Hippogriff

I wondered if that might be the case - some settings were simply not visible (as opposed to the equivalent of greyed-out or unselectable) when moving. My A4's heated seats go up to 6 and they stay where you set them. I hope this is not a common brave new world of seat heating.

Yes, a score-draw equals another A4. But - I have been very open minded this time around, trying the Audi A6, trying the Jaguar XF Sport, trying the Lexus IS 300h F Sport and I even went into a BMW dealer! I got an A4 1.9 TDI Sport in 2004 and an A4 2.0 TDI S line in 2009... I've always had the sporty kind of trim without going into Audi S or RS territory. That's why I was only interested in the F Sport with the Lexus IS. The reason for the A4 over other Audis is really because it seems the right size for me. The A6 is too big. The new A3 Saloon I've not yet managed to try (I couldn't make it to Wakefield Audi last Thursday when they had one in for a day!) but I think it will be too small (probably I'm talking about boot space here again) and I don't want a coupe type of car (I just haven't taken to the A5)... I want a more normal, typical, saloon. The final reason for the A4 - in front of other types of cars - is the fact that I really like the Multitronic gearbox... another reason why I've given the Lexus IS so much attention. No failing there on the part of the Lexus - all very nice indeed. So, that's how I've ended up where I am. I'm curious about how you've found these settings for the map colours and heated seats... I mentioned these things to the Lexus sales guy earlier today and he didn't challenge them, he in fact said "Audis are probably going against the grain by setting the heated seats at a level and allowing them to remain there" he said a Mercedes he had did the same drop down as the Lexus. I had searched pretty deep into the menu system yesterday - nothing for this colour setting on the map in Navigation (I could find) and nothing for heated seats in Car Customisation. It won't matter to me - but others might be interested if you could detail this. The fact that it wasn't easy to find is more of a retrospective niggle for me, now that I've handed it back. And, yes, this Lexus Portal... seemed a bit flaky to me. When I went in via a browser to it, a lot of things were "Coming soon..." so I hope whatever it is they're intending to bring out actually see the light of day. Finally, Lexus Hotspot... £350 I believe. It's just another MiFi device that will take power from the car, right? Might as well get your own... my Huawei E5756 can allow up to 10 devices to connect, can power via USB and seems to serve the car perfectly well. It's currently £49 at Three, then £19.99 per month for 5GB data allowance, but you can immediately upgrade to a £15 per month plan that gives you 10GB - so it's not too bad at all.

Audi doesn't seem to have properly got into hybrids yet, I think... the one they've selected for the A6 makes little sense to me. :megaangry: Sadly, by the time I've added AAC, TPMS, Interior Light Pack, Reversing Camera, Auto-folding Mirrors, Heated Seats, Lane Change Assist, Audi Connect, Advanced Key and a couple of other things to an A4, it won't be much cheaper than the IS 300h F Sport. There are some great discounts to be had on the A6... I had decided that it wasn't for me due to the car itself, though. I've just come back from Sheffield Lexus in my A4. I gave some proper feedback to the sales guy - told him what I liked and what I didn't like. Told him that Album Covers could be downloaded - he was pleased to hear this. Told him the good stuff about Online Destinations and Google Streetview - but he agreed with me - if something as important as the seats don't suit you then there's no way he's going to persuade me otherwise. I actually sat in a GS 450 in the showroom... it had Hippo-friendlier seats, for sure... but too big, too plush for my liking (a car more like an A6 - that I didn't want). I drove back in my A4 and I would describe it as "more planted" than the IS 300h F Sport... or "more grounded" - that kind of feeling anyway, it's hard to describe, the feeling that it was more in touch with the road. I also preferred my electro-mechanical handbrake and where my Start Engine button was, and where the Parking Sensor button was... it's these small things that make one person go for a car and another not. I definitely prefer the A4 steering wheel and the roller for things like volume control.

