220D. One Month In, The Story So Far

[Frankiethebear]

Hi all,

Well, i've been the proud owner of a late 2007 (december 2007 first reg) for one calendar month. I'm still getting to know the car but so far it has been absolutely fantastic. Not a single issue. I'm also managing 530 miles from a full tank and that lasts me almost exactly two weeks. I do 40 miles daily from dundee to perth for work and sometimes have to travel around perthshire to visit clients.

I've found the car to be 100% reliable and a joy to drive. I need to say at this point that I've gone from a 52 plate S Class Merc 320 to the 220d. This was due mainly to getting 20 mpg from the merc, it was just too expensive to run. I've noticed an obvious difference on performance, cabin noise and comfort, but this was to be expected, also moved from an auto box to 6 spd man, but i'm living every moment. Its so good to be in touch with my car again as the merc kinda cosetted you and isolated you from the outside.

I love the car and it does look absolutely spectacular. I like cars that are a bit different and that turn heads or have people ask what it was as i go by. The 220d has this ability in spades and i am loving driving again.

car is 220d, 60,00 miles, full history and has also been stabled in Brussels as there are service entries from Brussels and Bonn, so I imagine the previous owner may have worked for the EU. All i know is that it has been scrupulously maintained and runs perfectly. I'll post some photos when i get round to it.

Thank you all for the invaluable information on the site.

cheers

Frankie

[DJP]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Long may it continue. :)

[normski2]

+1 to that

[Frankiethebear]

thank you gentlemen, very much enjoying it. just fitted a tuning box tonight and the difference is astonishing. watch this space for more info. Acceleration is scary fast!! and its as smooth as a babies bum too. (so far :) )

[Neddie]

Same here with my 09 loving it

Waiting to see how the tuning box works out hope it reduces mpg

Which one did you go for

[Frankiethebear]

hi neddie,

still nothing bad to report and loving the car.

after researching as much as i could and looking at the tech specs of as many boxes as i could find, i went for the racechip pro2 from germanyland. It's not cheap at 186gbp, but i was satisfied with the stats and the guarantee. i emailed a bloke called david for info and he was as up front as he could be. I asked for recommended settings but the box came set for power and economy. i noticed an instant surge in power and acceleration, but i won't insult anyones intelligence on here with estimates. I dont have access to a r/r, so this is all anecdotal. the factory settings are working great for me and i haven't tinkered with it as there is no doubt that setting it too high would damage the engine and i don't need that right now! Now that i am happy an d the car is performing well, i may twist it up a notch...mibbee...!

Regarding economy, I bought the car with 61000 on it and a full history. The previous owner must've had a right foot like douglas badder's falsey because it was showing 32.4 average. after the chip its now on 37.0 exactly. i know that doesn't sound a lot, but i didn't undo the Battery to reset the meter, so assuming it was averaging 32.4 over 61000 i have made a major improvement. iv'e done less than 2000 miles since sept 29 when i got it so looking at the ave of 37 it's made a hell of a difference.

on a tank full costing 70.00 i'm getting 530 miles. that was from the last two tank fulls. i also add a cetane booster, but i can't say anything about an improvement as i have no frame of reference for this.

on the whole, i am delighted with the car, the chip and the fuel economy. like i said this is all anecdotal and you should always do your own research and make your own decisions. nothing i've said above should be taken as a recommendation neddie. all i can say, hand on heart is that i've had nothing but good things to say about the car and the add ons.

hope this helps matey.

anything else i can help with just gimme a message.

Frankie

[Neddie]

Good reply there

Have looked at the chip boxes but shied away from them after reading some bad things ie open it up and it's just a circuit to tell the engine it's cold .....

I tend to average 33 round town but get 40 @ 80 ( just so I can use 6th gear you understand ;) ) on the motorway

Think Santa knows what to get me now :)

Cheers

Neddie

[Frankiethebear]

neddie,

i know what you mean about the boxes with the resistor. those are the ones that tend to be on sale for 80.00 or so. the one i bought is fully adjustable and although its set for your particular car, it can be altered by turning it up or down as desired. they have a processor inside and are on a full circuit board. the price was high in comparison, but after looking at the cheaper ones, the tech specs didn't make any sense to me, it was basically a string of words stuck together that meant nothing. i think they are just meant to appeal to the less serious motorist. not trying to appear superior or snobby in the slightest, but i think when it comes to this type of modification, you get what you pay for.

