I have an 06 IS350 with around 8k miles and seems like it takes a time to go into sixth gear only when the car is cold, but once it reaches the normal temperature it's fine. Does anyone know if it's normal or there is a problem?

 

Normal, car waits until the tranny is warm enough.

 

Yea, mine stays in 5th till it warms up ~around 25% on the gauge.

 

Just making sure its normal, since i mentioned to the dealer, and they had nothing to say about it.

 

This is perfectly normal. The engineers want to be sure the transmission and engine is up to normal operating temperature before allowing 6th gear to be selected.

My old 99 GS400 does the same thing. Shifts are delayed upwards until warm, and the E-SHIFT does not allow electronic downshifts below 3rd until warm.

Lexus has a great idea apparently...it works.

 

It actually delays both 5th and 6th. The threshold for 5th is fairly low though, so you won't notice it unless it's really cold.

 

funny. i just noticed this the other day on mine too. getting cold down here and I thought my transmission was missing. after a couple days i figured out that it was just waiting to warm up like you said.

 

Yep, it finally got down to 40 degrees here in FL and ive noticed the same thing.

 

It also seems to hold on to the lower gears longer than normal for the first couple minutes in really cold weather, shifting at a higher rpm than would be expected given the feather foot I use until the car starts to warm. I'm guessing the computer is programmed to get catalyst lightoff as quickly as possible -- perhaps a requirement of SULEV II?