TimboIS

The coolest feature of the IS has to be the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control. There are going to be those that say they never use cruise control, expensive, etc, etc. But this is NOT like the old-school cruise. You basically set it and forget it. Cars pull in and and out in front of you, it brakes and speeds up automatically. It just locks in on the vehicle in front and stays a fixed distance (actually time interval) behind. I rarely used cruise before, but with the DRCC you can actually use cruise in relatively heavy traffic.

I only post this as information for those that are interested, please keep negative comments to yourselves. Thanks.

sjgIS350

For me..living in the rainy NW..the auto sensing wipers are great. Most time the rain is light and intermittent..so you set it and forget it. Don't have the radar cruise so I can't comment on that one...Its a pretty spendy option for me as most of my driving is to work and back..which has verly little time for using any version of cruise

Xanadu350

Can you be a little more descriptive about how it works in real time traffic.

For example, if your in the interstate going 65 and someone passes you and then gets in front of you and within 10 sec that driver has decreased their speed down to 45, so that means within that 10 secs you car equipped with this will slow down to less than 45 so as not to hit that person?

Then what it that person for some odd reason decides at 45 they are going to hit the brakes because of road debris or someone cuts them off and then their speed drops down to 30, all this within secds, how does the Lexus respond to this?

For me I would naturally want to hit the brakes with my foot, does this system keep you from having to do that? In an emergency will it actually stop the vehicle? I'm kinda unclear how it really works and whether I could get use to it since I am so use to manually using the speed control with up or down resume to fit the traffic in front of me, makes me feel I have more control since I am doing it.

I use cruise control all the time, everyday, I wonder if I would like this, do you think Lexus demo cars would have this to test?

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

i think if the system detects a slower moving car in front of you it will change your speed to match theres if it decides youre getting kinda close. This isnt meant to be an emergency device, so it shouldnt be thought as a "collision detection" system or whatever

TimboIS

Yes, the car would brake that fast (10 seconds is a long time). I had a guy cut in front of me in a merge lane. The IS slowed down by applying the brakes quickly and firmly (not to the point of ABS or VDIM kicking in). The system also signaled an audible and visible alarm, then continued to follow at 45MPH. If the speed drops below a certain speed (I want to say 30MPH) the curise disengages.

Haven't tried. I think, according to what I read, brake as much as it can, and disengage below the cufoff. I don't think it will bring you to a complete stop (like MB tries to claim on their new S-class).

Like regular cruise, hitting the brakes disengages the system. Pressing resume button, re-engages. I'd rarely use regular in the past because of the speed-up slow-down hassles. This completely eliminates that.

I doubt you'd find any ISes to demo, but you can likely find it on an LS, maybe even a GS.

Side note: When the system detects a target (er, car) ahead, it displays a car icon in the multifunction display. I feel like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

kensteele

I'm not sure what's the coolest feature for me since there are so many in this car.

If radar cruise were not special order for me, I would probably get but like others I would never use it. Because despite the traffic, I never drive in traffic. Ever. I'm that guy safely changing lanes constantly and passing others...95% of the time. On my current IS, I have yet to engage the regular cruise control.

flipside909

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

i don't think i have that.. does that come with luxury package only??

Langdell

The radar cruise control is the one feature I'm not getting on my IS350 that I wish I were. I have long been a victim of the ACCC--the Anti-Cruise Control Conspiracy. I don't know what their motive is, but the members of the ACCC always seem to find me whenever I'm trying to use cruise control and get in front of me and then go slower than me.

Anyway, if I were special ordering a car now (which I can't--out of the question that I could ever waith that long) I would spring for it. I originally placed a special order without it--trying to exercise a tiny degree of fiscal responsibility after getting it loaded with everything else I wanted (sport package, ML, Nav). In the meantime, I found another IS350 that is coming in much earlier than my special order would--hopefully by the end of this week--that has all the options I ordered (plus park assist, which I think will be nice to have, and headlamp washers, which I couldn't care less about). So, I should be driving my IS350 soon, but without radar cruise. Oh well, I've lived all my life without it, so, no biggie.

cornh0li0

thats not available in Canadian Models

is350

how much is that option? i live in socal, so i rarely use cruise control but it would be something nice to have.

tonyscv

It's NOT cheap.. over $2000 IIRC... I have it on mine, and like the others - love it. It does take a while to get used to - you basically have to put a lot of trust in the car that it WILL slow on a dime if need be (and it does!).

- T

Big Andy

Coolest feature for me would have to be the ventilated seats...

Pocketlint

That sounds incredibly tight. Sounds like a great feature.

Does it ever see shadows or ghosts or anything? Does the radar/sonar/whatever ever catch anything else and cause your car to brake rapidly when there is no need? Sounds like there could be some potential for calamity there.

This is Ghostrider requesting a flyby...Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full (spill coffee on self here).

Langdell

I am looking forward to that feature, especially with a black-on-black car in the Texas summer. I expect them to be "cool" in more ways than one!