larry chester

This is not a sports car. I don't really understand the concept of wanting to buy a hybrid so that you get good gas mileage, and then complaining about the acceleration and performance. If you want a performance car, then go find one. If you want a car with good gas mileage, then buy that one. Certainly, there are some specialty cars that provide high performance in an electric or hybrid vehicle, but they are not going to be purchased for roughly $30,000. I'm happy with my CT. It does what I want it to, and gets me around in the summer in reasonable comfort, while delivering an average 49 - 51 mpg. That's what I wanted. I just don't drag race with it, and if I have to hit the gas to accelerate to highway speeds quickly, my mileage suffers. But that's not what the car was designed for. Good look looking for the utopian vehicle. Hope you find it. larry

I have no problem getting up to cruising speed, or maintaining speed on the highway. The car is comfortable and quiet. You don't need to blast the radio to hear it. I use mine to commute a 55 mile round trip, so you're going farther than I do, but it's an enjoyable drive. I spend a lot of time looking at the "gas meter" and easing my foot off the gas. I find that I tend to drive at or 5 mph below the speed limit, which is not my normal practice. It's just a calmer driving experience. I'm doing it for gas mileage, not for speed from point to point. I'm very happy with it. larry

My "primary" car is a Porsche 911 Turbo. I love driving it, and it has been my daily driver for the past 3 years. But I had a Subaru wagon for the winter. It was a beater that cost me an arm and a leg to maintain, and didn't get any better gas mileage than the Porsche. Just got a new job, and my commute is 27 miles in each direction in rush hour traffic. Filling up a Porsche twice a week at prices approaching $5 a gallon was getting painful. I wanted to find a hybrid that would make the pain go away. For reference, I have owned an SC300, and two IS250's. Put over 200K on the SC, and 75K on each of the IS's. So, I like Lexus (owned Toyota's before that.) At the Chicago auto show, I gave the various Priuii a sit and look. Also looked at the CT200h, which is where I was leaning to begin with. I also looked at hybrids from Honda, Ford, etc. Got a very nice deal on a CT from McGrath downtown (2 blocks from my office) Fully loaded, it's a 2012 with 8K miles on it, and was a service loaner. Cost me $29,900. The car has all the main goodies, nav, backup camera, leather, sound etc. Plus, they gave me $2,500 for my POS subaru. It was a very positive buying experience, and I paid the same for this car that I was going to pay for a new 2012, stripped. And the nav with bluetooth is really nice. It integrates well with the phone and radio, so that when you get a call, the nav voice prompts and the radio both mute. So, after a month of driving it, how do I like it? It is my anti-Porsche. Inexpensive to maintain, easy on the gas, comfortable ride, slow from point to point, a bit utilitarian (with the hatchback) and it makes me a "tender" driver. It serves a different purpose for me. I am coaxing gas mileage from it. Averaging 45 mpg, (measured by dividing mileage by gallons - the meter on the dashboard is about 4 mpg optimistic.) In the Porsche, I am coaxing speed. But I like the gadgets, the comfort, the efficiency and the calm. I am very happy I made this purchase. But this isn't a car that you're going to zoom from place to place in. It corners well, is reasonably comfortable (not an LS or SC by far) and has a decent ride. I think that people need to understand the character of the cars that they buy. Buy something that suits the purpose that you want. Why do you want it, what are the short comings and benefits of each model? I was looking for a comfortable, high quality (fit/finish/reliability) hybrid. I wanted to spend less on gas going to and from work, with enough tech gadgets to keep me happy, in a high reliability car. I got it. When I want to go fast from place to place, I have a car for that as well. larry

Thanks, everyone for your comments. Yes, I bought this IS250 used. It had 11,000 miles on it, and ran flawlessly till about 3K miles ago, when I started getting the error codes and warning lights on the dash. So, I don't think that this was a problem with the original owner of the car. Yes, oh yes, I am a PIA customer. But for what I pay to the dealer every 5K miles, asking them to do a compression test when they are tearing down the top side of the engine for a warranty issue . . . . . shouldn't be a problem. Yes, the techs working on the car are at a Lexus dealer. This was $2,600 worth of work. Totally absorbed by Lexus. Lastly, Yes, the rattle occurs after the car is started. Doesn't make any noise when starting or while idling, happens when the engine is cold, warm, hot. It is when I engage the clutch, and begin accelerating that I hear the rattle. It doesn't matter how much gas I give it, but it rattles just the same. It is just easier to hear the rattle when I just give it a little gas. In the final analysis, I picked up the car yesterday evening. It certainly runs differently. There is much smoother engine response starting from a dead stop. No rattling, I think that it accelerates faster than before, but I suffer from the new tennis shoes syndrome. . Still love my car, and now, it seems that it will run better from here on out. larry

