Hi everyone,
I drive the 450h. The shifter has this "S" setting on the gate. I am going to assume this is some sort of sport mode. As others have pointed out here, when one shifts into this mode from about any speed it goes into a S4 setting. Since it has no gears, lets pretend this is the fourth gear. From there it seems that I can shift down as I come to a stop and nearly stop the car with this setting alone. I need only tap the brakes at the very end of the stop to bring myself to a halt. As far as I can tell the engine has no direct relation to the selection and in most cases it seems I never hear it come on while shifting down.

My question is not what this does but what it's doing. If there are no gears then why when I shift down is there a distinct behavior like a standard auto / manual shifter? Is this the electric motors being made to mimic the feeling of gears by adding stepped resistance? Does this increase charging for the moment?

Oh but wait, I am not done. When still in this mode if I stomp on the throttle the engine will rev up and then abruptly taper off. Forward momentum is maintained, with the electric of course. This is really odd. Can someone shed some light on what is going on.

Thanks,
Ed

 

It simulates the gear ration you've selected. It's most useful for braking when descending mountains. They had to give it a name so 'S' mode sounded good I suppose . The RX is a Luxury Lexus SUV so I can't see a rational use for trying to see if it will beat others of the block for nothing more than the thrill of it. Lexus builds better cars for that purpose than the RX .

 

its really a gear limiter if you will. It defaults to 4th gear so as to not be shifted into too low of a gear and break the engine. On the highway, downshifting to 4th from 6th would give you good acceleration. On the hybrid, this is a synthetic gear imitation on the CVT