One thing to be very, very careful of though is pulling away very quickly. when i first installed it and tested it by wellying it the rear end sort of bounced a bit, so be wary. If i decide to keep it, as is likely, i may look at a different rear diff, it possible. I'm still getting to know the car, so i'm not sure what is and isn't possible with it. the last thing i want is a sheared propshaft!

I haven't seen any real improvement with the turbo lag. Like i said, i may tinker with the settings over next weekend and see if that makes a difference. again, watch this space.

Frankie

[Frankiethebear]

ps, i'm able to use 6th at60 on the motorway with cruise on.

prior to chip, 60 was exactly 1500 revs. it was a perfect match exactly 60 and exactly 1500. Since the chip 60 has dropped the revs to 1400, so i cruise at around 63/64 and that now is a match at 1500. I reckon i'm getting about 43+ to a gallon.

Frankie

[Frankiethebear]

hi all,

last weekend i did a run from dundee to airdrie and back and a total of 160 miles. Average mpg was as reported previously, sitting at 37.0. when i got home it had gone up to 37.4 and as of friday 15th its up to 37.6.

One thing that is really puzzling me is that the car told me today, saturday 16th that i had covered 443 miles since last fill up, but there was still 143 miles in the tank. This adds up to a ridiculous 586 miles from a full tank. Surely this cannot be right? That gives 53 mpg.

From registering on empty to filling the tank is almost exactly 50 litres. so, according to fag packet calculations, i'm getting about 53 mpg from this tankfull. the only difference from previous fills is the run to airdrie.

Again, this is all anecdotal and I may be missing something silly, but i don't think so. I have to meet with a client in aberfeldy on tueday afternoon. its a windy road from perth to aberfeldy so i expect the mpg to drop, we'll see.

At the moment though after reading a lot of posts from various contributors stating that they're getting 32-38 mpg I can't equate those figures with my car or my own experience. Just how much of this improved mpg (in comparison with others) is due to the tuning box i fitted and how much is due to economic driving style is open to debate.

In any scientific experiment there must always be a control in which everything is standard, but i haven't been able to get a baseline for any of this so take all this with a pinch of salt. All I can say is that compared with my previous car, an s class Mercedes 3200 v6 with 20mpg, I could not be happier with every aspect of the 220d, apart from noise. I love it and its more than paying for itself.

Frankie

[Gaz31]

Hi Frankie, I'm glad to see a good review for an IS220d! I picked mine up on Friday and so far I love it. I'm yet to fully find out what mpg I'm on my 1st tank of diesel and the computer reads out 8.8 litres per 100km! This equates to 32mpg! I'm pretty sure this is wrong as I've been taking it easy and I've had some pretty decent runs. I'll wait and see what the calculation is at the end of the tank.

One thing about your last post, you said you fill up with 50 litres, the tank is 65litres on an is220d. I filled up Friday for the 1st time and with only 11km left in the tank it took exactly 60litres (computer must say 0 miles remaining when there are 5 litres left I guess)

[Frankiethebear]

hey gaz, hope you're still enjoying the car this time next month!

The first time the light came on i decided to top up even though the gauge was showing halfway between 1/4 tank and reserve. it took 50 litres or 70.00 quid on the nose and indicated something like 480 miles range, cant remember exactly. Next time, feeling a bit more confident, I let it go down further until it was a couple of mm's from the R indicator, I topped up and it cost 74.00, can't remember exactly the number of litres, but range indicator showed 530. Next time it cost 66.00 plus pennies, but still showed 530 miles, so i took 530 and 70.00 as the mean figure. This time i let it go down till it was on the R level and topped up to the brim again. This time it was 76.00 plus pennies and again it showed 530 miles. At first i thought it was an error or maybe that was the max the car was able to show, but after a 150 mile run and travelling back and forth to work, its showing 443 miles done and 143 miles range giving a total of 586 miles. I have installed a diesel chip on the car, so whether this has made the difference or whether its down to a long run, i don'don't know, i can only tell you what i've observed, but if it is due to the chip it will have paid for itself in no time. I'm not going to give the company free advertising, so if you want to know more about it, drop me a line. The chip wasn't cheap, but I am delighted with it. I also use a cetane booster from the local car and bike shop that begins with an H and ends with alfords.... I also added an compression booster to the oil as well as 750 ml of slick 50. These things may or may not work depending on what you read, but i've always used it in my cars and none of them have blown up yet!!!

anything else i can help with, let me know.

