michaelH

Yes, it will sit all day at 70-80 uphill or down and without breaking sweat. A very relaxed refined and economical fast cruiser, and well-equipped too. Mpg may be a little lower than some four pot turbo diesels on the open road, but then petrol is cheaper and it won't sound like a tractor when you start up. I get about 45 actual / 48 displayed from mixed winter driving and was getting 50 mpg on summer tyres in warmer weather. It is very quick off the mark if put into sport mode (and very easy then to flick it back into either normal or eco mode once you are away). Or leave it in sport and it feels very responsive, and corners and rides well on 17" tyres (I have heard mixed reports about a harder ride on 18s but have not tried them myself on this model) The revs will soar for a short time if you floor it to overtake on a short straight,which can be a bit disconcerting for the first couple of times. But if you want a true rocket ship sports saloon then it isn't one of those and doesn't pretend to be. The new coupe or (as suggested above) a used ISF might appeal if that is what you want.

I suppose someone must have said this already but I don't recall it so there is no harm in saying it again: one problem with space saver wheels is that the one you have to replace it with will be full sized and almost certainly filthy. If the boot is half empty, then OK, but if not (and on a longer journey it may well be full) then the only way out may be to empty the boot and put any clean bags etc on the back seat - assuming you have space there , of course. Perhaps someone can be told to walk?

Broadly similar experience to dochybrid - mpg had dropped to mid 40s with combination of cold weather and new winter tyres, but has picked up recently. Just got back from a trip up to Yorkshire with two passengers, driving around Yorkshire with four passengers and back to Leicester again with the two I started with. MPG now reads 53.1 and on past evidence that will mean about 50.5 mpg at the pumps. Not much chance to speed on the M1 (cameras and road works for much of the journey) but Yorkshire was hilly and we were heavily laden. Filled with Shell V power Nitro the last two times, so there goes the saving, but I have always got slightly better mpg out of that fuel - never enough to do more than cover the pump price, perhaps even less than that, but the car seems to like it.

Steve is right of course, but some of use can't resist the challenge to squeeze 700 miles from a tank one day (will have to wait for summer for that - I can't get better than 620 ATM). Not at the risk of running out of petrol, however. Running down to zero on the range scale should be OK as long as there are petrol stations nearby - my calculations are that I have about 6 litres left at that stage.

You will get much better mpg in the summer, but in any case you are getting a good saving on VED because of the low emissions and the amount you would save by achieving better mpg figures would be pretty small. Does anyone else find that the average speed display is always surprisingly low?

I have done that longer motorway journey at or below 60 mph. well, it was a mix of motorway and A-road, and in summer. The lowish speeds were necessary because of a passenger with spinal injuries. The mpg was impressive at around 60. The readout on the dash suggested even better figures, but like most users I find it to be about 3 mpg out.

was this on summer tyres? My old is250 was hopeless in the snow. I have fitted winter tyres to my is300h, but have not yet driven on them in anything worse than sleet and slush.

Cold weather and new winter tyres have made a big dent in my typical mpg. I was getting around 52 mpg (actual, brim to brim measured) in the summer, but am now getting closer to 44 for the same kind of journey. In the summer, I would sometimes see 60+ on the readout. I never see that now. But its no big deal and no doubt mpg will go up again next summer. The sums of money involved are relatively small, unless you are covering an enormous annual mileage

Carl, sorry to be slow in replying. My old car was top spec (except for the radar adjusted cruise control) and I miss some of the features. Yes, perhaps I ought to have hung out for a premier model on 17 inch wheels. Next time perhaps. I miss the top spec seats and proper leather interior, but not that much, now that i have (at last) adjusted the driver's seat just as I want it. I don't really miss the ML stereo. Now I am very serious about hi fi, but didn't regard the ML as proper hi fi. The DAB/FM radio/DVD in my car (Luxury with premium nav) is I think the one between the basic version and the ML version. The radio seems as good (and more versatile); the DVD isn't quite as good but I have bluetooth and USB audio so I can use my Apple devices. The car is essentially quieter at speed so the music eventually sounds just as good overall. Also, the premium nav is essential if you want the excellent reversing camera. The new car has bi-xenon headlights, which is a big plus if (like me) you do a lot of night driving on unlit roads. I had xenons on the old SE-L, but is yours an SE-L or SE-l? If the former then you have them too, but otherwise this will be a useful improvement. One difference with my old car is that the old xenons were adaptive and coupled with a halogen pair for full beam. The adaptive bit made no practical difference that I could see. The new one has bi-xenons which I think are not quite as powerful on full beam as the old xenon-halogon combo, but better on dipped (better lens/projector?) which is where it really matters. The nav system is more advanced, but more fiddly, as many have said before. No spare wheel, which is a minus. I might try to get hold of an old same saver, but in the event of a puncture I would need to find space somewhere for the old full size wheel, so that limits its value when fully laden.

