Haf

the german 2 litre diesels will all get 60+ on sensible motorway driving as the auto boxes (7/8 speed) arenow more fuel effecient than manuals. they do suffer inner city though even with stop start and 40mpg is a good result. I think I once got 70mpg on my 2.1d merc on a warwick to heathrow run in the summer...

agreed - my 400 mile test drive also gave around 50 in both motorway and city driving - while driving carefull anyway.. I'm almost convinced that F-sport is the way to go...

I've seen 1 so far - mercury grey SE in london. I was behind it and the rear brake lights looked cooler than expected when they came on...

BMW comes for weekend after this one and I need to get my order in by mid Jan

Weekend Update So, Had an excellent time with the F-Sport all weekend and am pretty convinced that this is the car for me. Saturday was all about drive-ability/comfort/economy in weekend/city-centre traffic and I think I spent 3 odd hours driving at below 30mph, with lots of it under 10-20mph. I am very impressed with teh whole electric thing as teh battery would run down as i was in EV mode a lot and then it wudl charge up if i used the breaks, went uphill, etc and then i was back in electric mode. Pretty much averaged 50mpg over the 70 odd miles I did - inc a few stretches of 30/40mph roads where i did over a mile on EV a few times. The whole day was a joy despite traffic jams and everyone who i took fopr a spin really liked the car and the ultra-blue colour. The good thing about being stuff in traffic was that it gave me a chance to play with the technology - of which there is plenty. I got a bit frustrated with the trip computer as it told me mpg/average mph figurs but not the distance travelled. Eventually i spotted the button for the odometer and that sorted out that. The camera beeps were really handy and allwoed me to not be paranoid about getting caught a few mph over the limit. Obvioulsy the rear camera is superb and parking/reversing etc was a breeze All in all no faults found with the inner city driving so all looking good Sunday was all about having some fun - I thought I'd try 'sports' mode around some country A roads and first thing I noticed was the change to the dashboard with the main dash becoming a rev counter - how cool is that!!!! I did put the car through its paces with the manual gear paddles and it had some very impressive acceleraion while managing to do a good job of gripping the road. I'm a pretty mild mannered driver and doubt I pushed the car to anywhere near its capabilities but it seemed more than up to the job of some quick overtaking on short stretches of road so that was my main test. Obviously the mpg nosedived in sports mode but can't say that surprised me. So my conclusion is that the car looks and drives better than my initial impression and its really hard to fault in any area. Boots is a bit on the small side but folding seats means that its not a big issue. The keyless stuff takes a bit of getting used to as i kept reaching for the key and the satnav is super good. I was surprised how quickly i got to grips with the 'mouse' control and it became second nature very quickly - though lefties will have an advnatge for once (I'm a rightie) The main display is definatly distracting as i kept looking at it to see if the engine or battery was being used etc and I found it quite useful - though suspect it will become less of a distraction as you get used to the car. Finally I tallied up my mileage for the 3 days and the results were 200 miles return to central london 80 miles in and around birmingham 80 miles mainly a roads around warwick My normal driving style is pretty mild and I was also interested in fuel economy so most of the miles were done in eco-mode. I had put in £50 when i got the car and I still haven't used it all up so the economy side is very impressive - especially as my london business trip will refund me £52 just for that. I'll have to put a few miles on it in the morning so I return it with the same fule as i got it with. Next up is the 420D M Sport so that will be interesting given I am pretty much sold on the lexus.

not easy to spot that little 'dent' for locking but very effective now that I know

Quick question - is the key required to lock the doors as getting in and driving doesn't need the key so bit pointless if you then have to dig them out to lock up? I'm guessing I have missed something here?

Well spotted DJP and obvioulsy I meant IS F-Sport in the title rather than IS-F but can't seem to find a way to change it now.. Thanks for explaining the battery as I was wondering why it looks like the indicator has 8 bars but it always stayed in the 2-6 bars range. The wife saw the car this morning and thought the ultra=blue was 'shocking' - probably because my last few cars have been very dark coloured - I'm lovin it though and its still my top choice.. Silver Arrow - You don't want to trust my judgement on seat comfort as I am on my 10th compnay car and can't say any of them felt uncomfortable so maybe my back is just not vey fussy.. The only times I have felt uncomfortable was when i drove non-stop for more than 3 hoiurs in my Audi but that was more my bum than back.. Todays driving will be 10 miles of A roads and then a lot of time in and around birmingham going to shops, visiting family etc so it will be a good test of how the battery lasts given the stop/start/traffic-jam nature of todays trip. On the plus side it looks like I can claim business miles twice the rate of the actual mileage as my london trip cost me around 12-13p per mile and the govt rate is 26p - though I was driving very carefully this time..