Hi, I really don't think I will regret it, because I've weighed them up against each other objectively and emotionally and the A4 wins (in my opinion). I certainly don't want to 'dis' the IS 300h F Sport on a forum which is here for folk who're interested in the car, though. My personal focus has always been on the technology side, so mostly we're talking about infotainment and gadgets. I believe the Audi Connect system to be better than the Lexus Connected Services system. I also know that I can control what Album Covers I see in the Audi by embedding them into my MP3 files. I also know the Audi AMI lets me plug a 1.8" USB HDD into the glove compartment. I am positive that I can use SD cards in the Audi. I am positive the Audi navigation system is on a HDD - whereas I'm now confused with the Lexus system - is it on a HDD or a micro SD? I am positive I can insert a SIM into the car itself, rather than having to use a MiFi (or the £350 Lexus Hotspot with a 250MB allowance with Vodafone). I,even, believe the Audi MMI wheel is a better input device than the Lexus mouse (although both are beaten by MMI Touch available in the A6 and A3) - and, of course, we're not comparing voice commands. I've decided that just like the DRLs better on the A4... nothing objective, purely subjective. There are things I can't accept (if they're truly as I see them today)... the heated seats auto-dropping their level (can't seem to override this), the sat. nav. screen colours at night (can't seem to override this). But many other things are on par (reversing camera), and some things are better on the Lexus (fixed speed camera alerts) - just not enough of them to tempt me away from what I know... and, I guess, that's also part of the decision-making process here as well. Yesterday, the test drive I undertook was designed to reflect what I do with my car... A roads, motorways, supermarket trips. It's only then that you realise that little things like curry hooks matter to you. :winky: I mean, the lack of auto-folding mirrors really did have me worried... but at least we all now know that the F Sport can have those. Enjoy the IS guys... it is a great car.

Well gents, I've chatted it over with the other half this morning, using her as a sounding-board. I can report that I've ruled-out the Lexus IS 300h F Sport. It has actually come down to 3 pretty simple reasons... The seats were quite painful The mouse is rather annoying The boot is not big enough Everything else, we think, falls into the some things are better on the Lexus and some things are better on the Audi bracket - it's swings and roundabouts throughout. That's covering things like features, implementation, comfort, cost, efficiency, coolness factor and exclusivity. It's a great car, but the three reasons above drove me to the conclusion it probably isn't for me. Even though reason 1 might end up not being a reason forever (by that, I mean my backside might win-out against the seat in the long-term) I don't think I can live with it until that might happen. Thanks for all the help from this forum. If anyone wants to ask any further questions about my test drive / impressions, please do.

And, please excuse if some of my comments seem like niggles, but I've fast reached the point where it's a real toss-up between the Sexy Lexy F Sport and a new A4 Black Edition. So I am now doing quite low-level compares between the two, taking as much as possible into account. A niggle... I found it hard to find the front parking sensor button. Not sure why it's hidden where it is, but when in a demonstrator I did not want to crash it, so needed it and couldn't find it at first. I thought it might be turned on via a soft button, but there's a button hidden all the way down-low to the right of the steering wheel. Odd place. A niggle... the A4 steering wheel is nicer and more tactile with the perforated leather, but the Sexy Lexy's is still a pretty good one. A niggle... no SD card reader in the Sexy Lexy (or is there?) but we know there is a micro SD card reader - can anyone confirm if that holds the navigation data or there really is a HDD system inside the car? A niggle... the map graphics aren't as good / polished on the Sexy Lexy.

On the drive... I very much enjoyed it. I was doing 95mph on the M1 without really realising it. That was in normal mode. Heading up slip roads in Sport was very helpful. I tried Eco mode and the difference in response was massively noticeable. I realise it's there for a reason, but I would never use it - it turned into a totally different, and obviously much less capable, car. The firmness is about the same as my Audi A4 S line I would say. It's definitely firm, no wallowing, and potholes can shock you, but it's not too bad - it's certainly got intent and is really well planted. Going around corners and roundabouts at speed is fun - the steering is really direct and you always feel in control. I would not say the car is overly quiet. Both myself and the girlfriend thought it was the same, or a bit more noisy, than the A4 when on the M1, doing around 70mph. Obviously, when pootling around, it's silent or near-silent and so very, very cool. Regarding other noises... yes, there was a rattle. I discovered a rattle and investigated it. I hate rattles. Anyway, I found a plastic box of locking wheel nuts inside the glove compartment. This was a plastic box sitting in a plastic box - I think that's where 'my' rattle came from... I moved the locking wheel nuts and put them in the armrest compartment. Last impression... this might shock some reading this, but I think the wheels might actually be too small for the car (visually). I took a picture of the car, side-on, and I am just starting to think the wheels are too small.

