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Ownership 3 months in


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I’ve had the car for coming up on 3 months now and am still very smitten. A real change from my 2002 BMW 330i and a testament to the advice given on this forum. The car has so much right with it that I find myself focusing on the things that are so slightly wrong haha


Things I don’t like or wonder about. Thoughts appreciated !

The centre console (armrest and shifter area) rattles and general creakiness. Every other area of the car is solid as stone but this area that you touch a lot (my elbow rests on it) isn’t ? Very odd. But I just try to ignore the rattles and creaks. I’ve seen some explanatory DIY fixes on here…might try that.

Occasionally after the engine is warmed up, I will come to a stop or am coasting but I can tell the engine is still on. However the engine is not charging the Battery ? EV light isn’t lit. Battery isn’t fully charged. I get the sense there is some maintenance the car is doing (sometimes happens after a while at highway speeds, using the engine a lot). Or maybe my car needs servicing

How the car thinks the engine needs to be on for 15-20 seconds to “warm up” if I’m running errands and get out of the car for 20-50 minutes between trips. Engine is already warm. Very minor quibble.

 

Things I love:

The car’s ability to combine seemingly incompatible qualities. Feels solid but also light and easy to interact with. Seats are sooo comfortable but grip you…I have found other cars to have seats I slide around on. The car feels very spacious and roomy but also wraps around you. I’ve found other cars to be too roomy or too cramped.

The planted feeling of the car. It has a great combination of comfortable ride with very capable handling.

The feeling of quality and thoughtful design in most every area of the cabin.

Great fuel economy. I sooooo enjoy sitting in traffic and not wasting petrol. I can be in the worst traffic and still get great efficiency. I get about 48 MPG

I used to not run the AC in last car unless it was really hot but now that I can run it off the hybrid Battery, I use it whenever I feel like :)

How efficient the hybrid part is. Only using the engine until car is a little warm (remarkably little time taken in summer) and seamlessly monitoring things and turning things off and on as needed.

Using the regenerative braking. I really enjoy charging the Battery back up this way. And changing my driving to maximise efficiency. When I first got the car I overused the Battery part by driving really slow but then I realised that often the Battery was low when I got into it the next day and it would need to have the engine on for a while to charge back up the Battery. So I started just driving normally and the efficiency has gone up.

How much more relaxed it makes me about driving. No longer racing around to get to the next stop light faster than everyone.

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11 hours ago, pkts said:

Occasionally after the engine is warmed up, I will come to a stop or am coasting but I can tell the engine is still on. However the engine is not charging the battery ? EV light isn’t lit. Battery isn’t fully charged. I get the sense there is some maintenance the car is doing (sometimes happens after a while at highway speeds, using the engine a lot). Or maybe my car needs servicing

How the car thinks the engine needs to be on for 15-20 seconds to “warm up” if I’m running errands and get out of the car for 20-50 minutes between trips. Engine is already warm. Very minor quibble.

I used to not run the AC in last car unless it was really hot but now that I can run it off the hybrid battery, I use it whenever I feel like :)

How efficient the hybrid part is. Only using the engine until car is a little warm (remarkably little time taken in summer) and seamlessly monitoring things and turning things off and on as needed.

Using the regenerative braking. I really enjoy charging the battery back up this way. And changing my driving to maximise efficiency. When I first got the car I overused the battery part by driving really slow but then I realised that often the battery was low when I got into it the next day and it would need to have the engine on for a while to charge back up the battery. So I started just driving normally and the efficiency has gone up.

How much more relaxed it makes me about driving. No longer racing around to get to the next stop light faster than everyone.

I've given up trying to work out why the engine runs when I think it shouldn't, after a run on the motorway maybe it runs to run the water pump and oil pump to cool the engine down a little.  I assume you've not used the "flappy padles" as I've noticed that the ICE stays on if you try to use them to slow down rather than the brake pedal.

I just leave the AC on constantly, always have in all cars I've had with AC.

I think you tend to overdo the efficiency by trying too hard, been there, done that.  Two and a half years in I still occasionally try things, but for the main just let the car do what it needs to do, Toyota / Lexus have been at this game for a few decades now.

Relaxing driving aids mpg, but the occasional quick getaway is fun.

 

Vince

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12 hours ago, pkts said:

Occasionally after the engine is warmed up, I will come to a stop or am coasting but I can tell the engine is still on. However the engine is not charging the battery ? EV light isn’t lit. Battery isn’t fully charged.