Ok - been to central london and back so done 200 miles today. Main goal today was to assess comfort, ride quality and fuel economy. Comfort - no complaints at all and the standard IS-F seats were absolutely fine with no aches after 2.5 hours driving. The car seemed quiter on the motorway than my e-class and I did a couple of long phone calls with no problems. Took a while to get used to the cruise-control and other features as they were slightly difefrent to the merc. Biggest challenge was trying to release the hand-brake and eventually had to get the manual out.. I'm used to the foot-brake as my merc has one but the release mechanism is not easy to guess at. Main annoynace was that i couln't find the digital clock and the anologue one is really not in a good spot to glance at plus seemed to be hard to spot as it started to get dark (minor point). I also kept hearing various beeps from the car and eventually figured out that some weer warning me about speed cameras (cool feature) and others seemed to be linked to my phone. No doubt a lot of stuff that can be figured out after purchase. Radio 5 on DAB was brilliant (finally). Visibility was average as in most cars these days with wide pillars nad narrow windows etc. Rear camera was very useful. Ride Quality - again no problems whats ever with rough roads, pot-holes etc. Though I was driving in fuel-economy mode most of the time. Steering etc weer all fine. Fuee economy. As todays was to repeat a regular business trip route, I drove in a careful manner and roughly the same speedsas my current car. MPG for first 80 miles was 52mpg (M40/A40) but this went to 54MPG as I did the last 10 miles of london into the centre (opposite to my merc whic gets me to the high 50's on the M40 bit and then drops to low 50's as I go into london. I drove at 65-70mph in eco-mode and cruise control with no sudden acceleration or braking. On the way back the trip out of the centre was very much more crowded and I was crawling along for quite a while so totla trip back was just about 50mpg. I found the graphic showing engine/wheels/battery quite useful as it helped explained what was going on - though i doubt its of much use after the cars been driven a while. Interestingly on the trip down, the battery started at 6 bars and pretty much stayed at 6 until i got to the ouitskirts of london - i did notice on the trip down tha the battery was charging on some occasions and being used on others. For the last 7 or 8 miles of slow-ish traffic the car was in EV mode a lot and the battery drained to 3 bars by th etime i stopped. On my return trip it was very slow traffic o the battery got to 2 bars and then the engine stayed on (even when stationary) and teh atetry got charged to 4 bars befor egoing back to normal EV mode. The message is that the EV mode in slow traffic is only good for a while and if you crawl for more than a couple of miles then odds ar ethe battery will need charging and more petrol power kicks in.. All in all I'm pretty happy as outside of central london, the battery should be plenty given the shorter queues etc So all in all an excellent first day and I will do some warwick-bham trips tomorrow and then some more enjoyable driving on sunday using sports mode etc to throw it around a bit. I have to add the eco-mode seemed absolutely fine for my driving style and i didn't feel at anypoint that i was short of power or anything. The CVT box was pretty seemless and i couldn't really tell when the car was switching from EV to petrol etc. hard to find a fault at the moment (aside from the clock). I haven't done much with the gadgets and although my S3 paired easily i couldn't get my address book or text messages synched up - probbaly need to read up on that side of things.. Also couldn't find the cigarette lighter socket for my phone charger but did find 2 USB ports so that should be fine.. Also noticed that the seats were electric/memory seats - which i though you only got withe leather upgrade so quite happy if thats 'standard'. Will sum up after the weekend but looks good so far..

Nope - last lexus I drove was IS-220D premium in 2005-7. Since then its been A5 and E220 coupe

Just had the lexus delivered for a 3 day test drive IS-F Sport with Nav in Ultra Blue with standard seats The good news is this saves me looking around for an ultra-blue to see the colour. Car looks great - especially the grey alloys and the blue colour It looks to be the exact spec I was thinking of ordering so thats a plus The keyless start was odd in that I pressed the button and nothing happened (turns out it was on battery so no engine sound) Dashboard looks nice with lots of tech Paired my Galaxy S3 and it was very simple so I'm all set Will leave work shortly to go to a meeting in central london so it will be 80 miles of motorway and 20 and 10 miles of inner city. Should be a good test for ride quality, comfort and mpg I have a couple of conference calls so will also compare roadnoise etc with me Merc Will update this post later this afternoon with impressions of my first drive - very excited

Good points Roger and I will endevour to be thorough and report back. I am also going to test the 3 series ED and A5 equivalents to get a proper comparison. Also just reading up on the lexus website about 'driving tips' so will factor those into my test drive : /owners/reference-library/index.tmex#/HybridDrivingTips from main uk website

Got my test drive booked (Lexus IS300h F-Sport 2500 Hybrid 4Dr Saloon ECVT) Fri-Mon 29th Nov so looking forward to that. I'll have to think through how i make the most of the time to ensure i get a good feel of the car. I will do my 2 most common routes as a start as they both contain varying roads/speed plus they are routes I do all the time in my current care so will give a good comparison. Route 1 : warwick to central london so M40/A40/london-centre Route 2 : warwcik to birmingham centre so 50mph A roads and inner city roads After that I will test out all the technology so Satnav, Phone, etc I will attempt to cover all 3 driving styles to see the impact on mpg (gentle, mixed, aggressive) Let me know if there is anything in particluar i need to check out

