Is 220D Se-L

[mrak]

After years of lurking I finally purchased used IS220d equivalent of SE-L equipment. Car is gold metalic, covered 101.000km at the time of purchase and was manufactured in mid 2007. Car was well kept and besides leather damage on the gear stick the car was otherwise impecable (even withou small stone damage on the front hood).

Now, in the last 6 weeks due to circumstances I drove it for about 10.000km or about 6.000 miles which is about double the usual mileage for the same period and I wanted to share some insights on the car.

First, move to buy Lexus IS is upstream move for me since I previously drove Peugeot 406 hdi with 110hp (so no wonder that I will be happy with the rest of the review).

I see big difference between basic SE version and Luxury version and I belive it is worth the money. Problem is that Lexus is quite rare car in my country and at best there is couple hundred of them (and by couple I mean two hundred) and since price difference between basic model and Luxury is quite significant (up to 7.000eur) it is no wonder that plenty of cars have basic trim. I personally prefer luxury vs. sport version because I really like coled seats and other goodies and I really do not like bigger tires since they bring additional costs to the maintenance and bring stiffer ride.

Interestingly, it seems that all IS220d cars sold in my country come with sports differential (except for basic model) so I do not have real problems with speeding up on speeds above 100km/h (it is true that 6th speed works best from 120km/h and up but is perfectly capable to accelerate from 100km/h). Torque is significantly bigger on this car comapred to my ex. peugeot and I am still looking to find best clutch/accelerator combination in order to avoid quite obvious bump when I change gears (and it seems to happen from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and sometimes even when changing to fourth). Clutch on Peugeot was much more gradual while here it seems "binary" it either holds or not.

As for the noise, I drove 250 automatic as well as 220d and I am sorry but I do not see or hear major difference, I could agree that it is better and smoother to drive automatic, but noisewise I was unable to periceve a major difference. In my opinion cabine noise depends largely on the type of road surface and for some reason I came to conclusion that the car is actually quieter on highway then on city roads. After first ride on the highway my wife told me that car feels like intercity train which is quite surprising and unusual remark, but when I think of it quite accurate (specially for the front seat passenger).

IS is slightly smaller then my ex car but there is more then enough space on the front seats, back seats are comfortable for two and passable for three passengers. I drive most of the time alone or with single passanger so minor incoviniences during ocassional trip with more passengers is aceptable. Storage space in the rear is also OK, possibly equal or slightly larger then on Peugeot but there is a major difference. I usually have few umbrellas in the back and while they fitted perfectly behind the back seat of peugeot, they are too large for IS because wheels are significantly wider.

Now, most of the posts here related to IS220d is fuel consumption.

My trip computer shows me that my average is currently 8.7l/10km which is about 32.5mpg (please note that this is average for at least 10.000km, I am really not sure how this average is calculated or on how long period but i belive it to be true). I have on ocassion managed to drive few fuel tanks at 7.5-7.7l (around 37mpg) but never better then that.

Now, this is shocking to some on this forum, but I do not see it as such a bad result. It is quite hard to compare different drivers (and roads), but when you know that I averaged 7.2l/100km (39mpg) on my peugeot which had 110hp and almost 400kg less then IS fuel consumption increase of 20% seems right to me.

I would be really surprised to get any better mileage with any other car including ones people usually mention (with me as a driver and roads I usually drive, also note that I on highway I drive usually about 150km/h on odometer although GPS tells me that speed indicator at that speed is about 7-8km/h off).

I also had regular 105.000km service recently and I asked people there to clean EGR valve, after this operation my average which was locked at about 9l/100km dropped to 8.6 and is now at 8.7 (after few days of city driving and about 2.500km after the service).

What I am really annoyed about is size of fuel tank. Peugeot used to have 75liters which meant that I was perfectly able to drive about 1.000km with one filling and now with IS I manage 650-700km with full reservoir which annoys me very much.

So, to summarize, I am quite happy with my new car and it fits within my expectations.

p.s. now, what I would really like to buy next is GS450h :)

[Matus]

As for the noise, I drove 250 automatic as well as 220d and I am sorry but I do not see or hear major difference,

wait for the winter. Unfortunately the cold sound of diesel is much worse than cold sound of petrol...

[mrak]

wait for the winter. Unfortunately the cold sound of diesel is much worse than cold sound of petrol...

I will wait, but I guess there will be no difference between my old car and this one (except IS will still be quieter).

[Cue]

As for the noise, I drove 250 automatic as well as 220d and I am sorry but I do not see or hear major difference,

wait for the winter. Unfortunately the cold sound of diesel is much worse than cold sound of petrol...

All these posts about the winter has got me looking forward to it!!