Well I know that I, for example, could set it to 2nd gear and hold it at 2nd gear to the point where I'm bouncing off of redline.

But what I'm wondering about is the exact opposite. Can I, for example, when the car would otherwise be in 4th gear if it was in automatic mode, tell it I want to to shift to 5th gear instead?

I mean, sometimes I'll have it in e-shift mode in 5th gear at 50 MPH and then I get on the gas a little bit. In a true manual transmission it would still open up the throttle, but it would stay in 5th gear. Well this Lexus seems to think it knows better than me and automatically downshifts to 4th or even 3rd gear... all the while it still says "5" on dash.

So is this normal? If so is there any change the dealership or anyone else can make to where it will always be in the gear I tell it to be in? I realize to an extent this could be a bad thing... such as allowing me to tell it to start from a dead stop in 5th gear... but still, me wanting to accelerate at 3/4 throttle in 5th gear rather than having the car go crazy and downshift to 3rd is not unrealistic I think.

So do other car manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes do this same thing with their e-shift type products, to where you can't select 1st gear and if you floor it, it ignores your gear selection and downshifts all the way? Or is this just Lexus thinking its drivers have no clue how to select the best gear for what they want to do?

 

You have hit upon one of my complaints. I wish the GS would hold the gear -- it's supposed to be manual mode, right! Someone with a BMW can confirm, but I have read that they hold the selected gear to the point of lugging/killing the engine [just like a manual tranny would if you did not downshift].

 

on a Honda/acura (at least my prelude)
when you are in 4th, and slow down a bit, the car will auto down shift to 3rd and INDICATED so on the dash, so when you want, you will have to shift it up yourself to go back to 4th, if not it will stay in 3r and hit the rev limit, it will also downshift to 1st for you at full stop (and indicated that the gear is in 1st now)

lexus made their car for lazy people, it will down shift and up shift back to your current selected gear on the dash.

Anh

 

Yes but this poses an interesting question... if I leave the e-shift in 5th... as I'm accelerating and it's shifting for me, will the transmission shift any sooner into 5th gear? Or will it still wait until right about the same time that it would have shifted into 5th if it was just set in full automatic mode?

 

I believe e-shift in 5th (M-5) is the same as D.

As far as not wanting it to shift down to 3rd at 3/4 throttle in 5th, first off, mine doesn't, it would probably go to 4th at most. Second, the racing torque converter I have makes shifts smoother anyway and it has quite a bit of torque in 5th so doesn't need to shift down as much.

Finally, I really suggest you try driving in M-4 more often. The 5th gear is really pretty useless unless you're cruising at 80 or higher and want to save gas.

 

I've seen my GS4 shift into 5th gear on its own at as low as 35 MPH. The higher gear you are in at any given moment, the more gas you are conserving and the easier you are being on the engine.

So why is it useless unless you're an aggressive driver?

 

D and M-5 are the same except that the buttons on the steering wheel are “armed” in M mode so there is absolutely no reason not to always use M-5 instead of D.

The transmission spec for 5-4 down shift is 15-19 MPH on a GS400 and less in a 300. The 4-5 up shift is 21-24 MPH on light throttle. That matches what I see on my rev counter.

 

Sure. Do you drive in PWR mode? That's another way to stop it shifting into 5th at low speed.

Because you can do 125 in 4th!

 

That's in power mode!

 

So "PWR" mode will 'hold' the gears longer?

In other words if for example at 50% throttle in 'regular' mode if I was not using e-shift, the car would wait until 2700 RPM to shift... if I have it in "PWR" mode, it will wait until more like 3000 RPM or higher to shift?

So since I'm trying to keep the RPM low (to conserve gas and make this car last forever) I should not use PWR mode, correct?

 

Correct. Could drive in SNOW mode for even less aggressive throttle mapping...........not much fun, though.