2thfixr

I tried it for the first time yesterday and it's the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. It won't hold a gear! I was on a really nice sweeping onramp and thought I'd try it out so I left it in 3rd and mashed the throttle. The damn thing downshifted while WOT and traction control kicked in. In another instance, I put it in 3rd and accelerated pretty hard but not WOT. Rather than holding the gear it upshifted well before redline. Why does it even exist? To offer a false sense of sportiness? I could understand if I had hit redline or was bogging the engine, the tranny should justifiably up/down shift to save the powertrain but this was ridiculous. You can control up/down shifts easier with the throttle in full auto mode! Also, why does it default to 4th when you shift into manu-matic mode on the highway? Shouldn't it just stay in whatever gear you are in until you manually change it? Just thought I'd share my experience.

Nidan

I agree, I thought the purpose of the manumatic was to allow you to hold the gear. I would venture to guess Lexus made it this way to prohibit redlining, reduce wear and tear, or prevent the customer from screwing up.
Anyway, I don't like it, so I just leave it in auto Other than that the car is great. BTW I don't like the restrictiveness of the navigation and phone while driving either.

2thfixr

Yes, I too am very very pleased with the car. I keep telling people, it's the best car that I have ever owned. I hardly drive the others now. As far as the nav/phone restrictiveness Nidan, I already took care of that. Look at the last 2-3 pages of the GS350 DIY section.

jaxgs350

About the only time I use it is to use the transmission to slow down for me and not have to brake so much. I live in a very slow speed area and it's more of a toy (the manu-matic) than anything practical I guess.

spwolf

Basically what you are doing is setting the highest gear.
So when you put it in "3", you set its highest gear to be 3rd gear. It will still downshift for you.

If you put it in Sports mode, it will bounce off rev limiter all day and night, without upshifting.


It actually makes all the sense in the world for me...

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I also think it's useless. Only tried it once in city traffic and once on the highway. More fun in city but completely useless.

2thfixr

Mayabe that's what I did wrong. I did not set Sports mode. Without being in sports mode, if you put the manual shifter in 3rd gear, it WILL upshift to 4th well before redline. I'm actually a little embarassed to say this but I completely forgot that the Sports mode even existed.

jdog

I live in colorado and its great in the mountains. I hate when the auto shifts into a wimpy gear when I a going up hill. I use it to hold a higher reving gear going up the mountain so it is easier to accelerate. And I use it going down so I'm not always on the brakes. In town, I ignore it.

Eritsuke

That's exactly how it is, when you put it in a specific gear, that's the highest gear you can be in, but if you keep it at gear 3 and you're at a dead stop, it'll go to 1, but as you take off, the highest gear it'll stay in is 3 because that's where you have it in. Almost all Lexus's that have the auto-manual option does it like that.

Jace7

when I downshift no matter the speed, from auto to manual, it always goes to gear 5.
and no matter the speed it always acts as if it starts to break the car.
maybe this is specific to the electric gs450h.

AudiMan

read the GS 350 manual for more details on why it shifts to 4th. Its normally on 5th or 6th gear so when to go over to S mode the car assumes you're going to downshift and go faster or else you wouldn't have put it in S mode in the first place which is why it does it for you. Also, putting in S mode changed shift points even if you don't choose to manually select a gear. But you can take over at any time to hold or change a gear. Its kinda intuitive but yes it lacks control. I actually got a new tranny computer for my audi that allows the tiptronic to quicker at shifting and it acts like a true manual.