A friend is thinking of buying a new one so we went for a test drive today. I was was quite impressed with it except for 6th gear was appalling. Doing 70mph he floored it and it just seemed to accelerate slow and seemed to struggle. I mentioned this to the salesman and he reckoned that 6th should only be used for doing 80 mph and above. Is this true as I can't imagine this being good for economy. Other diesels I've drove with less power have been much better than this in 6th gear.

 

That engine is notorious for this. They just don't make the torque that Toyota claim. Look at the in gear figures compared with the competitors, it just doesn't have the torque, they need revving, which is pointless in a diesel.

 

Spot on that mate. Never experienced much turbo lag in a diesel before either.

 

It's not turbo lag

 

Sounds like it's an overdrive type of 6th gear, esp with economy in mind.

How many revs are you doing at, say, 70mph in 6th?

Sounds also like it's out of the power zone rather than turbo lag. A common misconception with many people, although people on a turbo'd car forum like this really should know better

 

Well surely if it isn't pulling at all from 1500 rpm than the turbo hasn't spooled up. Sorry but i am not upto speed with diesels.

 

No different to petrols in that respect.

I always think of turbo lag as the delay when you are in the powerband where the turbo is working (e.g. from 2500rpm to 6000rpm) and you press the accellerator but little "boost" is happening. Throttle lag may be a more apt description. Sit at 4000rpm and suddenly floor it, the lag is that delay before the car starts powering along. In many cars nowadays, this "lag" is quite short so less of an issue than in the olden days (tm)

Sitting at 1500rpm is merely out of the powerband and is not particular to turbos or non-turbo's, diesel's or petrols. Maybe I'd call this power lag. It is also referreed to as turbo lag by many, maybe equally "right" insofar as the term isn't really properly defined anyway so can mean both things.

MAybe we should just use the term "power lag" (i.e when out of the main powerband) and throttle response and so on.

 

Mazda are bringing out a 180bhp 2.2Diesel mazda 6 - have a look on the Honest John web site for a review.

I have the 2.0D new shape 6 and that is a pretty good engine but the new one is meant to be in another league altogether, even quieter than the honda diesel with BMW torque and econemy.

The down side of course is that it doesn't have the lexus / BMW / Audi badge............. and if that is important it may not appeal.

I still love mine to bits! Great car and looks the business too, quite lexus looking actually.

Just my two penneth - and the earlier post in response to the Lexus diesels being notorious for the lack of torque is spot on, read several shoot outs where the Lexus has been slated for it's lack of ooomph and poor gear ratios.

Regards

GB

 

Hello,

I'm sure I've read elsewhere that the Sport and normal versions of the Lexus IS220d have different sets of gear ratios. I believe it is the Sport which has shorter gears, and thus better in gear acceleration and useable 6th.

 

It definatley wasn't the sport model. The dealer wanted 20k for a brand spanker.