berticus

I've never had a car with this whole shift deal. They've always been 100% automatic with no kind of control at all. My 2007 is250 has the paddle shifters (plus the shift on the gear shift). I put it into the correct mode, it always starts at gear 4. I use the gear display mode in my steering to see what it's at.

How I currently use it:
I will start at 3 or 4 depending on how much acceleration I want, then about 2-3 seconds later I'll allow it to go to gear 5, and then when i'm cruising I will go to 6.

How is that? Is that bad for the car? How am I supposed to use this effectively? What is the point of it?

Spriggan

Same question here as I too have just recently acquired a 2007 IS250

metaleckz

iTrader: (9)

I just use it when I need to race someone
It's not really a shifter. It's like a limiter

Spriggan

Metaleckz could you elaborate a little more on that?

keyframe13

Those are a joke and for marketing purposes only. They are speed limiters and not shifters. So basically you set up the top speed and the car still shift fully automatic Useful when go uphill and want to use the first two gears only. I think they fixed that in the 3rd generation IS.

NYKnick101

Yeah agreed. The car is usually faster in regular mode anyway. It starts at 4 because you would be usually driving, already in motion, when you shift to sport mode. Its to prevent over revving from switching and being in first gear switching over at 80mph, OR stalling when your stopped being in 6th gear. 4th gear is usually a happy mid point

7tisix

I use the gear limiter in traffic so I don't constantly have to hit my brakes. I keep RPMs 2-3K and when I let off the gas I slow down. Another reason I use it is to have more precision when maneuvering through obstacles (like other cars). I might be mistaken, but limiting the top gear may provide for shorter downshift lag time. For example, it seems to be faster on downshifts from 4 to 2 vs 6 to 2 when I floor the gas.

Tarrant64

Meh, I find mine ('11 is350awd) more or less works like a gear shifter. It's not the best out there but when I want to downshift I can downshift, and when I want to upshift I can do that. I think calling it useless is a bit harsh, it's great for spirited driving, beats regular mode for sure on that.

I am only annoyed slightly with the automatic downshift in sport mode, however it's not like the car upshift by itself which I think would be a bigger issue. If it did that, it would be useless.

KaShiDC

I think your post is spot on. My IS250 is the first car I have owned in nearly 20 years that is an automatic. While the paddle shifter IS a bit of a joke I have found one use. The turn to my house goes from 50 to a sharp right at a 25 speed limit with a minimal turn lane. This means heavy braking in fast traffic before the turn lane or completely slamming on the brakes in the short turn lane. With the paddle shifter I can more easily downshift in the turn lane without slowing down highway traffic. Now if I could just master a faster way to come to a full stop/start at a stop sign with an automatic!

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

only the IS-F has the REAL "shifter"....

Tarrant64

And even then I've seen some reviews where people complain about it. It's becoming a pet peeve of mine - I'm like..." WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM IT???"

keyframe13

While I like doing the same be careful not to have someone behind. You can easily get rearend by someone not seeing your intentions to break.

7tisix

Ditto that. I make myself use the brakes when I see an impending full stop or an aggressive slow down.

KaShiDC

Great point!!! I absolutely wait until I am in the (insufficient) turn lane. I learned the hard way when I moved to Virginia that people here just do not stop for red lights. I do, but it took being rear-ended three times (at the same intersection) to realize I was the minority. Still tough for me to understand why you would NOT stop for a red light so I just brake extra early which I am sure is even more annoying but I have not been rear-ended since and most importantly, not in my Lex

knguyenk

The paddle shifters and S gate on the 2IS 250 and 350 are basically top gear limiters (which basically locks or tricks the transmission to behave like a X speed auto). They are only good for driving in situations that do not call for a higher gear like 5th or 6th gear (like driving down residential streets, my car only hits 3rd or 4th gear on those streets). So in theory that should help with spirited driving on windy roads.

An example scenario, if the car is in the S mode with the instrument cluster showing 4, this means the car will behave like it is a 4 speed auto. Where the car will go through the gears only to the 4th gear, it will not shift into the omitted (5th and 6th gears). Same if you put the shifter into S and use the shifter or paddle to put it into 5, 3, etc..

I've read posts on this forum here that people put their car into S and shift it all the way down to 1 and "shift manually" with the paddles. I did an experiment and found that it the car will shift on it's own (when the ECU thinks it's right to shift) long after you increase or decrease the top gear with the shifter or paddles and does not behave like a genuine paddle shifting car.

Like some of the other members that posted before me, I do find it rather pointless since they don't do as they are advertised; unless you look at an IS-F or a 4 gen IS with the same IS-F transmission on the RWD 350 and RWD 350 F-Sport. However, I still find them useful in situations that do not call for those higher gears.