I have a 2006 IS250 MT6. It has 30,000 miles on it. Over the past 6 months, I have noticed a "rattling" when I start out from a stop. At first I thought that it was knocking in the engine, but wasn't sure. Over the past 5 - 7K miles, I have received a number of warning "check engine" lights, and the error codes showed carbon buildup in the cylinders, resulting in misfiring on two or more of the cylinders. My dealer told me that I wasn't driving the car hard enough, and this was causing the carbon buildup. They also suggested that I was buying cheap gasoline - but I only use Shell Premium - so that's not the problem. And, this is my second 2006 IS250 MT6, and in 50K miles on my first car, I never had any of these symptoms. After digging in the service bulletins, the dealer noted that there were two service bulletins that talk about: 1. replacing the camshaft gear system, because it causes rattling when the engine is cold. 2. replace the valve lashing assembly because it was causing the valves to not be "self adjusted" properly. With those problems, I was concerned about premature wear on my valves. The car has only 30K miles on it, and I expect to drive it till at least 200K. So, while they were doing this work on the car (over 16 hours of labor, and they had to pull the engine to perform those repairs.) I asked them to do a compression test on all of the cylinders, and report to me. The "new" compression measurement on the engine should be 200 PSI. The mechanic's measurement of my engine came back with each cylinder measuring between 190 and 195 PSI. Now, I am no mechanic, so that is why I am writing this. With a Lexus engine with only 30K miles, shouldn't the compression be more than 190?? If it lost 10 PSI in the first 30K miles, and loses 10 PSI on each 30K miles, when I hit 200K, the engine compression would be about 140 PSI. That is NOT a good number. So, am I worrying prematurely? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Is the compression number fine, and I should just be glad that they put in that service bulletin and move on? I appreciate any skilled answer. larry

Bart: I dunno, I think that some of this might be expectations, and some of it poor driving habits. For years I drove my Lexus SC300 with Bridgstone Turanza all season tires on it in all seasons (is that repetitious?) Never got stuck - NEVER, and never slid off the road either. I did rear end someone once, though, when I was dozing in slow traffic, and woke to see her bumper approaching me at 30 mph. Too fast to stop fast on icy pavement with anything but studs. My bad. But I learned to drive a car with a 3 on the tree, with regular tires in the snow. No positraction, no snow tires, just plain check it out, and ya' better know whatch yer doin. (oops, I'm dating myself) larry

Well, here's the skinny. My car is a 250 RWD MT6. For the winter, I mounted it with 16" wheels, and Michelin Ice and Snow tires on it. I put them on just after the first snow hit our fair city (Chicago), and have been driving on dry pavement ever since. Didn't get a chance to try out the traction (or lack thereof) till this past week. I'm telling you, what a GREAT COMBINATION. The car drives like it has AWD. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the street down the side of our building, where the snow is piled up by drifts and by semi trailers, where Pickyupp trucks were getting stuck, and Semi-s were getting towed, my little IS250 in low gear, with the ETCS on, just idled forward at about 1200 - 1500 RPM, and just kept me moving forward till the end of the street. I never got stuck in three days it took Mayor Daley to dig us out of this mess, and even got into some pretty deep snow in parking lots and parallel parking along a curb. No problemo. BTW, In the summer, take the time to wax your wheels. I had the time to put two coats of wax on the wheels before I mounted them, and then did wash the car back in November or December, before it got really cold here. Boy, did the wax make it easier to clean what is normally a messy job. That's my story. larry

Thanks for the info. Sometimes it's just hard to find specific topics in the 350 page manual. I haven't been caught in a snowstorm lately, so I haven't taken the time to read the whole thing. ;) larry

And that is one thing that I REALLY miss on my IS250. memory seating. I had it on my SC300, and didn't realize how much of a pleasure it was. Swingaway wheel, and auto setting of seat and mirrors. Now I am electric but still manual. Boy how we get used to the simple pleasures of life. larry