I made the switch back in July (IS250 SE-L to IS330h luxury /prem nav) and would endorse just about all these observations, especially that concerning the ride over uneven roads. The newer car does seem a little more planted and stable as well. Eco friendly or not, it is certainly more wallet friendly, especially when driving around town. In the old IS, I would get a very promising mpg reading after a long journey (say 38 mpg over 300 miles) only to watch it fall like a stone after a few short trips (probably averaging 20 mpg) around town. In the 300h, not only can you get over 50 mpg on a long trip (in summer, anyway), but you can get something like that around town as well. Not in winter and on new winter tyres, however, as I have been finding out recently. 45 seems the best I can get ATM, but having just gone over the Cambrian hills last night with the higher parts covered in slushy snow, I don't regret fitting them.

so that button DOES exist!

I have just noticed a significant drop in MPG (from about 51 mpg (readout saying 54) to about 47 mpg (readout saying 49) and the indications are that it will fall again to about 45 (current readout says 47). There are three possible factors, and perhaps all three are at work. First, I tried driving most of a 165 mile journey from Aberystwyth to Leicester in sport mode; second it has been getting a lot colder, and I know mpg drops in the cold; and third, I have changed my half worn summer tyres to new Dunlop winter sports. See Changes to Expect When Switching from Worn-Out to New ... on www.tirerack.com › Of the three, I suspect that the use of sport mode made the least difference, because the journey was mostly at main road or motorway speeds, where the engine is working anyway. The new Dunlops have respectable economy stats, but they also have full treads and that may also help explain why the car's own mpg figures have got a little more accurate (?) perhaps.

Oppo BDP 103D disc and media player, Apple TV, Meridian HD621 audio-video processor, Meridian DSP600 digital active loudspeakers, Panasonic TXP 50 VT50 Plasma TV. I still have some old Musical Fidelity amps tucked away somewhere, and use a small Teufel setup with my Mac computer. I listen to a huge range of music, from King Richard I to Shakira, but for me the greatest works of the great classical composers (and the artistry of the greatest classical singers and musicians) stand head and shoulders above anything that most people ever listen to today. Which is a tragedy for all those who have never properly listened to them.

Ah, another hi-fi buff. welcome. The Meridian forum (hitch hikers guide to Meridian) was usually a very civilised place and like this one a useful source of knowledge in the days when I used to use it. I even bought some very expensive kit from a member. But I have not been on it for a few months now. I see you have got yourself an IS 250 SEL. They are lovely cars, I had two of them. I now love my IS300h exec, but do miss a few of the top spec bells and whistles on the old SEL, so must get myself a 300h in Premier trim next time. If you want to see a spicy forum with an occasional bitchfest (their term, not mine) the Fiat owners 500 forum is good for that. I have always admired the cute little 500 (the last manual car I ever drove, if only once) but they have problems now with new cars that can't do hill starts or reach the top of steep climbs and understandably some tempers are getting frayed there, especially when some owners have huge problems but others don't (and are slow to to credit or understand the grievances hose who do). Fiat customer service and dealers, BTW, come out of the affair more or less as their reputation might lead one to expect. "Problem, what problem? Our cars are safe to drive. You must learn how to drive them properly!" It took two goes on Watchdog for them even to consider investigating the fault. Now I did have a mysterious problem with my first IS250, and nothing was too much trouble for Lexus Leicester. It took a while, but in the end they found it and fixed it. In the meantime I got to drive around in an RX450h and then a GS450h.

I should defer to Ganzoom, who clearly takes his motoring (and his cars) very seriously indeed. I am a bit like that with hi-fi, so I know where he is coming from. And a part of me would love to have just a quick go on his 335i. But if he regards the stock 335i as only 'moderately quick' and 'not really sporty' then I think he must have it really bad. Nice mountain pics, BTW, (I'm sure I have seen pictures of the Tour de France going over that first summit) and did I also see the University of Leicester in one of your earlier photos, Ganzoom? I am at DMU and have long been a customer at Lexus Leicester.

