Some Thoughts.

[Ian M]

My IS300 SportCross went into Lexus Derby yesterday for a service, cam belt, water pump and discs & pads.

The water pump is an interesting point. The 200s seem to be pretty well known for requiring attention but I wasnt expecting the 300 engine to need it. However, it has developed a slight leak over the past 18 months and that is why Ive decided to get the pump and belt done now. The book says 5 years or 100,000 miles for the belt and my cars now done 50,000 in 7 years. Better to be safe than sorry.

All that work, however, turned out to be too much for one day, so Lexus Derby rang me mid afternoon to say that they would like to offer me a courtesy car overnight. That in itself was interesting because a work colleague immediately said that he reckoned itd be something like a 10 year old Yaris with a galactic mileage. Wrong!! I came home last night in a 6 month old GS450h.

First impressions were that the GS makes my old IS look basic hybrid system, keyless entry and start up, memory seats, reversing camera etc. Second impression is that the GS is a big old thing, but goes like a rocket. I really am impressed with the combination of a big engine and hybrid drive, much more so than I expected. My only nagging doubt is about Battery life and whether, in the long term, hybrid drive has too many things which might go very expensively wrong.

What I am less than impressed with is the boot. Its got a letterbox sized opening and its tiny, but I guess thats the penalty you pay for the Battery pack having to go somewhere. The SportCross isnt huge, but it is flexible and the tailgate means you can get stuff in/out without banging your head. The GS is tiny by comparison.

With a new cam belt, discs & pads, I reckon my old IS will be good to go for at least another 5 years. It really is a great little luxury tourer!

[Parthiban]

I'd have to agree about the boot, it is a major compromise.

[Ian M]

Yes, lovely car, but seriously short of luggage space. It wouldn't look good with a roof box, but you'd need one for a family holiday!

[Parthiban]

Yep you'd definitely need a roof box if you were to take any sort of trip in it. The part that's worse in my opinion is that development has moved on quite considerably recently that the hybrid is no longer a class leader. Obviously it's a relatively old car now so the next version of this will definitely be better but how much better can they make it?

As an example, I recently got some info on the new CLS and was staggered by the quoted figures (mainly in comparison to our older CLS, but also when compared to the GS450h)

The new CLS350 does 0-60 in 6.1s, compared to 5.9s in the GS.

Combined mpg is 40.9 compared to 36.7 in the GS.

CO2 emissions are 161 compared to the GSs 179g/km.

Mercedes is usually pretty accurate with their mpg figures too, so I found the numbers quite surprising.