That seems a bit low versus published figures so I will be interested when my test car turns up. Have asked for a f-sport for a 3 day test and intend to do my typical trips for a compare versus current merc e220D. Though its generally true that mpg does improve as you drive the car more so will have to factor that in

silver arrow - if was to buy with my head rather than heart then all roads point to the BMW 320ED in terms of the sensible car to go for and save a ton of money. While I have had audi/merc, i've never had a bmw as I just see so many 3 series everywhere that it just wouldn't feel right.. on the plus side I have ordered the 300H F-Sport on a 3 day test so hopefully that will come soon and I can get a proper idea to see if it is indeed a serious option for me. The numbers stack up reasonablly well so its now all about how it drives.

sorry - missed that yours was a C class - which is another story... Does sound like you have not had the best of the 'german' experience... I do agree that lexus do look after you properly.. The dealer I went to see spent ages with me and that was even after it became clear that my leasing company would not be ordering from him...

I have to say that I am quite pleased with my e220 coupe and my default position before spotting the lexus was to get another one as it stacked up better than audi/bmw for me. Its still on my list if the IS doesn't workout for some reason

I may well stump up th extra and have both but need to think it over

Hmmm - if you mean memory/cooling/etc then i am aware as I had this option on my old 220D. SatNav for me is an absolute must so can't leave that out so seats will mean a major jump in my budget. Need to ponder it a bit. I do recall that on my IS220D i used the 'cooling' once in 3 years and as am on my own all the meory etc features don't matter

I'm in a similar position (as per 'dare i go back to lexus' post) but am sacrificing the seats as the sat nav/gadets are more important for me.. I will go for mettalic though as I have solid black e220 right now so need a change. Your right in that i have not seen any 300H in black so far..

Just realised that the 'rose' seats are an expensive extra so may well stay with standard leather/cloth in black now...

More useful information from you guys, and I'm now feeling more comfortable about the fuel-economy side of things. I did a quick calculations on th financials and that stacks up ok as well Merc e220 £37600, BIK tax £3100, monthly lease £600 audi a5 sline £37500, BIK tax £3000, monthly lease £575 lexus f-sport £36100, BIK tax £2000, monthly lease £650 specs are broadly similar though some minor diffrences.

Thanks guys for the informative feedback and I stopped at a lexus dealer on my business trip today. They had both the red and the mercury grey in the show room. Both looked quite impressive - but don't they always under lights and polished up.. Only colour I've not see is the blue so will keep a look out for that. It does seem like the only configuration worth having is f- sports with sat nav so that simplifes the quotes i need at least. I suspect it will now come down to doing some test drives involving my 2 main trips (warwick to heathrow and warwick to birmingham) to asses the drive-ability and fule effeciency...

Thanks Wicksy, How are you finding city driving as I do spend a lot of time driving around birmingham and the lexus guy was saying that the car can do that sort of driving just on the battery - which seemed impressive if true.. 40mph is fine on mway (though i drive at 70 max - having been scared off by 9 points many years ago) so would be interested in your city mileage stats I agree that once you see the F-Sport then its hard to go for the other models.. what colour/seating combo have you got?

So, a bit of background. I am a comnay car driver doing 20k+ a year and last 3 cars have been 2005 - Lexus IS220D 2009 - Audi A5 2.0D 2012 - Merc E220 coupe 220D 2014 - ???? As much as I like a lot of things about my 220D, the engine/gearbox/fuuel-efficiency were all unsutiable and made the car sub-optima for my needs. The A5 was lovely but manual only (like the lexus). My current e220 is a fantastic car. I'm looking to re-new and had the merc, audi and bmw4 on my list till i spotted an advert for the IS 300H. Given my past daliance, I ignored it until I happened to be passing a lexus dealer and saw the F-Sport - fantastic looking car - soinc grey). I got chatting to the sales rep and ended up being really impressed with the car , the kit and the fule stats so thought i'd investigate a lease. Anyway it costs a decent amount more on the lease versus the germans but the low Co2 makes the tax bill lower so its a valid option for me. I'm going to try and get one on a weekend test-drive as I am nervous about how good the mileage is given its 2.5l petrol and I do lots of moterway miles. Anyway, I'm excited to be back on the lexus forums and hope that this car drives as well as hoped (in my lifestyle) as it would make a change from the usual merc/bmw/audi and I did like a ton of stuff about my 220D I would go for F-Sport with satnav as that has all the stuff I need. I don't order till Jan so hopefully by then there will be plenty of people with real-life expereince on these forums that I can get advice from..