Lexus One

Thank you Thakeray, for the in-depth post, and the super-useful picture! I wasn't aware of of the parking pawl, and that may very well have been what I heard. The only comment I would make, which I didn't say, was that the car was on flat ground at the time, but I guess there may still have been some tension on the pawl at the time it was moved to Drive. I have since been driving the car today, and haven't heard the noise again. I have been getting used to the normal 'operational' sounds of an automatic transmission. Separately, I did notice that the first couple of minutes of driving the car today, the engine sounded a little 'rough'. Then, after a few minutes of driving, it had returned to being quiet and refined sounding, and was then fine for the rest of the day. Will see if similar tomorrow. Reverse parking on a fairly steep hill was also an experience! Seemed like there wasn't much torque available at first, and then with only gentle pressure on the throttle, the car speeded backwards! Luckily I had a lot of space behind me to brake in time, but it was a little disconcerting. Still figuring out what is normal in this car...

That makes a lot of sense, and have experienced that on other cars in the past. However, the noise I mentioned specifically came from the area of the gear lever, not from the periphery of the car, and wasn't really metallic sounding. 'Clunk' might have been the wrong choice of word in my original post. I will keep an eye on it from here on. Hopefully it was a one-off. Great news on the regular high rankings for Toyota and Lexus. Japanese motor manufacturers are definitely doing something right!

Thanks, Chris. I went for a 2nd viewing today and did not experience the same issue. Tried everything you mentioned above, and the noise just wasn't there at all. Perhaps yesterday the car was started from cold, which may have caused the issue. Anyway, I am now the owner of a lovely Lexus IS 250! 😀

I guess I should have posted this into the IS 250 Forum. Can any admins move it for me, please? Thanks.

Hi all, Hoping someone can help with a pre-purchase technical issue. Went to see an IS250 Advance Auto (2011) for sale today, to give it a test drive. Was in the drivers seat for the first time, had just released the foot parking brake, had the brake pedal depressed, and moved the gear shifter from P down to D. At that moment, I heard what I can only describe as a bit of a clunk or thud noise coming from the area of the gear shifter. It wasn't particularly loud, but it was definitely noticeable, and occurred within a fraction of a second of selecting D. It left me with a bit of concern about the transmission. I normally drive manual cars, so am not sure if this is usual for an automatic or for a Lexus automatic, or a sign of a potential fault that I should be worried about before buying the car? Hope someone can help. Many thanks. PS. Just to add, on the test drive itself, the car drove beautifully and gear changes were very smooth/imperceptible.