You know, when I installed winter wheels and tires on my IS250, I didn't spring for the $500 for the TPMS, figuring I would tolerate the red logo in the center of the dash and the yellow one on the right side. Now it is time for an oil change - my first since I bought the car (used) - and there is a flashing display in the center that says "oil maintenance required now." Great. Since I don't plan on going to the Lexus dealer for a $40 - $50 oil change, do I have to tolerate this flashing display for the rest of my car loving life? :cries: We faced that with a Pontiac Phoenix, that had a cover slide over the odometer when it came time for service, and a Volvo that had a flashing light on the dash every 10K miles that cost $90 to be reset. Our new (1998) Volvo has a service light that comes on and would cost $90 to reset, but at least it goes off after 2 or 3 minutes. The light in my IS250 doesn't go off, it just keeps flashing. My hope is that the car is smart enough to know when someone has changed the oil, just like it is smart enough to know when someone has filled the tank up, and it automatically resets the Ave Tank Mileage. Anyone know for sure? larry

You're not. I like using the "oar" as well. My favorite kind of driving. Somehow, the paddles just don't make it for me. larry

You know, I don't care how good their paiint shop is, if they have to break into the primer down to bare metal to fix the paint, then it is more likely to rust there. There will be no electrostatic adhesion from the primer to the bare metal. I bought mine used, off a lease, and there is paint damage in a couple of places, but I saved $3 - 4K off the price of a new one. It was worth it to me. You're buying a new car. Years ago (too many to mention) I bought a Fiat 850 Spider (now you know how many years ago), that was damaged in transit. It was painted in this wondrous mustard yellow. The dealer told me they would fix it, and they did - sorta. The door they repainted didn't quite match, but I was young and I was anxious to get the car. But it always bugged me. I say to hell with the discount. Suck it up and have them get a new one for you. How the hell do they damage the hood on a car while shoveling around it, anyway? Maybe their front end loader dumped snow on the hood and bent it? Get a new one. Let them sell this one to some other sap. (just call me the grinch) larry

BTW, I just read through the specs that Lexus puts on their website, and the only reference to premium gas is in the footnote on Performance, in which they state, "Performance may suffer if premium gas isn't used." They don't say anything about premium gas needing to be used to keep the engine from being damaged. And, yes, this thread was started from an intellectual aspect. But it is interesting to note how many people have turned it into a cost issue. Not only that, but it still surprises me at how many posts I see about people who complain about the lack of speed in the IS250, or how they can hop up the car and make it faster. Fer cryin' out loud, this ain't a racing car. It's a luxury sport sedan. If you want to race something that you can beat to hell and have fun doing it, buy a Subaru WRX. It'll blow the doors offa just about anythin, and you can buy two of them for the price of an IS250. larry

Roq: There's no denying that you put a lot of miles on your car. I average about 20K per year, which puts me at 2/3 of what you drive, which is why I like a car like a Lexus. More miles per total dollar spent. But the piont of higher cost and higher grade gasoline isn't that it burns cleaner, but that it burns FASTER. That makes it better suited to the turbo engines, the high compression engines that can make use of a higher octane gasoline. Even Lexus puts their stats on the car with a footnote saying that these are if you are using Premium Gasoline, indicating that using a lower grade of gasoline will reduce performance in the car. I am not convinced that the car won't notice the difference between Premium and Regular over a long period of time, but between Mid-grade and Premium, I'm not so sure. As I had said. I put over 200K of mid-grade fill-ups on a Lexus SC300 that was supposed to burn Premium and I haven't notice the difference in how the car starts or runs, or in the gas mileage, except what you would expect from a 200K car. Regarding the economic differences, you haven't really read all of my posts in this thread if you think that I have missed the paltry economic differences of this. To be honest, if it made any difference, I wouldn't do it to save the money. And my a$$ can't tell if it notices a difference, it just knows that it loves sitting in the car while it's moving. ;) larry

Brain(?):Don't kid yourself. Here's the scenario. You come into the dealership, under warranty, with a car that traditionally has ZERO problems running hi-test fuel for the 70K miles of the warranty, and you're having trouble. So they take a look at the engine. Compression is around 75 psi, and the only way that would occur is from bad valves or bad rings. The valves are most suspect. So they tell you that they'll take a look, but the only way that this car goes through valves is if you don't use Premium gas. So they ask "have you used Premium Gas?" Now, whatcha gonna say, because they will know for a certainty when they open up that engine. And then they'll give you the bill for the $6 - $7K that they'll charge for a set of valves and rings to bring the engine up to spec. Or else, you'll just drive your poor car home, limping with your tail between your legs. And all because you wouldn't pony up the extra $3.50 per tank. But you'll put in some gas additive every few tankfuls in your car for roughly the same amount of money. Go figger. I sure can't. But like Bart said -- It's yer car, you can do what you want. larry