i-s

They're among the softest of UHP tyres, sure, but distinctly stiff compared to a touring tyre with a thin sidewall and balloon profile (eg p7 cinturato). That was my point, rather than the f1 being the stiffest.

Just to echo others, this is a common thing - as someone else posted earlier, mercedes have got it so bad with their GLC that there's a class-action lawsuit against them for it (from what I've read, it afflicts RHD cars much worse, because of a change in the steering geometry that occured during the changeover. Like it's GLK predecessor, the GLC seems not to have RHD in mind at the design stage, as there's nowhere for your left foot to go in an RHD GLC). Our V70 also does this on very tight turns. Two posters in this thread compared notes on 17" IS wheels - The eagle F1 Asymmetric have very stiff sidewalls while the Yokohama blueearth do not. It's not only the profile height, but the overall stiffness of the sidewall. That's why merc's fix for the GLC was to fit winter tyres - softer, more compliant rubber. Ultimately it's about choosing an appropriate tyre - there's a lot of people who "big up" tyres like the F1 Asymmetric, Michelin PS2, etc, but these are stiff UHP tyres that are aimed at cars where sporting responses are the #1 priority - eg BMW Z4, Toyota GT86, Supra, Cayman, etc. They're not really appropriate on a luxury saloon or family car - for this you're better off with a more compliant tyre like EfficientGrip, Crossclimate, Primacy, Turanza, etc (although I do NOT recommend Pirelli P7 Cinturato - we suffered a very high failure rate of these tyres). No, they won't provide quite as much grip in warm conditions as a UHP tyre nor as sharp response, but they have a wider operating envelope, lower noise, better wear and less crabbing. I recall a thread on the Volvo owner's club where someone was utterly insistent that Pilot Sport Cup 2s were the best tyre for a 2.0 diesel V50...

Holy Thread revival! I've not owned many cars... 1998R Mitsubishi Galant GLS 2.0 Auto Estate 2001X Mitsubishi Galant Elegance GDI 2.4 Manual Estate 2003 53 Honda Accord Tourer Executive 2.0 i-VTEC Manual 2011 Volvo V70 D5 SE Lux Polestar Geartronic 2015 Nissan Leaf Tekna Now the 2015 GS450h Premier is coming in to replace the V70 and will reside alongside the Leaf. As you can tell, I've always had a bit of thing for Japanese cars. I hate the spec stinginess of european cars, gouging for things that should just be standard - One time I had a VW Passat B6 hire car - R-line bodykit, Alloys, parking sensors, 2.0TDI with DSG gearbox..... and wind-up windows in the back!!! So of my 5 cars there's one worst and 4 best... The worst was the Galant GDI - it was a mistake to buy and I only kept it a year. Everything was on the verge of collapse with that car, and it was a shame because my previous Galant was great. The GDI engines were a nightmare outside of Japan, the gearbox was awful, suspension was dying (in worse shape with half the mileage than my previous), etc. The other 4 are all the best cars I've ever had, in their own ways. My R-Reg Galant was my first car and so it holds a special place for that. It had its mechanical foibles but it never let me down. Mitsubishi were an underappreciated brand I think, and back in the 90s they were doing some great engineering - sadly it all rusted away far too quickly. My Honda was great - great engine, amazing gearbox (rifle-bolt precise, never mis-shifted, never reluctant to go into gear), bombproof mechanicals and it was incredibly cheap to run as I could DIY service it. The Volvo is a great car because it's extremely comfortable with lovely seats and ride. The interior design and quality of materials is much nicer than the 5-series and E-class, and there's a lot of things where you feel that Volvo actually design cars to live with, rather than for the motoring press. The Leaf is great because being EV it's so zippy and responsive, even on very basic mechanicals (macstrut/torsion beam). Interior is pretty naff and the infotainment relatively infuriating, but the EV side is so good that it makes up for it. It's like my Canon EOS D30 was - very early digital SLR camera. The focusing, metering, framerate, viewfinder, etc were all awful - it was a terrible Camera compared to my EOS 3, but it immediately demonstrated the crushing superiority of digital to film (And I never felt that I had a camera that matched the EOS 3 as a camera until many years later with the 5D3). In a similar way, the leaf is not a very good car compared to what I'm used to (first thing I've ever owned without independent rear suspension for example), but it demonstrates the crushing superiority of EV over ICE.

