Activ8

Since having the software update my Home Screen crashes almost every ignition start... but then going into the main menu and selecting nav... then going back to the home screen seems to cure the problem.

This has been fine to live with until Lexus get another fix... but last week I was getting a really strange one. I was about to get on the motorway (M54) at Telford and the sat nave said please take the 18th exit at the roundabout.... there was 6 or so exits on the junction and it wanted me to go around the roundabout three times... Like a fool I did it partly to see what would happen and if it was counting the junctions. I have not been back since so cannot tell if this is a software problem or a mapping problem in general!

I do mostly motorway driving and keep at the 75mph (120kmh) limit in Eco mode. I don't have a heavy foot, and always stay within the speed limits. Only recently have I checked real-world mpg and was rather disappointed to see I'm only getting 41mpg (6.9l/100) as against others' claims of better mpg. I never believe the computer (which is telling me right now that I average 46mpg) but thought I was getting about 45mpg real-world before I had winter tyres fitted (16in replacing my 17in). Guess the tyres make a difference, as well as the heating, but can't see how anybody can get 60mpg if unless it's for a very short drive. More sadly for my carbon footprint, a car that is supposed to do 102g CO2 per km is pumping out 161g; but hell, I'm not blaming Lexus - I'm sure their figures correspond fully with the EU EUDC but everybody knows that a load of baloney.

Whilst I have no idea of what CO2 my car is pumping out (disappointing if it is that high)... if I drove in eco mode at about 75 on the motorway I would probably get around 41mpg too. However motorway driving is not the strong point of the car from an economy point of view. I always drive in normal mode on the motorway and stay between 70-80... now the trick is not to have a light foot and accelerate up to speed quick and then back off completely and catch up your speed. this will give you a better Battery assist. Without hypermiling I can easily get 48-52 mpg real world economy (brimming method) on a 50+ mile run between Staffordshire and Warrington on the M6. Hypermiling in good warm weather was getting me high 50's and early 60's when I first had the car last September. Where the care does great is on flat round town runs where I have managed 15mile trips in the 80's. The strange thing about your figures is that the 16" rims should perform better than the 17's.

I am waitin

Well since I had my car on the 1st of September the system has crashed a total of 3 times... Since having the update on Tuesday the system has crashed at least 3 times every day. I have asked them to put the old software back on!

That's ridiculous! Can the dealer reverse the process? Lexus do seem to have dropped the ball on this one.

I am waiting for a reply... The dealer is having to speak to Lexus about it. If anyone is contemplating the upgrade I would hold off until they sort it.

Well since I had my car on the 1st of September the system has crashed a total of 3 times... Since having the update on Tuesday the system has crashed at least 3 times every day. I have asked them to put the old software back on!

Had my F-Sport for 2 days now and driving gently (compared with my Merc C250 CDi) I'm struggling to get 40MPG. My route to work is very hilly so maybe that is having a very bad effect? Also eco mode is scary, absolutely no acceleration whatsoever so kinda sticking with Normal mode for now.

Don't worry to much about it my F-Sport gained about 4mpg after the first 1000 miles. Also the winter air knocks around 3-4mpg off the numbers too... You notice these things more with a hybrid. I have a similar route to work and I get around 47mpg at the moment this will be 50+ in the summer. Also don't drive too gently I sort of zoom up the hills and coast down them (this also used to work well for my prius). Also when accelerating from a start get up to speed as soon as you can (safely) then back off the gas completely and catchup the speed in EV (if under 40mph and the road flat) this can really increase your MPG.

Doing a standard trip between Stoke-on-Trent and Barnmouth (186 mile round trip winding A and B roads and very hilly) I averaged 47.3 mpg and that was driving in D mode with little in the way of consideration for fuel saving and just enjoying the drive. This was using the brimming method to calculate. The computer was telling me 48.6 mpg so not hugely different. The best I have had is 73.2 mpg (computer) on a one way 15 mile trip that was all through the town although reasonably flat terrain. Very impressed so far! :)

The use I find best for the paddles is to charge the Battery more when going down steep hills without having your foot on the brake. My old prius used to have a B setting on the gearbox but dropping it down a gear on the paddles in the IS seems to work just as well.

