AJChinn

59 minutes ago, wharfhouse said:

The comment about the Autobahns came from some of my colleagues on the continent - appreciate some of it may have been skewed a little in translation but the crux is that if a driver is involved in an accident on the Autobahn when exceeding the advisory speed limit, the burden of proof that their high speed did not cause damage is with the driver exceeding the recommended speed limit. It may not be a criminal offence but money, or at least insurance money, talks. However that is taken on board it has had the effect of lowering (or capping) the speed of many drivers on the Autobahn. I do agree though that the German drivers have much better lane discipline than in the UK and that is one of the reasons I enjoy driving in Germany.

When i was in the Army i was based in Germany for 4 years and i can confirm that what you said is actually correct. The German police will actually still pull you over if they deem your driving to be irresponsible... granted there definition of responsible a much more lenient than ours lol but even still they are by no means ignorant to the dangers of driving at excessive speeds. I used to own an Astra VXR back in my younger more immature days whilst based in germany which was 240bhp and reached 152mph so its safe to say i have had my fair share of speedy experiences.

As stated in my initial post though those days are long behind me since having a family which is exactly why i'm so invested into getting the IS 300H. Looks stunning, extremely practical for the driving that i will actually be doing most of the time and because of the sport mode it still offers that nice little kick should i get abit nostalgic and want to put my foot down a little bit. I am in no way looking for a car to get me to the school to pick my daughter up in record time which is why i have pretty much ignored most of the comments/reviews regarding the acceleration as i feel it doesn't really apply to the way i drive. I do however extremely appreciate all of the other comments detailing there own personal experiences with the IS 300. I think subconsciously i had already made up my mind but after reading some of your replies any reservations i did have have now been put to bed. So again thank you for the feed back. 

Can anybody tell me if it is possible to screen mirror from an android phone to the screen on the IS 300H? 

40 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I don't think there are any specific known weaknesses in IS300h, except being slow 😒

Thats ok then. In regards to it being slow though i found personally that it was still really fun to drive. I wouldn't really consider myself a speed demon anymore compared to my younger days since having a family... although my daughters are always screaming at me from the back to go faster. I found that the sports mode gave more than enough juice to pull out at junctions/roundabouts and for overtaking. Theres only maybe 2-3 duel carriage ways that i frequently use anyway to actually be able to have a little fun with it so kinda suits me perfectly to be honest

So I finally got around to test driving the IS 300H F Sport earlier this week after putting it off for a few months. While i'm in no immediate hurry to purchase a new car due to financial situation I have however got my heart set on the 300H F Sport when the time does come. I previously narrowed my car search down to either a Mercedes CLA, A3 saloon or another 3 series and of course the IS 300H F Sport and after test driving the IS it was an easy decision for me. The drive is so smooth and although almost all of the previous reviews I read said that the quietness of the engine is a bad thing i however consider it an absolute delight... (Then again i do currently drive an IS 220D lol). The interior kinda reminds me of the fun cockpit feel that i had in my Civic Type R and as i am extremely easily pleased and amused i think my favourite part was getting into the IS, turning the engine on and then having the steering wheel and seat engage into position. 

Having never driven an automatic before i was a little apprehensive as to what to expect and again after reading the reviews (which i will now never do again because there all bull**** lol) I was pleasantly surprised with how responsive everything felt. I was even impressed with the acceleration and that was without even putting it into sports mode. I did obviously try Sports mode as well which is a hell of a lot of fun. I even enjoyed the artificial engine sound but i do expect that that novelty would wear off pretty quickly. I really wished i could of just kicked the Lexus sales rep out of the car and driven it home. Even my daughter was disappointed and looked at me in disgust when she had to get out and do a walk of shame back to my dingy pollen covered IS 220D haha. Really can't wait to clear abit of this stupid debt i have so then i can get into Debt again to purchase the 300H. Well worth it though.

I'm not going to be in any position to be getting a brand new one so will be looking to get an 13/14 year F Sport maybe towards the end of the year... I'm guessing that given Lexus' track record for reliability it would be perfectly possible to get one still in great condition? I've seen a couple that are up on Autotrader for around the 13/14K price range so i'm hoping i'll be able to grab a bargain closer the time.

With an older IS 300H around the 13/14 year range is there anything specific that i should be cautious of? Like any known issues to take into consideration?

Again thank you for your quick reply mate... really appreciate it

8 minutes ago, rayaans said:

If you like reading reviews, don't buy a Lexus for a start as reviewers don't like them for some reason.

Ive driven the CLA and the A3 saloon and we own an IS300h so here goes.

Driving - the IS300h handles better than all of them - main reason being its RWD. 

Interior quality - I would say the Audi wins here but the IS isn't far behind. CLA has shocking interior quality - renault grade plastics not worthy of the price tag

ride quality - depends on spec but overall the IS is very good. CLA is rubbish, it rides like a flintstone car in the AMG sport trims and is still firm on comfort suspension. A3 is firm in S-Line trim but other trims are good.

Reliability - no contest - Lexus wins. Audi second and CLA has very bad reliability - quite a lot of problems with them

Compared to an IS220d its going to be a massive improvement. The IS220d is probably the worst vehicle Lexus has ever made bar the SC

Performance - whilst the IS may have a relatively mild 0-62mph time, the in gear acceleration is very good due to instant torque from the electric motors. Drive one, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Its got faster in-gear acceleration compared to a BMW 320d

 

Thank you very much for response. I've actually booked a test drive for this weekend so I will definitely be looking forward to this a lot more now after reading your reply.

Unless I win the lottery I won't be getting a brand new one so I've been looking at some of the 2013/2014 F Sport models on auto trader... Would you say I could still find one at that age that would still be reliable and would last me a good few years? Or would I be better of investing in heavily into a newer model?

I'm actually in exactly the same boat... I had to get rid my BMW 320D at the beginning of the year due to numerous reasons and opted for a spontaneous purchase of a IS 220D however now I've had my 220D for a couple of months i'm already at looking to replace it with something a little more permanent. The 300H F Sport really intrigues me but a lot of reviews has created a shadow doubt about its performance. I'm obviously not intending to compete with super cars at traffic lights but i'd still like a little kick for quick round a bout exits and overtaking... 

In Comparison to the 220D how does it compete? I've also been looking at a Mercedes CLA and the Audi A3 saloon however there is just something about the IS 300H that really appeals to me but before i take the plunge i'd really appreciate if current/previous owners could share there experiences and if they could shed some more light on real world performance instead of reading a 1 or 2 day review

Hi... Newbie here posting for the first time.

So I've had a few cars over the years mostly being sporty hatchbacks in my younger years however since having a family I've moved onto saloons. I recently parted with my BMW 320D which I really enjoyed while it lasted however the DPF packed in amongst a plethora of other things going wrong. I then spontaneously purchased a 59 plate IS 220D which I've had now for a few months now however I must admit i'm not really a massive fan of it so I'm already looking at a new car to get. I have really taken in interest in the IS 300h F Sport however I've gotten nothing but mixed signals from reading reviews (and believe me I've read A LOT) so i'm hoping to get some better feed back from those who actually own one. As i mentioned before i owned a few sportier cars in my youth so I was mostly interested to find out if the 330h has a little kick to it and if current/previous owners actually found the car fun to drive and how would it feel in comparison to my current IS 220D? (Performance, economy)

How would the 330h compare to other cars I have looked at such as the Mercedes CLA 180 or the Audi A3 Saloon?!?

Any and all opinions would be greatly appreciate