I've only seen once I-pace. I like the exterior of the car, but I find the interior is a bit bland - sadly the whole jag range suffers this at the moment (except for the venerable XJ). The XF, XE, F-pace interiors are all very "meh" to me. To me the best interiors in the mid-range marketplace at the moment are the new-generation Volvos and by quite a long shot the Tesla model 3 (you have to sit in it to get the experience of it - the openness of the (standard) totally panoramic roof, the low windscreen view forward, the brilliance of the UI). However, I will commend Jaguar for taking the EV bull by the horns. It's not very efficient compared to a Tesla, and the current provision of CCS charging isn't great, but that will change. At least they have done something (and in contrast to the shutdown of UK plants building the diesel models, JLR have now increased production of the I-pace at magna steyr in austria because they can't meet demand) and have a car on sale (and despite its inefficiency, it still has over twice the range of my Leaf so would be easy to live with).

So spent all of this weekend prepping the V70 and getting it listed on Autotrader. I'm just hoping it sells easily...

Tesla are Li-Ion. When you get up to that size the advantages of Li-Ion are huge. All I was saying is that NiMH is a good compromise for a hybrid. All EVs (and to some extent the hybrids) have phenomenal acceleration simply because of the nature of electric motor power delivery, and not losing acceleration for gearchanges. Around town my 80kW (109bhp) Nissan Leaf is distinctly more sprightly than my 225bhp diesel Volvo - the leaf will show it a clean pair of heels up to 40mph. Conversely, once into its stride the Volvo will destroy the leaf from 50-80mph. I've driven a Tesla S 75D, and that was epic - since I'm used to EV driving it wasn't weird for me, but the ride/handling, grip and general feel to the drivetrain was actually not far different from the GS450h. Much more solid and capable than the utterly prosaic Leaf (with its macstruts and torsion beam suspension) or squirrely V70 (trying to put 470Nm through the front wheels with plenty of torque-steer) I for one can't wait for Lexus to come out with a full electric. Marry up their attention to detail and decent suspension design with a decent EV drivetrain and it would be a force to be reckoned with. Sadly Toyota have their heads in the sand about EVs and are in danger of missing the boat. They and Honda both tied themselves too deeply to hydrogen (which is NOT going to happen). I think we'll see some rather shocking changes in the auto industry in the next few years as some really big players (Ford, PSA, GM, FCA) suddenly discover that they needed to have started EV development 5 years ago to stay in business. Ford is in retreat (they're pulling out of selling cars in the USA, and will only offer pickups and SUVs) rather than trying to compete. As EV pickup trucks (Rivian, Bollinger, Tesla) and SUVs (Audi, Jag, Merc, Tesla, Rivian) start eating into their market share in those markets they will be in trouble. I sincerely hope that Toyota does not make the same mistake.

They still have not. Lexus Hybrids are still using Ni-MH batteries, as they are more appropriate to a hybrid. NiMH need less "looking after" than Li-Ion do, and are more rugged - NiMH doesn't need the same level of thermal management and safety gear. They are heavier and have lower volumetric energy density. The trade-off is worthwhile for a hybrid where you have ~2kWh of battery capacity (the GS450h spec is 1872Wh for the gen 3. Not been able to find info for Gen 4, but if the same 6.5Ah cells are used then the gen 4 GS450h is the same, and the GS300h is 1495Wh). In other words, the NiMH battery may be ~50kg heavier than an equivalent Li-Ion, but you'll save 20kg of encapsulation, thermal management, etc and cost. The NiMH application in hybrids is very well-developed. A full-EV with NiMH would be too heavy and lose too much space to the batteries, and the encapsulation and thermal management overheads don't increase linearly with battery size - they become less as the battery gets bigger (in percentage terms).

Electronic Engineer. I've designed circuits and PCBs that have gone in Hi-Fi, fire alarms, coin handling machines and these days cars, among many other things.

I love the V70, don't get me wrong. If ours had a power passenger seat we'd probably still be keeping it. However, I suspect we're talking different cars - SE Sport sounds like a P2 car (2001-2008)? Ours is a 2011 P3. P3s can turn a bit tighter than P2s (although ours has a lock limiter because it came from the factory on 8" wide wheels). P2s have a reputation for being out-turned by oil tankers. But my point was that Engine, trim level, wheel and tyre spec, tyre make and model all have big impacts, and would drastically affect the placement of any car in the table and that I suspect that is the case for the V70 - a T4 is probably the quietest V70, and they were more plentiful in sweden (where the test took place) than elsewhere where diesel is the defacto V70 powertrain.