Back just now from an afternoon driving an IS 300h F Sport around. To clear up some queries I've seen... yes, the car has auto-folding mirrors which fold-in when you stroke the key handle. Yes, the car has the memory seats / steering wheel - 3 settings. Yes, the car has the electric adjustment for the steering wheel - a little joystick on the left-hand side of the steering column. So - the top-level trim is not required to get these features. So... my impressions after several hours behind the wheel? The sports seats grip too tightly around my backside and hips... I must have been eating too many doughnuts, but it was actually quite an uncomfortable feeling, not one I've had in any Audi S line, which also has sports seats. I was wondering whether a Japanese car just has smaller seats? My girlfriend, on the other hand, fit into them very snugly. The boot is actually quite small. In total number of litres it might compare quite well with other saloons, but visually and in the flesh, it's quite constrained. We actually went to the supermarket and filled it up - everything we bought got in there, but it was quite tight. Also, one really good feature on Audis "the curry hooks" aren't here. I registered the car on the Lexus Portal, and I had my MiFi device with me all day, which provides a 3G signal and a wireless network for the car to hook up to. The Lexus Portal part still has me foxed, I must admit. Half the time it kept telling me that it could not access the Portal and kept asking me to key in the username and password again - I've got to say this is such a pain in the neck when you're using the mouse - I find it barely usable (the most used soft key today was backspace!). However, I did manage to happily use Online Search to set a navigation address (a postcode) and then I was able to click on the Google Streeview icon to see a 360 degree view of the destination. This was all very cool indeed. I did manage to create "A Trip" on the Portal, and I managed to send it to the car, but it never arrived at the car because the car couldn't seem to log into the Portal. A shame, really. I got so frustrated typing in a username and password (must be at least 8 characters long) with the mouse. Although the setup within the car amounts to just username and password, so is simple really, it's just not intuitive enough. I found something really great, that I did not expect. I stuck in a USB stick with loads of MP3s on it - and they were clean MP3s - confirmed with no embedded album art in the ID3 tags. However, the car started pulling down album covers from somewhere and displayed them in the main screen. This was really ace and was not something I expected to see at all. I have not yet tested whether MP3s with embedded cover art shows the cover too. I might get around to this tomorrow. It might just be something that the car downloads, only. I liked the DAB. Sadly, though, two things happened that confused me a bit. Firstly, it pulled album covers down for most albums, but then didn't for some, but there was no indication of why not. This then happened for some tracks that I went back to, ones that I knew it had downloaded covers for previously. So it obviously doesn't cache them. I guess it lost 3G signal at that point or something - but I would have liked to have seen some text saying "Cover cannot be found" instead of a picture of a USB stick. Secondly, twice on the journeys today it just stopped playing music. I couldn't get the music back until I stopped and restarted the car. I don't think I pressed a mute button or anything, and playing with the volume control didn't change anything. Also, on the volume side... there's obviously a setting to change the volume of spoken navigation cues, but it's hidden away in some settings screen... on my Audi I can take the opportunity to alter the volume knob (main dial or on steering wheel) when the lady speaks a direction to me and, then, the car knows that I want to change the volume of the cues, rather than the background music - the Lexus doesn't seem to know this. Does anyone know if you can change the colours of the night-time map? This changed to nearly all black as soon as the lights came on, and I found it pretty bad. I wanted to override it to use day-time colours, but - for the life of me - I could not find this setting. The ability to split the main screen into 2 or 3 sections is simply fantastic and it's pretty intuitive as to how you go about it. I remain confused by the little drawer that holds a Lexus-badged micro SD card in the dash. I thought the navigation system was a HDD-based system... when I removed this micro SD card, it said that it could not access navigation data. Is this where the navigation data is stored? I love the speed camera alerts. Very non-intrusive, but you hear them. It got most cameras I went past today. I am such a big fan of the main dial. I think most cars these days have so much space used up by non-important information and 2 big dials for revs and speed is just a massive waste of space. The IS 300h F Sport really makes the most of that nice space - the main dial is inarguably gorgeous! The ability to change the needle colour is indulgent. I wasn't a fan of the footbrake / handbrake... but I also found that it didn't get it the way, either. I like the seat and steering wheel moving when you insert and remove your seat-belt. At first, I thought I needed my foot on the main brake, and you have to stretch for that when getting in, as the seat moves quite far back. However, you don't - it just happens on the seat-belt insertion. Very cool. In the daytime, the DRLs aren't very bright it seems... but at night, they really do come out and are very bright when they're just on. I like them more and more. They were so bright, when I parked-up this evening, that my camera couldn't take a proper picture of them. For navigation - zooming in and out on the map is much easier with Audi's MMI dial. The mouse is just too fiddly. Summing-up, the one single thing that I didn't like the most on this car was the mouse! I actually think it's a retrograde step from a touch screen interface. The car has some poke! I am a big fan of the CVT, having had 2 Multitronics. This gearbox is no disappointment to me. I'm quite a big fan. I love the whine-down it does, sounds like when you turn a vacuum cleaner off, when you arrive at red traffic lights. And - yes - I think I have figured out the "other whine". So, from a standing start at some red lights - if you floor the accelerator, you will really leap forwards, then you will detect a high-pitched buzz - I would liken it to a mosquito. I noticed it, but it did not bug me, and if you have music on at any level, then you might not hear this. Nearly lastly, I was on a hill and wanted to test forwards crawl. I am sad to say that the Lexus IS 300h F Sport will roll backwards even when in D. I can't forgive this, I think. I understand why it happens, but I am used to cars not rolling backwards when in D, not at all, and even managing to crawl upwards on a rather steep hill. I like the ventilated seats! My girlfriend liked the heated seats when on level 3 - but was unhappy because the car decided to drop the level of seat heating to 2, then to 1, over time. She was not happy about this. This is the kind of setting you would think there'd be an override for - but, again, I could not find it. I thought the touch / stroke sensor AC settings was a gimmick, but they actually work quite well. The car got some appreciative looks in the supermarket car park... the test drive was a sparkly white. It looked very cool indeed. Hope this is interesting feedback to some.

