chimneyfog

Just priced up an F-Sport with adaptive suspension and leather seats. Out of budget sadly. Great looks though. 

I'm buying the 2017 model new.

 I tend to use phone for nav, so can sacrifice that. Is there any difference in handling/suspension or comfort in the Luxury model?

Thanks 

Ah F-Sport has the adaptive drive option, how much was that ? I've test driven the The Lexus RC 300h but I found the ride too hard in the city.   

Slight confused here. The difference between Luxury and Advance appear to be the parking sensors? Or is there a difference in ride quality too? Then there's the F-Sport which looks stunning, but does it drive any faster ? I take it the ride quality will suffer in the F-Sport?

Thanks

23 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

a 330d has a monster of an engine with a mountain of torque. this car will make you feel there is always plenty of power on tap, is a relaxed cruiser with decent consumption( for the engine) but is clearly higher priced than the IS. The 320d is s noisy rattling 4 pot with lots of power and torque with great consumption. if you do high mileage it could make sense. The IS300H is a great car if you drive up to 60% of the power, then it cruises along with little noise and feels like a six cylinder. Start pressing it and it falls apart though, the CVT combined with the 4 cylinder makes an unpleasant stressed noise and it does not feel ok. i guess that why most of us including me, dont drive as fast or enthusiastic as with our previous cars, the IS is not a sporty car for the enthusiastic driver but makes a great realaxed cruiser in and out of town. I like my IS and maybe you will like it as well after a test drive, just realise that comparing it with a 330d is not going to work. with a 320d however.... 

   

Thanks for this very useful and insightful post.  Much to think about. So far Ive not managed to get a 24 hour test drive but i have cancelled the Edgware road test drive. I'll try a few other dealers next week. i'm now getting quite excited about having a smooth refined Lexus. 

Thanks for all your advice and opinions on this car ! 

2 hours ago, rayaans said:

Agreed. Keep the car in normal. I find Sport mode is too sensitive to throttle input sometimes

That's quite reassuring. 

@capese21  having a capable engine makes the drive much less tiring. For instance driving a BMW 330d simply means that I can get up to speed without revving the engine.  It's effortless.  The same is true of the 320d. I find noise and vibration from an engine very uncomfortable, and want to be sure that the IS300h doesn't need to be worked hard to keep pace with traffic, overtaking or get up to speed quickly.

The german marque's are well known for the performance, but the Japanese less so, at least here in the UK.  

In that case I might try another dealer. Or ask them again. 

Incidentally when I rang up Lexus in Edgware I asked about the 24 hour test drive, they offered me a 30 minute accompanied test drive and suggested I rebook for a 24 hour drive if I'm happy with the finance figures. Is this the norm, or should I try another Lexus dealer.  It would be good to have the car for a least an hour or two to get a real feel for it, and it's a long trek getting to the dealer. 

I take it the facelift model is out next year ? I could really do with adaptive cruise control. 

1 minute ago, rayaans said:

Just be aware that it won't feel as fast.  Don't know whether it's the smoothness or the lack of gear changes but I ended up at 100mph thinking I was at 70mph plenty of times. Oops

That's a major plus. I really dislike road noise, and the feeling of going fast. I like speed, but only if it's hushed :) 

6 minutes ago, rayaans said:

I know you mentioned a 330d but compared to a 320d the IS300H is quicker in day to day driving.

30-50mph takes 3s whereas in a 320d it'd take 3.6s, 50-70mph absolutely blows a 320d out of the park. Takes 4s in an IS and 6.8s in a 320d! 

You won't be disappointed on long drives, the quietness of the car helps too and you'll be doing about 40mpg+ on those. 

Excellent, thats quite impressive. The 320d is fast enough and if the IS300h can top it then I'm sold. Looking forward to my test drive next Wednesday. 

Thanks for extremely informative replies. Unfortunately a torquey diesel is out of the question, conscience can't justify the pollution. A petrol BMW is expensive to run, and I don't quite trust BMW reliability to opt for a first generation hybrid. To be honest, I'm doing less and less city driving, most of it will be long distance. And I do like a quiet refined drive. @ganzoom Thanks for the video, that looks plenty fast enough for me. I don't need to leave tyre scorch marks, just to be able to comfortably get up to speed in time to slow down for the next traffic light/traffic jam.  

Thanks @Fujifan thats the kind of distance I'll be doing so good to know it can do that in comfort. @rayaans thanks, 30mpg flooring it in sport mode sounds pretty good to me. @Zotto thanks for that explanation, I need to get my head around what a cvt gearbox actually feels like, but yes the instant torque from the electric motor would probably compensate slightly for the diesel torque. 

Thanks for the replies.  I am attracted by the refinement and hopefully a more relaxed style of driving. In sport mode what kind of mpg are people getting ? Also, what is the IS300h like for long distance driving. I'm planning on doing a couple of trips into Europe and I do tire easily with long distance driving, and this is where I'm assuming the refined drive will help? 

I've just got in touch with Lexus to arrange a test drive, I'm hoping I can get to try out the car for a couple of hours. 

Hello I'm looking to buy a IS300h, I was previously considering a BMW 330d for the torque at low revs allowing one to get up to speed fairly fast and the decent MPG. However, diesels reputation as dirty fuel has got me looking at petrol hybrids. 

I was initially considering the GS450h but the styling is terrible. Whereas the IS300h looks great. 

My dilemma is that I do enjoy spirited driving, and do like to get up to speed fairly fast, particularly in London's stop-start traffic. Thus good acceleration at low revs from 0-30mph is important. I say low revs, as I've read that flooring the pedal the fuel economy in the IS300h drops to 20 mpg. And the way I drive in the cities stop-start traffic fuel economy could take a major hit.

I've previously had an opportunity to drive a 1.8 litre petrol Toyota Avensis which I found to be extremely sluggish. So, the question is how quickly does the IS300h get up to speed whilst maintaining a light foot on the pedal. 

Thanks