quiet, if not more so due to better sound proofing, so you might find the IS tyre noise instrusive. Apart from that, and despite what it may sound like, I’m actually loving the way the IS drives !!

Check out this post which also includes the TSB details Some have had a successful outcome I had the active damper installed a couple of months ago, but not the software flash. Not convinced it fixed much. I’m having more success by simply not trying to listen out for it now TBH!

Related to this, is there some sort of failsafe that unlocks the doors in (say) the case of an accident, and the car is still in Drive (ie not in Park)? Does the car detect this and unlock all the doors for safety/escape purposes ?

Glad the car’s everything you were hoping for Lee; that new-car-day feeling is pretty damn hard to beat. You don’t have to say, but I’m sure you took the long way home!

Coming from weak halogens on my old beemer I’m still getting off on the xenons on my 64 Exec model !! Ah well 😀

The lock end looks quite chunky. How well does it fit the wheel for the IS and does it leave any marks or indentations?

Enjoy your beer D, think you deserve it! Hope the claim goes thru easily. Had a dash cam for about 3 years, and now would never drive without one.

Hi Lee and welcome. Great colour! Look forward to your write-up after you pick up the car 😀. In the meantime, enjoy the suspense, impatience, and excitement of the wait to get behind that wheel ... happy times!!

Great looking car! As above, please let’s us know how it compare. Happy motoring 😀

Hi Paul ive only used it charge the phone a few times at the moment, not jump start a car. With nearly 1000 reviews averaging 4.6 out of 5 stars, that’s a high hit rate on Amazon with many buyers impressed, and so I was pretty happy to give this unit a go. Mine arrived 50% charged but I fully charged it to 100% over Christmas, and have just checked it now (in the boot of my car) and it’s still sat at 100%. The unit certainly looks and feels like a quality item, but until I use it I won’t know for sure. Btw it’s ok to post batteries (I’ve sent some pretty high powered 18650 lithium ion cells) provided the package is marked.

If it helps, the one I got from Amazon was a “DBPOWER 600A 18000mAh Portable Car Jump Starter” for about £70. So it was pricey for what it is, but got good reviews and is capable of starting up to a 6.5L petrol engine. Probably overkill, but I figured that if I’m going to carry one of these things around, I’d prefer one that could cover all eventualities ! 🙂

Out of interest Richard how effective was it as a make-shift elbow rest. Was it fairly flush to the surface or raised up a bit?