Frankie

[Gaz31]

Good stuff, keep us updated. I'm running the 1st tank with no additive then I'll be adding something I used on my Golf. Hopefully it will work well on the Lexus too, especially with the EGR and DPF problems.

[Frankiethebear]

hi gaz,

just a brief update. The car was showing 499.6 with 100 left in the tank this evening. I had to top up with £20.00 as I'm going to Aberfeldy tomorrow afternoon as part of work. I would have had more than enough to cover tomorrow's mileage, but I've run it down to the line on the last two fill ups, so I don't want to keep doing that in case it starts to draw up all the gunk from the bottom of the tank. It'll probably be ok, but I don't want to upset the car!

You have my word of honour that the figures i've posted here are the correct figures as per the read outs from the dash. I find it hard to believe that I am getting 600 miles from this last tank, I find it simply incredible.

It may be hard to believe, but I have nothing to gain by telling porkies, in fact I am leaving myself open to ridicule posting these figures, but every one is correct.

I did put the chip on the car a fortnight ago tonight, but I don't think that's what's doing it as it is much quicker off the mark and the acceleration has improved drastically.

Although all cars of the same marque are built to the same standards, no two cars will ever be the same as there is always small variations in components and a car built on a Friday at 4pm may not be as well put together as one built on a Wednesday at 11 am! Some of the cars will just perform better than others and I'm beginning to think that I've just been lucky and got a really good one that runs as sweet as a nut.

For anyone reading this, I am open to suggestions as regards explaining why my mpg is so high in comparison with the vast majority of the other contributors.

Frankie

[dave32]

what average are your readings off as there are 2. mine is sitting very low at the moment around 30 for tank average and 34 for average.

has your car had the head gasket changed as this is very common, mine went within 5 weeks of me owning it (78k miles) and ive had the vsc warning light which resulted in a new egr being fitted. ive had the car about 6 months and its been away for about 2 months and has seriously pushed me to the limit as lexus is always in the top 3 of reliability,

I have the sport model so I know my mpg will be slightly down from a normal lexus but this is terribly low for a diesel

[Stuart Aspey]

When the time comes for Zorro to go, I had initially been considering an IS220d, but there have been some horror stories. Are you really getting 530+ from a 50 litre tank?

I've been really struggling, but managing, to get 450 from my 70litre petrol tank. 31.6MPG ownership average is good for the IS200, but fuel prices are not looking set to go down anytime soon. . . .

[Frankiethebear]

Hi Stuart,

The first two fuel ups have been from just a mm or so above the R indicator to full tank and I've had 530 miles from both. The last one I fuelled up from a quarter tank. The range indicator showed exaclty 100 mi,es left in the tan, but the trip computer was sitting on499.4 miles. No kidding. I know this is all anecdotal, but its what the numbers are telling me.

When I got the car on 29th sept the ave mpg was 32.4. 2000 miles later and its up to 37.8 per gallon. I'm travelling around 200 miles per week to work, from dundee to perth and can use 6th and cruise on occassion.

I'll take a couple of pics of the readings and post them when I get home tonight and put them up over the weekend.

I know there have been some horror stories about the 220D on here, but I've had nothing but good things to say about mine. I love the car and even though i've gone from an s class mercedes to the lexus 220d, i don't have any complaints. I love the car, but as always, do your own research as the things I say are only anecdotal.

By the way, I've also installed a chip on the car, so whether this is making a difference or not is open to discussion.

Good luck with your choice!

[Shipz]

I have had my 06 IS220d with 71K miles for about a month now, a total fill up takes about 55 litres (with computer saying i have around 20 miles left) so if some is kept on reserve, 60-65 litre tank sounds about right. Every full tank fill up gives me around 400 miles per the computer, but i usually get around 420 if i do some long runs too.

I believe i am doing early 30's in town but early 40's on the long run.

I find it hard to believe that you could get 500 miles out of a tank, is this on a long run?

I moved from a 2005 320d and have a good idea of both cars now. BMW is better for that build quality and performance, but Lexus all day long for comort, reliability, gadgets and looks :)

[Frankiethebear]

shipz,

I'm averaging 40 miles per day from dundee to perth and back. I posted some photos in one of my posts of the various readouts form the gauges. I'll find them and point you to the post. I'm still consistently getting 530-540 from a tank. As i've said in my other posts, i've no evidence other than what I observe and the post pictures. I'll track them down and get back to you. Like I said, I am absolutely delighted with the car and cant really fault it in any way other then the sharp crack that comes from the heater.

frankie