The F Sport has auto-folding wing mirrors. It comes 'FoC' when you get leather. This is confirmed in the flesh, so to speak. The salesman was, pleasantly, surprised. As was I.

Going to collect a test drive car at midday. Spoke to the salesman yesterday on the door mirrors, he was adamant you cannot get auto-folding mirrors on the F Sport. However, I said there might be some confusion 'out there' and he was good enough to say he would ask someone else.

Very interesting. I was looking at the brochure, page 43 "ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT BY GRADE" and the list has "Door mirrors: auto folding and elechromatic" but the column for F Sport is empty - no indication that it's either standard or optional. I hope what you've found is correct.

Don't worry, guys... I'll get you a fair and considered review if I'm to get the IS300h F Sport over this coming weekend. About this "whine"... on my short test drive, the only noise that caught my attention (as being unfamiliar / different / unexpected) was the electric motor noise that was made as the car was coming to a slow stop. I did pick up on it and make a comment to my other half. It sounded like exactly what you'd expect - a kind of high-pitched (almost a whistle) sound of something slowing down, then stopping. I think people are talking about a different whine, though. I will keep my ears open if it all goes down.

No, I understand what your car has got - it's the same as what the F Sport would have. Auto-folding mirrors is very important for making you (me) feel your car is safe( r ). It's also a good visual indicator that your car is locked-up (just in case). Pressing a separate button to fold mirrors is not really cool at all... it's like central locking, fumbling around for your key fob and then having to press a button is a bit retrograde these days. The Q3 referred might, indeed, be like that - but it will have had the option to have auto-folding door mirrors. What I'm trying to say is that the Lexus (F Sport) doesn't give me the option... I can't chuck extra money at Lexus and get them. So, even if the mirrors actually fold, no-one will deign to flip the bit in code that actually gets them to fold on locking the car, instead - it seems to be reserved for the highest trim. I think that auto-folding mirrors are like a few other things - auto-dimming mirrors, key-less entry, Bluetooth, multifunction steering wheel etc. - in that, once you have them on a car, you're very unlikely to have another car without them (at least, you're unlikely to intentionally not specify them - if you have the choice) - but, of course, there were times when cars had none of these things and now most are 'standard' - all should be options. I'll be back with more thoughts on the IS 300h F Sport, of course - my current thinking is just from a short accompanied test drive and poring over the brochure.

The frustrating thing, for me, regarding auto-folding of door mirrors is firstly that they're not on the F Sport trim and, secondly, and more much importantly, the fact that I can't even pick then them as an option. If all goes to plan, I test drive the F Sport this Friday and Saturday. The Audi A6 Black Edition is more-or-less ruled out now (S line trim might still maintain some interest with me), along with the Jaguar XF Sport. There is interest in the brand spanking new A3 Saloon (nicely loaded with options, I will go to look at one, to assess capacity, coming in for a viewing at Wakefield Audi this week) or, rather boringly, back to an A4 (with a few more gadgets installed than my current one - I don't need to test drive that).