I'm not totally convinced by this piece... I (currently - it's making way for the GS) own a V70 and while reasonably refined and pretty good for wind noise and road noise (at least it is now, on Michelin Crossclimates), the engine is an ever-felt presence, even on the motorway. It didn't bother me for a long time, but once I got the Leaf and got acclimatised to that, the continual diesel growl in the V70 really began to grate. However, if the test was performed with a 6-cyl petrol V70 (either T6 or particularly a 3.2) then I can see that it would be quiet. Another experience I had was when visiting colleagues in Germany. During a visit in February I was given a lift from the office to the hotel in one of my colleague's BMW 425d Grancoupe. I was favourably impressed with how it rode and the engine refinement. Fast forward to September, and I was picked up from the station by another colleague in his 420d Grancoupe. I was shocked at the clattery coarseness of the engine! I struggled slightly with reconciling those two experiences. The next day I was driven to my meeting in the 420d, and then my first colleague with the 425d gave me a lift to the station after our meeting - the 425d was WAY quieter. I said this to him, and he replied (with very germanic matter-of-factness) "He bought the wrong one". The point being that the engine and trim level make quite a difference to this measure - for example, VW Bluemotion cars have (or at least used to) thinner glass and less noise absorbing material in order to save weight - but both at the cost of refinement and higher noise levels. I don't think it's as simple as "the Golf is noisy" - I'm sure that SOME golfs are, and that some are better than others. But I have no doubt that the LS600h is extremely quiet.

Thanks all. Shahpor - it's rare that I'm called "interesting". 👍 We weren't ready to move on the car when yours was up for sale, although shortly after that Sidcup had a meteor blue one that we made an offer on. Meteor Blue was our top colour choice, followed by the Riviera Red of the car we got, with your Mercury Grey third. Silver, White and Black all tied for last place. There will be pictures, but first there will be polishing...

mis-type. Should have been 6 litres.

I think the problem is complexity of idea. I only really "got it" when playing with a 3d printed model of a rear diff that a colleague has on his desk. The principle of the PSD is the same, as I'm sure you know, although differing in some of the details and optimisations. Using the output shafts of the diff as the inputs and driving them at different speeds/directions to see the sum effect at the input (output on the PSD) got the concept over to me (but I'm a kinaesthetic learner, so that's what I needed). Although the concepts of how that works are difficult to get, the actual mechanicals are very simple relative to a conventional autobox. I fear for complexity in modern ICE vehicles, especially diesel - my volvo terrifies me. It has 2 turbochargers with much associated high-pressure pipework and intercooler, EGR and DPF. Newer ones are even worse in having Adblue SCR systems, etc. They're not terribly reliable as a whole, and then you get onto the issues of auto boxes. Although it used more fuel, my Honda Accord Tourer was the cheapest car to run that I've had, as it had such a simple but well-made engine (chain cam, 4 cyl naturally aspirated). Stick some long-life plugs in and servicing was simply change some oil and filters (it was a manual though). Once I understood how the hybrid system works I went from fearing its complexity to realising that it's actually a lot simpler and a lot more reliable than other ICE/transmission combinations (as the ICE part of the hybrid is a big lazy naturally aspirated engine that should go on for ever). The electrical side doesn't frighten me because of my profession. Of course, all of that leads to the strong arguments in favour of electric cars - vanishingly low mechanical complexity (few moving parts, no issues with engine mounts, no emissions hardware, etc) and very high reliability combined with very high efficiency - a Hyundai Kona EV will do over 300 miles real world on 64kWh, which is about the same amount of energy as 2 litres of diesel. I very much look forward to having a choice of full electric Lexus, Volvo, etc vehicles.

It was a tongue-in-cheek response that I am neither 1) informed (but fake it well) 2) a lady (definitely don't fake that one well!)

I fear you might be disappointed on two counts!

