viperdoc

I do feel your pain. For me the biggest gripe was with the suspension, which I was able to fix to my liking. The tranny is a different issue and I will try the refresh and let you know how it goes. My personal opinion is that there are too many gears, and engineers' attempt to get the best fuel economy out of a car despite the driveability. Today I was going down a flat road at 45 mph and I was in 8th gear! When I blip the paddle shifter, it downshifts to 4th. To me that is a big jump. Our Acura MDX drives better from a tranny standpoint....it's only a 6 speed and it stays in one gear for longer and avoids all the herky jerkiness. But it seems like everyone is putting more and more gears into cars these days....apparently the 2016 Acura MDX now has 9 speeds

novaman

At first, I intended to purchase the 2015 F-Sport also. Mainly because of the 8 speed transmission. However, after giving it some thought I decided having 8 gears would be nice as far as fuel mileage is concerned, I probably would never use the paddle shifters. Then when I compared to fuel mileage ratings there really wasn't much difference I went with the regular 6 speed equipped RX 350 with the technology package and sport package. Don't get me wrong, I didn't drive an F-Sport so I don't know how they drive or how well the transmission works. I do know that when taking delivery my salesman mentioned that he had driven an F-Sport and he thought they initial tip in was too abrupt when taking off from a standing start.. So I'm glad that I stuck with the more traditional RX 350, especially when it comes time to trade vehicles.

viperdoc

I would agree with your salesman. The shorter 1st and 2nd gears gives good acceleration when you really modulate how deep you press the gas pedal, but it only makes the car FEEL faster than it is. But as soon as you are done accelerating and hit about 30-40mph, the car upshifts 2-3 gears within seconds, so at 45mph your're already in 7th gear, which is WAY too high a gear for that speed. That is where I have a problem. Using the paddle shifters makes it better, but it is still a pain. At this point I've sunk too much money into it to get rid of it. So it looks like I have a few more years before I can switch to something else.

But with that said, I recently test drove a V6 porshe cayenne that was a CPO. It was about the same price as what I bought mine for new, but with a CPO warranty. I had it in my head that Porsche would be much better as it is a "pure driver's car". I thought the Porsche was actually worse! The engine seemed to really lumber in the lower gears and was very coarse, the ride was worse, and the throttle hesitation upon downshifting was just as bad if not worse than the F sport. Handling was similar. Ergonomics were MUCH worse in the Porsche too....my goodness, talk about button overload! After the test drive I felt better about my car. My wife keeps asking me what else I would rather drive, if not the F sport, and I honestly don't know. I have test driven virtually every other maker of mid-sized SUVs, and they all have some other negative attribute (reliability, fit and finish, size, comfort, etc) that, to me, doesn't justify switching at this point. Maybe the 4th gen RX F sport will fix some of the issues of the current F sport- better tranny mapping and an adjustable suspension- making it a much better car.

EMSLEXUSRX

Viperdoc, can you show us some pics of the 245/55 19's on your RX? I would be interested to see how they look, since they're wider than the OEM tires. Thanks!

EMSLEXUSRX

I agree. I don't see the need for so many gears. Don't really care for anything over 6 speeds. My 2007 RX which had a 5-speed and my current 2010 RX with the 6-speed auto drive great and shift nicel

viperdoc

below is the link to the thread I started earlier with pics. I will have to wait until the morning to get a shot directly from the front which shows the increase in width better. I will say that on a 19x8.5 wheel, the 245/55s look bigger than on a narrower wheel (my Acura MDX has the same size tires but on a 19x8 wheel). 255/50s would look even better, but then I would have been actually sacrificing tire wall height (just a little bit, but every bit helps)
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...x-f-sport.html

Tomorrow I will post a pic from the front and rear so you can see how much wider the stance looks. Plus the wheels are pushed out 10mm in each side, which does look nice.