If the engine is running and the EV light isn't lit then it is charging the Battery! (Unless you put gear selector into neutral)

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12 hours ago, pkts said:

Occasionally after the engine is warmed up, I will come to a stop or am coasting but I can tell the engine is still on. However the engine is not charging the battery ? EV light isn’t lit. Battery isn’t fully charged. I get the sense there is some maintenance the car is doing (sometimes happens after a while at highway speeds, using the engine a lot). Or maybe my car needs servicing

I've seen this on our GS450h. It seems to me to occur when the hybrid Battery is low and the engine is running to move the car and charge the Battery - it seems not to be able to do both at once below about 5mph, but it doesn't stop the engine. When you come to a stop you feel the generator kick in and load the engine (and you can see it on the energy flow display). 

As Vince Donald said, it seems to work best by not messing with EV mode, eco mode, etc - just let it get on and do what it does. I'd love to have (much) more regen when coming off-throttle (but then I always drove my Leaf in B mode, and my Tesla has very strong regen, so I'm used to that), but it's not difficult to modulate the brake pedal to maximise regen without kicking in friction braking. 

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It does seem to be a car that's not easy to understand. I love the whole sitting in traffic with the engine off thing. When the traffic starts moving again I will sometimes only press the accelerator very slightly to prevent the engine firing up. But I'm not absolutely sure that's the right approach. Perhaps driving normally and letting the engine fire up no matter how briefly it runs before you're on the brakes again is the right approach? But I do have a slight concern with the engine firing up then shutting down again for what feels like only a 2 or 3 second burst. I can't help thinking this might be bad for wear and tear. 

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I love my IS, but now after a few years my biggest complaint is that bloody centre console and how badly it creaks and cracks when pressure or movement is applied to it. There is another post I made about this, but I recently took the two outer panels off and lubricated them with silicone spray and grease, and it did make a big difference. Basically, most of my creaks were coming from the bolstered knee pads and plastic silver trim. They both have an additional piece of plastic inside them for additional rigidly. However, over time as the plastics have expanded/contracted, there is now movement between them and it's what is causing all my creaks. On the next service I will also see what improvements the dealership can make. 

I agree this one aspect of the car is of very poor build quality, quite surprising for a Lexus. I imagine the refreshed 2021 IS will have a different console with these problems resolved. Dare I say it guys, but I don't think they make em like they used to...

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On 9/30/2019 at 10:33 PM, Vince Donald said:

I've given up trying to work out why the engine runs when I think it shouldn't, after a run on the motorway maybe it runs to run the water pump and oil pump to cool the engine down a little.  I assume you've not used the "flappy padles" as I've noticed that the ICE stays on if you try to use them to slow down rather than the brake pedal.

I just leave the AC on constantly, always have in all cars I've had with AC.

I think you tend to overdo the efficiency by trying too hard, been there, done that.  Two and a half years in I still occasionally try things, but for the main just let the car do what it needs to do, Toyota / Lexus have been at this game for a few decades now.

Relaxing driving aids mpg, but the occasional quick getaway is fun.

 

Vince

Yeah, I haven't used the flappy paddles at all yet...seems a bit incongruous with the hybrid nature but I suppose I should try more spirited driving since the little I've done has been suprisingly good. It seems like, when the car is above 50% charge, it uses the Battery and engine to accelerate when pushed spiritedly so perhaps I'm underutilizing the feature when I could be getting "free" performance from the Battery.

I agree I'm doing trying to milk the most efficiency out of the car. Occasionally the AC being on will cause the car to fire up the ICE while in traffic and it drives me a bit nutty...need to let go haha

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On 9/30/2019 at 11:56 PM, i-s said:

As Vince Donald said, it seems to work best by not messing with EV mode, eco mode, etc - just let it get on and do what it does. I'd love to have (much) more regen when coming off-throttle (but then I always drove my Leaf in B mode, and my Tesla has very strong regen, so I'm used to that), but it's not difficult to modulate the brake pedal to maximise regen without kicking in friction braking. 

Agreed that I need to stop micromanaging everything...already learned to not use up all the Battery charge before finishing a drive. Just to clarify, the ICE is running but the car is stationary and the energy diagram indicates that no Battery charging is happening.

 

I'd also love stronger regen, there are definitely times (downhill braking or emergency due to stop light or someone cutting me off) where I know I'm actually using the brakes vs regen.