Nobody has ever suggested that the Lexus 300H is a serious rocket ship to compare with cars such as a BMW 335i or 135i. The comparison with two litre diesels such as the 320D is indeed much more appropriate, as is the suggestion that it is better described as a small luxury car. But I think it is pushing a point to say that any car with claims to being sporty should be able to compete with the 135i's of this world. Those cars are a step or two above sporty. They are seriously fast. But if a friend were about to splash out on one, I would ask him where he hoped to use all that massive performance without risking his life and/or licence in the process. I wouldn't dream of using all the power of my 300h for anything more than an occasional tight overtake on a single carriageway road (and yes, I suppose some 135i rocket power might be useful in some such cases). For every other purpose I can think of, I have more than enough power, even when fully laden and overtaking traffic up steeply graded motorways or dual carriageways. I also find the paddles and sports shift pretty good at applying engine braking (e.g. on descending a 1 in 4 hill) and engaging sport mode (while turing down the silly false engine sound) really does sharpened things up to give it a sporty drive (relative to cars with no no such sporty pretensions anyway). There are some seriously feeble cars out there. Did any of you see the Stig (as was) on 'Watchdog' trying and failing to get a (Euro 6 revised) Fiat 500 1.2 to go up a steep residential road in Bristol? People did test drives in 2013 vintage demonstrators that were basically OK, but were then sold gutless new cars that lacked any torque worth mentioning below 2000 rpm, while Fiat took months to admit there was even a problem. If Fiat had looked after their customers from the start they might not have had Watchdog kicking them where it hurts on prime TV.

Ah, but when you refilled, how much did you put into the tank before it was full? If as I suspect it was around 60 litres then you still had another 5 or 6 litres (or 45-50 miles range) at the bottom of the tank. At 50.3 mpg [actual brim to brim measurement ] your range on a full tank should be in excess of 700 miles. But of course you were absolutely right to refuel when you did.

I read a warning on this forum that running out of petrol in a lexus hybrid would be a bit of a disaster - and not one that could be fixed by an AA or RAC patrolman with a can of unleaded. Instead it would be a transporter trip to a dealership for resetting the hybrid system. But perhaps only if you try to keep going when the system calls for petrol? Logan, are you sure you ran out of fuel just when the fuel gauge said you would? What happened to show that you had run out? Are you sure it had not been showing 0 for a few miles already? I have had four lexuses, and all of them had 'over-cautious' fuel gauges. My experience with the IS300H is that it says '0' and 'refuel now' when there must still be about 6 or 7 litres (enough for 50 miles or more) remaining in the tank, and that seems to be the experience of most contributors here.

Rebecca Jacksons video review on car buyer seems very fair. I had two of those cars and loved them. One red and one silver. The good thing about silver is that it is quite easy to keep looking good, but I am surprised that the Mesa red is not more common. Yes, go for the SE-L if you can

They also say they prefer to stick with the manual version of the 250. I wonder if they ever tried the auto...

Agreed, and I was pleasantly surprised at how little harm its occasional but quite frequent use does to the overall mpg. Better to enjoy the car than save a few pounds over the course of a year. But there is a voice in my head saying, "why not try for 750 miles from one tank?"

Just seen today that what car make the is220d their best buy used exec. Car for 2014. Depreciation makes it a good buy, it seems. I suppose they ignored the 250 auto on the basis that the v6 is thirsty, but since used cars are not likely to be fleet cars I think they maybe rather missing the point. Some here have been dismissive of the hybrid idea, but my 300h Lux regularly returns 50 mpg or more in mixed driving ( measured at the pump, not just the in car display) and 60 mpg if driven in granny mode on the open road, and is very refined, as well as having only £10 pa VED, so it makes sense for Lexus to take that route.

Well, I wouldn't use it to clean a filthy black car covered in road salt and grit, so perhaps we are not so far apart. But have you experienced swirl marks from careful use of a waterless cleaner? 'Careful' meaning giving it time to work, not rubbing hard with a dirty cloth, etc? I may have a silver car, but I look hard for swirl marks and don't see them. I do see stone chips on the front apron, grrr.... There are black car owners on amazon reviews who swear by such products. "I was afraid of swirl marks but there were none", etc But I was careful to admit that I have not used it on a black car myself.

A sure fire recipe for swirl marks? Is that based on experience or prejudice? If experience, what experience?

If you are worried about swirl marks on black, perhaps try using waterless cleaner /detailing spray and micro fibre cloths instead? I have been using them for years. No need then to use a chamois and no lime stains on the car if the water in your area is hard. I have never cleaned a black car with waterless cleaner, but I have cleaned dark blue cars. I also think the F sport looks a good buy in white, if you don't mind losing a little bit of economy and don't mind the bigger tyres ... white suits the IS I think and is not so hard to keep looking clean. It does show up any insect splatter though.