I would phone Lexus or your finance company and get them to shift things along.

When I was speaking to my dealer he told me that they are only getting around 200 new cars for the year to sell and that they are one of they busier dealers in the UK. Of that 200 he thinks that maybe a third will be IS models another third will be the CT and the rest GS/LS and RX. Whatever the split it is unlikely that the IS will be a common sight on UK roads!

Good point Roger... I forgot that they did 16" wheels that could account for much more than my 18" ones although I did think they were 17's on the car I tested... Maybe someone with 16's would do much better. I do think that the mapping on the F-Sport and premier encourage more sporty driving due to steering weight and sharp throttle response. I doubt that there is any real performance difference between the models... be an interesting drag race though!

That's interesting stuff. Does the F Sport have bigger wheels too? That would make a difference too wouldn't it?

What did you have fitted?

I have the 18's This would make a small difference to MPG as the wider rubber has more friction but should be no more than around 2mpg or so. If there was a big difference to the wheel tyre weight there maybe another 1mpg to add. As the rolling size is very similar acceleration and other performance should be the same.

That makes me feel a little better, as I am currently getting around 42mpg. I have done over 650 miles, I try to get up to speed,take the foot off, and then just use the electric power, longer breaking etc but struggle to get much above that at the moment. I do find the petrol engine very keen to join in, so maybe there is a difference between models. I do drive predominantly on motorways, is that bad for fuel economy, would I be better off taking a roads instead!

In reality I think we are going to average mid to late 40's in the F-Sport or Premier driving normally with the luxury early to mid 50's driving normally would seem the norm. The cars will get better with 3-5K miles on them.

Today my F-Sport was at the dealer having a couple of dealer fit parts fitted and I had the Luxury model for the afternoon. Two observations... I got better fuel economy on the identical run by about 8 mpg the website states 5mpg better for the luxury... I had wondered why the difference is quite big given that the website states power and weight and performance are the same... however driving the luxury after the sport the throttle response is very different in the different modes... Eco in the F-Sport feels somewhere between eco and normal in the Luxury and sport mode in the luxury fells like normal+ in the F-Sport and Sport mode in the luxury is nowhere near as aggressive on the throttle as it is in the F-Sport. Speaking with the service technician afterwards he told me that he believes the computer mapping is different and that the F-Sport and Premier have much more aggressive map which has both engines working together more often.

I don't think unless you jumped out of one and straight into another you would notice much performance difference between the two well apart from the fuel economy that is!

Must say I've never been below 42mpg or so no matter what I've done!

Driving it hard I sometimes drift below 50mpg, but I'm usually above. A weekly mixed 60 mile round trip unfailingly returns 55mpg.

I got 64.5 from Newtownabbey to Carnlough - so above 60 does appear!

The above 60mpg is good to know... That gives me something to aim for...

I've only 450 on the clock and am driving a bit like a grandma but mine since reset, and since haven't reset can only assume that's from when I left the showroom, is 40.1 mpg. I'm not disappointed as I guess it takes a while to settle down, although I'll admit to not understanding why I'm told it will improve over time.

My journeys so far have been pretty short commuting and Dad's taxi type driving.

Like you Activ8 I'm really enjoying the driving experience, and messing around with dials and connected services etc etc.!

On the steering wheel controls you can set the trip to show MPG from Reset or from Start of journey or from last fill-up. The default is since last reset so this will be since you picked the car up unless you reset it.

