drive90

To start, the #1 thing I hate about my IS 350 is the transmission. It's awful. Slow, clumsy, and worst of all the manual mode's programming is rubbish.

When I'm at 2000 RPM in 3rd, just say, and put my foot to the floor I want the car to stay in 3rd! That's why it's called "Manual"!

I was pleased when I drove the new GS 350 and found that ALL of these issues have been resolved, and that the car will not downshift even if you put your foot to the floor!

Thought some of you might appreciate this tid bit of information.

Cheers.

jtrue28

The gear you select is the upper limit. If the car needs more power it will downshift, unless of course you have it set to 1.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Why would you want to lug the engine by flooring it at just 2000 RPM? If you are flooring your car to go faster, you need to change gear.

GSfsport

this is something i never thought about. im glad to know.

spwolf

direct shift makes sense if you are all about sports, but not really if you are lazy, then "max gear" rule is much better imho :-).

eternal07

thats very good news. i wish we could update our is350 trans program

GS350Lexus

iTrader: (5)

Thats great news, reminds me of my acura tsx transmission i loved it.

Justin2JZ

It technically isn't a new transmission its just reprogrammed. I like the true manual mode. Reminds me of my 535i where i can take of in 2 if i wanted to.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

but i guess i still don't understand what OP said. like henry mentioned, if you floor the car, you want to accelerate. why the hell would you want to force it in 3rd at 2000rpm rather than down shifting to 2nd at 400rpm? that's very simple logic. even if you drive a real manual transmission, if you want to accelerate hard, you down shift. just flooring it is silly and don't get what you intend for

GS350Lexus

iTrader: (5)

Rominl right, but it gives u same feel as manual if u do t downshift it wont do it automaticlly.

flipside909

Actually the IS 350's 6AT is programmed as "S" or Sport Shift mode. It's not a true manual mode with lock up torque converter a la 8speed auto in the IS F and LS 460 Sport.

The M mode in the new GS works similar to the IS F transmission but if you accelerate in one gear up to redline, it will automatically upshift to prevent damage to the engine/trans.

GiantsFan

iTrader: (9)

I wish lexus let us reprogram our IS Transmissions to the ISF/new GS programming...

Dema

Strange, I drove IS and didn't note the mentioned problems, although I drove 2009 model, maybe 2007 model has problems?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

but still, what's the point of forcing something to do things "wrong"?

GS350Lexus

iTrader: (5)

Well in this case, it lets the operator decide of how they want things, this is a very usefull feature in snow you shift to second gear and go. You can't do that with the old gs, yes you have the snow mode but honestly I notice very little difference. Its basically a manual without the cluth, and that really makes it awesome, I hope the up shifts are not delayed like the 3gs. Either way its not smart idea to floor the car being in 3rd gear cause obviously you are going no where if you are at 3k rpms, but besides that. its great. I hope you understand where I am coming from.