Thanks all. No, it's a used one - it's a 4th gen, pre-facelift. It's the only pre-facelift I've ever seen in the UK with the LED headlights rather than the Xenons. We went through a long process of selecting a replacement for the V70. We used to have just the one car, and there's not many cars that can match the V70 for doing everything (wafty cruise, practical load lugging, etc), but petrol V70s all come in at £500+ tax. However, last year we got the Leaf which does my commute and popping to the shops and I'm using to carry stuff when needed. The mileage dropped on the V70 and we started to look about for something a bit special to replace it (and get away from diesel). We looked at BMW and Mercedes (E-class coupe was favourite on paper) but came away very disappointed with the interior quality (look fantastic in pictures, cheap and nasty plastics to the touch), the comfort (awful seats in the E coupe, better in the saloon) and finding a petrol BMW or merc with standard (ie not sports, M-sport, AMG-line) suspension and electric seats was a proper needle in a haystack job. The only cars that impressed were the GS (and we were much more impressed with the NX in person than on paper, we liked the RX as well) and the Tesla S (which was only driven because I was interested - out of reach for now, and having now sat in a model 3 in the USA I'd prefer a 3). Husband isn't quite on board with having both cars electric (yet...) though. The more I learned about the engineering of the GS (I'm an engineer), the more impressed I became. The way that the Power Split Device in the Hybrid Synergy Drive works is such a beautifully elegant bit of engineering and it really appealed to me. It overcomes so many of the real problems of auto transmissions. It's interesting reading the reviews of the GS hybrids in the motoring press. As an EV driver I've long since come to the view that the motoring press are mostly clarksonesque dinosaur petrolheads who can't cope with change. Most of the complaints around the GS hybrid transmission come down to "the car makes a droning noise at full throttle" - see the Fifth Gear test for a good example of that. In the real world though you accelerate hard for only a few seconds. They all seem to miss the myriad advantages of the smoothness of acceleration (much more akin to an EV), lack of wearing parts like clutches or auto fluid, the lack of kickdown lag or turbolag (which is the main reason that my Leaf is quicker in the real world than most ICE cars around town - fast acceleration isn't much good if you have to wait a second to get to it as the car gets into the right gear and builds boost) and the ability of the GS450h to gear right down to ~1k rpm @ 100mph (there's an autobahn video that shows this). In other words, as far as I can tell from the engineering and my experience, the "e-CVT" (and half of their problems are down to calling it that) is actually pretty much superior to any other mechanical transmission in terms of driving characteristics, it's just the noise that people focus on. Drive with ear defenders on in two different cars and they'd come to a different conclusion. Way back in the late 90s my father was buying a new car (and I was in my late teens, just learning to drive). Even then the disparity between what the motoring press said and the reality was quite plain. My father's shortlist was the 7 series, A8, S-class, XJ8 and LS400 - the press loved the A8 and the XJ8 at the time. The S was the first to fall (the grosserwagen W140 was just too big, and needed the 5 litre to move (I should explain, my father had previously owned an S-type 3.8, Rover P6 3500 V8 and an XJ12 5.3 at various times - he demanded a certain level of performance)). The XJ8 was next, as the interior belied the car's very dated roots with a cramped cabin, short seat squabs and shallow boot. The A8 went down next as it was stupid - the 4.2 quattro was epically quick, but the ride and seats involved more concrete than compliance (fine for a sports car, not a luxury saloon). In the end it came down to the magical LS400 and the BMW 7 - in the end of the cars that were available at the time he went for a 740iL 4.4 as the mk4 LS400 was a bit out of reach and the mk3 was a bit off what the BMW was. However, the quality and experience of the Lexus always stuck with me. We did drive a 2nd gen GS300 at the time also. I think the 4th gen GS is a car he would have liked - it's also the same colour as his BMW was. Shahpor - I thought someone would be watching. It is the latter of the cars you mention. We saw yours on sale also - we've been keeping a close eye on them since July.

Greetings all. I've hung around many a car forum on the internet over the years. Indeed, I recognise a few names here (well, at least one!). Of late I've been active on Volvo Owners Club (because of my V70 D5) and SpeakEV (because of my Nissan Leaf). Now the time has come for the diesel to go, and a deposit was paid today on a GS450h. I've done enough research to know that this is a spectacularly rare example. Once we collect it (another couple of weeks off) and I've done some detailing then I'll reveal... Nice to be here, I've already picked up some useful bits of info.