I am not sure why they get more efficient... it may just be that things loosen up but after a few thousanf miles you do see the figures go up by a few MPG. You can also learn to drive the hybid by looking how it is storing energy... The trick with the prius was to accelerate quicky up to speed and then back off the gas completely so that the EV light comes on then catch up the speed on the throttle position in EV to maintain the speed. Likewise ensuring your Battery has good charge by going a little quicker on an A road before you start a hilly climb gives much better Battery assistance and greater fuel economy. You can then recharge the Battery on the decent by gently braking all the way down the hill to increase charge... If there is someone behind you and you don't want to dazzle them with constant brake lights you can drop down a gear on the paddles and it has the same braking effect (on the prius you have a B position on the gear lever for just this reason on the 300h the paddles do just fine).

It can actually be quite fun challenging yourself on a route you do often to see just how much better MPG you can get. The MPG unlike most cars is very dependant on how you drive it.

That's very encouraging. When I did my comparative costings when going through the selection process, I assumed I would realistically get 45 mpg from the IS300h. Looks like I'll save even more than I thought

Depends upon how you drive Rob... but 45+ would be relatively easy to achieve even with a little spirited driving once the car has loosened up!

So having done 800 miles in the car and a good mixture of driving I feel I can report the following. Bear in mind that I have driven Prius for the last 2 years and could get that up to 72mpg on 50+ mile runs with just a little effort.

So if you drive this car like a regular sports saloon and don't care about fuel economy you will average around 38mpg for a full tank... In fact you would be had pressed to get any worse than 36mpg blasting about everywhere. Now my wife's BMW 3 series automatic diesel gives around the same, It does better on motorways at around mid 40's but worse around town at around 26-29mpg so averages out at just under 40mpg per tank. So you are no worse off than in a BMW 2.0d auto but petrol is cheaper than diesel and the 300h feels so much better to drive.

Now Driving a 50mile trip on mixed A road and Motorway driving and driving sensibly then you see this figure climb easily into the mid to late 40's and sensible in town driving delivers up to 50mpg. In two 12 mile trips last week I saw 48mpg which I would never see in my wife's car on the same trip no matter how hard I tried.

Finally this weekend driving a usual route to Wales a return trip of 180 miles and one that driving to the hybrids strengths including a bit of hyper-miling and a trip that I could easily get 75mpg out of the Prius I got a an average of 59.8 miles per gallon. Now my Prius took until it had a few 000's miles on it before the true economy showed so this makes me quite optimistic about 300h especially as it was cold this weekend (warm vs cold weather had as much as 6mpg difference on the Prius).

However the thing I found strange was that the car never went above 60mpg showing at anytime yet averaged 59.8mpg which I found strange. The prius could never go past 99mpg as this was a software limitation and I am wondering if 60mpg is a software limit on the 300h too!

So I am happy so far as it is doing as well as I expected on the economy front but is so much better than I expected as an overall driving package.

You are not the only one with a custom start up screen David... I am sad too! :)

After 500 miles no rattles from mine at all. I thought I had one but my wife had put some change in the cup holder. You do hear things in this car you would never hear in most other cars though as it is so quiet.

I have a Windows phone and that has received text messages once or twice but for some reason has stopped now even though I haven't changed any settings. Further investigation needed.

David, how to I access this "Lexus Portal"?

www.my.lexus.eu and then register you and your car.

The hotspot connection can do wifi to the car and 4 other devices in the car (5 in total) but you still need a phone that is compatible with the car's email and SMS for it to be able to be seen on the internal LCD. The only phones that work are some blackberrys Q10 and Z10 (others may work) and the htc One.

According to the Lexus portal the Iphone cannot do email or sms to the car:

Thanks... DJP... some good light an Iphone and a bright blue car!

Yes speed camera's I only knew this as my Prius did it too!

Right, it's just too confusing... which one of you wants to be Dave, which one Dav, and which one D?! :)

I thought you had to be called David to buy the first batch! Must be different rules in NI :)

David (Staffs),

But apart from that it's awful, eh? :)

David (Cumbria),

Make absolutely sure it's not the sun visor rattling against the windscreen. That's what mine was.

As you say, worth checking air vents and ensuring synthetic noise is fully off.

Yes absolutely awful... that's what I tell the wife so she doesn't drive it! :)