lifeisgood

I'm curious if anyone has pushed their IS to the point where you've lost traction going around a curve or off ramp--can you tell it's about to happen or does the car give out at once. Today, I was coming off an off ramp too fast--and it almost felt like the car was starting to oscillate front to back sort of side to side motion--I could not tell if I was about to lose traction so I backed off the accelerator.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Payam

I've pushed mine pretty hard and no matter what I do to it, it holds.... With the VDIM turned off, I've kicked the back end out on turns and stuff like that, but with aggresive regular driving, the tires squeal but it stays pretty firm on the road.

Bichon

Only intentionally, powering the back around in low traction (snow on road) conditions. What I got was a power cut, accompanied by a beep-beep-beep from the VDIM.

Dabigman

What happened to you sounds like VDIM doing its job to stop you from losing the back. If you turn VDIM off, you can swing the back which is fine so long as you know the limit of car, especially the tires and surface.

kensteele

not yet....i'm going to try it tomorrow, i can't believe vdim ON is that good considering my driving.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Little slip on a freeway ramp and the Trac symbol lit up, the tires squeeked a little, and then all was fine. Did not hear the VDIM beeping or feel any deceleration.

FITYSCENTS

Luckily I Live In A Rural Area Where I Am Able To Occasionally Open Up My Car Along Safe Twisty Roads. The Car Handles Exceptionally, But Vdim Truly Kills The Car When You Drive It Ultra Agressive., You Can Just Feel The Car Have Absolutely No Power When You Are Cutting Corners And Losing Tractions. However, For The Novice To Average Driver They Will Never Know The Difference..... Additionally Body Roll Is A Little Excessive Even With Vdim Off.....

inecstaz

I read the manual... and it said that when you are on an incline, and it holds if you roll back, that the light turns on and it should beep.... but i dont hear any beeps. I just see the SLIP light flashing. any ideas?

Sexi_Lexi

I was once on this road in San Jose, CA (17 highway takes you to Santa Cruz) late at nite and I pushed my car really hard to see how it takes the tight turns and I felt like I was going to spin out of control. The back end threw out a little but I didn't see any flashing warning signs. I was doing about 100 mph on a 40 mph curve. There was a lot of body roll and I felt like the car was trying to stay on track but it almost couldn't. I don't have VDIM turned off or anything.

meteoro

I have been auto-x'ng my IS350 for the past four months, VDIM off. The car is pretty neutral when pushed to its limits, with a tendency to understeer quite badly when pushed over the limit.

The car has tenacious grips, and rewards the driver when you have smooth and gentle inputs.
It does not like at all to be man handled or thrown around...if done, it understeers preety bad.
At the limit, the car communicates pretty well what its going on, and it begins to loose traction and slide pretty progressively, none of that neck snapping oversteer that you need to have reflexes like an F-1 driver to control.

In quick transitions such as slaloms, the weight of the car quicly becomes aparent, you have to look well ahead and prepare early to be fast through it. I fyou are late, again understeers like crazy, just plows the front end with a lot of tire squeal.

Coming out of tight turns, and putting the power down hard, the car has a tendency to bring the tail around, but again, very progressively and the chasis communicates very well. I can easily drift under control coming out of 180 hairpins by using the throttle to vary the degree of the slide.

On fast transitions, the chasis stays planted very well, the additional rubber in the rear helps quite a bit to keep the rear planted, though you hear the tires grabbing for life as the prodigious torque of the motor tries to brake them loose. You have do so something very stupid to spin.

I do change the tire pressue though to auto-x, well lately, I have left it like that fpr everyday driving as well. I run 38/40 psi F/R.

For everyday driving, the car has plenty of grip, and aside from that VDIM keeps things in line. I would not dirve without VDIM on a daily basis. Car tons of power and torque that you can easily loose the rear end and end up wrapped around a tree.

HaveBlue

Just so all the novices realize that ABS VSC TRAC and VDIM will not allow you to break the laws of physics. They will only attempt to prevent you from doing so. You can still, very easily instruct the car to do something beyond it's physical abilities with disasterous results. If you drive a car at or beyond its limits and are not experienced with proper car control and recovery, you will be playing roulette with a $40K car.

Having said that, I agree with meteoro's statements and with the VSC off the car handles superbly. It is truly a shame that Lexus did not have enough confidence in their suspension tuning to make the entire VDIM an optional component. People here whine that the VDIM is a safety feature. In many ways, it is actually the opposite allowing the people who are most uninformed to think they are being magically protected from mishaps. In turn it punishes the people who can drive the car well beyond the VSC system whether in a straight line or around a corner.

Payam

Well it was raining today and I wanted to see how reckless I could get with the VDIM still on. 9/10 times the VDIM worked perfectly and cut back engine power and wouldn't let me slide out more than maybe a foot. But on a couple hard turns with me punching it right off the bat, the car kicked out pretty far but it did cut back almost all engine power while it was "drifting." It was almost a bad thing because you need to use the power to bring the car back straight and when I was pushing the throttle, it wasn't there...... The moral of this story, you can still lose control with VDIM on.

Ramon

I can't say I agree that it is the opposite of a saftey feature. The truth of the matter is, very few people even know what vdim is, and out of the few that know what it is, only a few of them are stupid enough to think it will save them in any and every situation. 9 out of 10 people have no idea what it is for the most part, and if they ever find themselves in a situation where it needs to kick it, it will likely do so seemlessly without the driver even really realizing it. For those that are idiotic enough to think they're invincable thanks to vdim, well, I have no doubt they'd get themselves into trouble sooner or later, vdim or otherwise.

meteoro

And that is what I do not like about VDIM...it will not let you control, or recover from the slide by using the throtle, as it is too busy trying to get traction back instead.

HaveBlue

You have a good point. I think it will be like ABS. There will be people who know there is this braking system in the car but will still wonder why they couldn't stop in time. Most modern ABS systems work very well and are rather unintrusive and most people will not realize how hard a vehicle can be braked and will never intentionaly try to find out. There will be that group of folk who buy a new car that is high in performance and wrap it around a telephone pole before the plates arrive.

What we've learned here is that VSC and TRAC systems are not yet that sophisticated. They are touted in the brochures and ads and I think most people WILL think they save you from an accident after the salesperson explains what a great system it is. In the rain and snow, these systems are great! For any kind of spirited driving, the are a joke and that's why the IS falls behind the BMW in the handling reviews. I've driven many BMW's, some on the race track, and they handle nice but the IS with the VSC off handles equally IMO.