mingkwong

The engine noise is no different to dropping into 3rd gear ready to overtake or as my previous car did kick down and rev up to give good acceleration. Quite a few of the reviews did call it whine or "annoying drone"

"Noisy CVT gearbox, no diesel, poor real-world fuel economy" What Car?

I almost didn't even bother with a test drive after reading What Car & Auto express reviews. But I loved the look of it so did and bought one & cancelled the XF.

At present I am averaging 40 mpg but have been doing short journeys with cold starts.

A diesel would probably have blocked its DPF up by now!!

Ed

A good read.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/our-cars/lexus-gs450h/the-cvt-gearbox---a-love-hate-relationship/

That was not the case when I had the test drive, IS250 was not quick to kick down but still a lot faster response than IS300h, but I agree that Lexus setup the gearbox for smoothness rather than performance.

Anyway this is the review extracted from auto express" The 300h is smooth and refined at very low city speeds and on the motorway, but attempt to extract any performance and the whining CVT gearbox, lazy throttle response and sluggish acceleration (despite an output of 220bhp) spoil the fun."

Direct responce to the "dangerous" overtaking / power delivery lag.

I can see what some people are referring too when they make this point, and I experienced it once myself, needing a quick overtaking manouver with my previous car being a 2ltr 150bhp diesel. I floored it and a delay followed which made my heart jump into my mouth, before it took off.

The reason was I was in auto mode, and had floored it in the wrong gear ratio, it took a moment before the computer decided to drop a gear ratio. (possibly the fuel economy algorithm)

The solution I use ever since that moment is to manually drop a gear ration using the paddles, preferably switch to sport, then move the gear stick into manual (move to left). This instantly automatically drops a gear ration and will rev to "red line". The power with this method is instantaneous and very impressive.

If you have a test drive give it a try.

I think this is due to the CVT gear box which is not responsive for rapid acceleration, traditional 6 speed auto doesn't have such problem.