Petrol_Head

Please let us know what the update brings in terms of features (for example does it put % on the energy level like the BZ4x update?), performance and your thoughts. I would be keen to get it for features mainly as the performance is fine for what I use it for but not sure it's worth scheduling a dealer visit for. As an aside may I say hello and share some thoughts as I'm new to the RZ club! Done 2000 cheap overnight home charged miles in a little over a month of membership with 70 odd mile daily commute whilst keeping the dog/family happy on short weekend trips. Think it drives brilliantly whilst build and quality are superb. The fact it's rare and has a (subjective I know) classy design are a bonus to me. We own a mad weekend petrol car for longer trips and track days (will be a while till I change my username I think). Not a popular or rounded choice I know but for specific case use I think the RZ is brilliant. Test drove five different electric vehicles before deciding, some of them pretty extensively and came away largely unimpressed and overall feel they are compromised in their own way by being early generation tech. None are truly ready for "prime time" so my suggestion to anyone thinking of the class would be to get one on a two/three year salary sacrifice or lease scheme and wait for the next gen architecture from the OEMs that all seem due around 2026 (BMW's Neue Klasse, Audi/VW's PPE, Toyota/Lexus ZC with Arene OS). Apologies if rubbing salt in the wound for those that bought, I think at least the RZ should be able to run long term without battery issues given the generous buffer and notoriously conservative Toyota underpinnings. Couple of impressions on competition that were offering similar priced deals through work and met the space requirements... Tesla MY in particular was disappointing; cheap in look, feel and drive. The door mirror was wobbling just on closing and I thought they were meant to have solved the paint/panel gap/rattle issues but at least the model I got was miles off. Putting aside quality you have to really love the fact it's a Tesla or need the (exaggerated and narrowing) range/charging to compromise on almost every other important aspect of being a "premium" car. Audi e-tron had the luxury feel/ride but also excessive weight and is incredibly inefficient, thereby considerably more expensive to run (people at work with them are getting 1.5 mile/kwh this winter whilst I've averaged double that in the RZ). Would also lose it in the car park given it's so popular with fleet users. Mercedes EQC has even worse efficiency if that's possible and to me looks terrible. A Merc exec recently admitted the jelly-bean look is going in the bin for their next gen models as the aero gains are not worth the ungainly/non elegant styling and feedback from potential customers. BMW did their usual customer service too much for me to really take the iX3 seriously. Anyway sort of glad the RZ has flown under the radar as adds a feel of exclusivity to it's quality.

It is not impossible that there is some software issue with the ECU. I remember the early runs of the new Toyota Avalon (US model only) suffering from gearbox indecision were found to have had faulty software installs. These were subsequently solved at the dealer. However this process took time during which owners and test drivers thought there was a fundamental fault with car.

That is why they you can equip it with a reversing camera; to avoid those embarrising and potentially costly parking situations...

thanks for the info :) Talking about expansion; do you think there is a real possiblity for a higher powered model to arrive in the UK (something like a manual is350 would do)? I refuse to believe that europe will be given two drivetrians to choose from when Lexus wants to challenge the 3-series, with its very many choices.

Could you please tell me where you got the figures from? Lexus UK never seem to make them public (probably because they are usually so small). Anyway the increase looks good; on the other hand I do not want them to become as common as BMWs :P

This is unlikely to be a widespread problem. The IS owners at clublexus (representing a reasonalbe percentage of Lexus owners in the US) have not reported these sort of issues on the scale that has been suggested here. The US has already taken delivery of thousands of the new IS model; probably more than Lexus UK hope to sell all this year, if there was a widespread problem it would show up on the US forums first. Unless of course it only affects right hand drive models; but then again Japanese owners (a comsumer market reknown for its pickiness for quality) would be outraged. Anyway, does not compare to some of the problems brand new Audis and Mercedes go through (my mothers brand new Audi had a malfunctioning key which apparently affected a whole bunch of cars in the UK, would never unlock when asked etc). Statistically a four year old LS430 is more reliable than a brand new S-class. I doubt that Lexus is willing to let its head earned repution for quality and reliability fritter away and are moving to rectify any such problems as a noisy dash.

The IS won the executive/luxury award in the award ceremonies of this month's top gear magazine. The aygo is car of the year, so a good day for Toyota and Lexus! http://www.carpages.co.uk/toyota/toyota-aygo-06-12-05.asp

Positive review from the guys at fifth gear; http://fifthgear.five.tv/jsp/5gmain.jsp?ln...&go.x=20&go.y=2

You quote from whatcar I assume; no one else has such poor reviews... My previous experiance is that they fail to form any views of their own based on the actual car they are testing; if they do not regard the badge that it wears, then there is little reward. For example they are complaining of a harsh ride; have they not driven any of the German competition? The BMW 3 and Audi A4 have unbelievably harsh rides (this is made up some what by taut and rewarding handling in the BM), yet this somehow does not detract from their experiances with them. The strange thing is that the 3 series got five stars while the IS was awarded a lowly 3. Automotive jounalism is cr*p, especially in Britain. Autocar and Autoexpress gave glowing views on the car on the positive side (when whatcar see this they will probably upgrade their review to 4 stars; I have seen it done before on the suzuki swift, originally it was given 3 stars, but after it recieved 4 in autocar the review was magically changed to 4, a bunch of sheep).

This is the real deal (or close to it)... http://www.carspyshots.net/zerothread?id=17220 The lexus motorshow booth site is also up and running with a video. V8-hybrid engine, four wheel drive, great design... its all adding up (I want to see the interior though, rumours have it that it is a really special part of the LS).

I was thinking that we still do not really know the power output for the UK version of the IS250. The european site quotes it as 208 bhp while the UK site claims 204bhp. The Japanese version gets 215ps (around 214bhp) and 260Nm of torque. I know that the higher output for the Japanese version can be explained by the better fuel used (100RON in most places I have seen). But why the difference between mainland Europe and the UK? I agree with anyone who says the uk website is :tsktsk: and maybe it is the fact it is updated so slowly that we still do not know the real figures.

Diesels do not work as well with electric as petrols do and Toyota and Lexus are keen to stress this point. Around town speeds the most efficient hybirds rely purely on the electric motors and turn off the petrol motors. When more speed or power is needed the pertol engine kicks in (above 30mph I think in the RX400h). Now this is not a problem with a refined petrol, but with a diesel? I do not think so. My mothers diesel is one of the most recent and advanced (audi 3.0), but the thought of that starting midway through acceleration would probably fling the car off the road. Diesels are still poor on start up and therefor make poor hybrid powertrains. Mercedes claim that they will use the diesel motor most of the time and use electrics as a back up boost (much like the American version Honda Accord Hybrid which uses a petrol v6 with the boost of an electric motor). This more simplistic approach is less efficient and the technology is still not on the market.

hello, One of the concerns raised by reading posts on US websites is the possible lack of rear seat room (some saying it is way too small for anyone other than children). I was wondering if anyone here had sampled the rear passenger space, as the problem could arise from the average size (width) on an American being greater than us Brits. If you could compare it to the amount of useable space of mainstream rivals (such as Audi A4 and the new 3series) it would be grealty appreciated.