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On 10/1/2019 at 7:08 AM, MattK9797 said:

It does seem to be a car that's not easy to understand. I love the whole sitting in traffic with the engine off thing. When the traffic starts moving again I will sometimes only press the accelerator very slightly to prevent the engine firing up. But I'm not absolutely sure that's the right approach. Perhaps driving normally and letting the engine fire up no matter how briefly it runs before you're on the brakes again is the right approach? But I do have a slight concern with the engine firing up then shutting down again for what feels like only a 2 or 3 second burst. I can't help thinking this might be bad for wear and tear. 

Yeah it's all a bit of a mystery at times. As far as when to use the Battery for acceleration from standstill, I find that it's not worth using it if I'm on an incline...it uses too much of the Battery charge. However I definitely use it on flat and downhill sections. I really enjoy picking certain routes that I know I can go a while on just Battery 🙂 Otherwise I find the best thing to do is just use the ICE to get up to speed rapidly and then use the Battery to coast. I'll also accelerate up 5-10 mph above the speed I want and then coast back down to the speed limit (as long as someone isn't behind me). Finally I find that when the Battery is above 50% I'll get up to speed in a more spirited fashion because the car will use a combo of ICE and Battery to get up to speed and that seems the most efficient method. Might as well use the Battery ! I find it loses about two bars of charge anytime I stop it for more than an hour anyway

 

I wouldn't worry about wear and tear...Toyota has really nailed the technology. I try not to think of it as a regular engine anyway

 

Does anyone know the max time between turning the car off that the car won't insist on firing up the ICE initially ? I did a very brief errand today and it didn't turn on the ICE just to warm up. That was a 5 min break. I'd assume anything more than 10-15 minutes will lead to the car firing up ICE for 15 seconds on startup.

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On 10/1/2019 at 9:29 PM, LordByronUK said:

There is another post I made about this, but I recently took the two outer panels off and lubricated them with silicone spray and grease, and it did make a big difference. Basically, most of my creaks were coming from the bolstered knee pads and plastic silver trim. They both have an additional piece of plastic inside them for additional rigidly. However, over time as the plastics have expanded/contracted, there is now movement between them and it's what is causing all my creaks. On the next service I will also see what improvements the dealership can make.

Thanks for the post...I'll take a look although I feel like the more I look into addressing it the more I'll notice all the creaks :/ I would be curious to hear what the dealership is able to do on the next service

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5 hours ago, pkts said:

Does anyone know the max time between turning the car off that the car won't insist on firing up the ICE initially ? I did a very brief errand today and it didn't turn on the ICE just to warm up. That was a 5 min break. I'd assume anything more than 10-15 minutes will lead to the car firing up ICE for 15 seconds on startup.

It depends on the engine coolant temperature, so the loss of that temperature will vary depending on the time standing and the surround ambient temperature. It's a shorter time in winter and a longer time in summer. 

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6 hours ago, pkts said:

Occasionally the AC being on will cause the car to fire up the ICE while in traffic and it drives me a bit nutty...need to let go haha

The air conditioning compressor is driven by a 230v motor which is powered from the main hybrid Battery. So I don't think the ICE needs to start to run the AC. By contrast, in conventional cars the compressor is driven by a belt from the engine; so the engine needs to be running to have air conditioning.

If the engine starts when the car is stationary in warm weather it's because the Battery is getting low and needs to be charged. After running for a minute or two it will stop but the air conditioning continues to work, powered by the Battery.

On cold days, however, the engine will run to provide heat in the cabin. If you turn off the heating the engine will stop sooner after startup, If you turn the heating back on, the engine will start immediately if the coolant temperature isn't yet high enough.

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16 hours ago, Thackeray said:

The air conditioning compressor is driven by a 230v motor which is powered from the main hybrid battery. So I don't think the ICE needs to start to run the AC. By contrast, in conventional cars the compressor is driven by a belt from the engine; so the engine needs to be running to have air conditioning.

If the engine starts when the car is stationary in warm weather it's because the battery is getting low and needs to be charged. After running for a minute or two it will stop but the air conditioning continues to work, powered by the battery.

On cold days, however, the engine will run to provide heat in the cabin. If you turn off the heating the engine will stop sooner after startup, If you turn the heating back on, the engine will start immediately if the coolant temperature isn't yet high enough.

Thanks, that's very interesting info. I like trying to understand all the complicated stuff going on with the car. Sorry, I should have been clearer...I meant that the AC running the Battery down to two bars forces the ICE on... as you mentioned

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