Hello Acuraziners.

I used to come to the forum daily but didn't post much. I thought I would share things I miss after switching from a '12 TSX to a '15 IS350.

Fuel efficiency: Unfair comparison but I truly miss the fuel efficiency of the TSX. Given my TSX was a 4-cylinder 5-speed and now I'm V6 with AWD. I used to get 8 L/100 km and now I'm lucky to get 11 L/100 km.
ELS vs Mark Levinson Audio: ELS handsdown. Although the ML audio has much deeper bass, it just doesn't have the pure clarity that ELS had. The midtones in my IS350 are very muddy. Adjusting the equalizer just makes it worse. The virtual surround with ML is not as good as the Dolby technology with ELS.
Storage: There is zip, zilch, zippo storage in the IS. Cupholders are the stupidest design ever with awkward reach and are sized way too small.
Visibility: This stems from design, but the TSX had much better visibility. I have no idea how IS drivers without the back up camera get by.
HIDs: Also, hands down TSX. I don't have the LED headlights on my IS because they are not available in Canada on my trim, but I'm sure even with them, they could not beat the TSX stock HIDs. Even in the ClubLexus forums, the community admits Acura has the best stock HIDs available.
Navigation: Sure the display is slightly higher resolution in the IS, but it's smaller! The menus in the IS are slow and laggy. The system constantly needs to think. Although the software in the TSX was dated, everything work flawlessly. My phone takes almost a whole minute to pair with the IS compared to the TSX, which was near instant.
Paint: If you thought Acura/Honda paint was soft, you haven't experienced anything yet. The paint on my IS, while arguably more brilliant, looks more pitted after 8 months than TSX did after 3 years.
Interior room: Even though the 3rd gen IS is much improved over the 2nd gen, it's still smaller than the TSX. I would attribute that also to design partly because the IS feels very cockpit like and snug whereas the TSX has more breathing room. If you carry passengers frequently, the IS is not for you.
TPMS: For some unknown reason (rather to profit more), the 3rd gen IS can no longer remember 2 sets of TPMS sensors. For those with a second set of wheels, you get to pay the dealer upwards of $50 to reprogram the bloody sensors. Worse yet, there is encryption technology for the sensor IDs so only Lexus dealers can program them at the moment. TSX was a simple swap and reset.

No huge regrets though. My dad drives the TSX now and he likes everything about it (coming from a '98 Camry). She still runs like new and I haven't had any problems.

 

Great post! I'm really surprised about the sound and navigation points.

Admittedly I really hate the TSX's navigation system simply because it's dated, and it's controlled through an inconvenient knob/scroll type button. Sucks that the Lexus navi is laggy. With that being said however, I've tried the new TLX/ILX (maybe even RDX... the new lineup/refresh basically) with the new Acura navi tech and it is absolutely terrible. They're not only laggy, but the UI is extremely unintuitive to use, and the screens feel extremely cheap.

As for sound, I've only heard great things about the Mark Levinson audio. I'm not audiophile, but I'm certainly not blown away by my TSX's sound (I have tech as well). I find it good, but great never did really cross my mind.

Good to hear that you don't regret the purchase though. I'm sure the IS350 performs (and sounds) amazing. I had test driven the 2G IS250 before purchasing the TSX, and that car was utter crap. I'm guessing the 350 would've been better, but I was certainly not impressed with the 250 I sampled; the TSX felt 10000x better.

 

I've been in the new IS250 F Sport a few times now w/ navi. I agree with most things mentioned. Not sure if the 250 had the same sound system as your 350, but the ELS sounds much, much better IMO. I thought the navigation controller would be cool, but it's a pain in the ass to me and takes longer to complete simple tasks. It was also a bit slow when searching around on the iPod.

About the paint, the owner of the car was having issues with their navigation and took it to the dealership. They dealer took it for a test drive to test the navi and it happened to be around some construction area and when they brought the car back, the hood had a bunch of rock chips. The dealer tried to give them touch up paint and fix it and obviously the owner bitched at the dealer and got them to give them a brand new IS, even though they had been driving the other one for a few weeks. So I guess that can also attest to the paint?

Overall, I think it's a beautiful car inside and out, but I think it definitely has some quirks. The F Sport is so nice though. I love the exhaust and gauges on that car.

 

Interesting

I had a 2013 Lexus with the Navi and ml and to me the sound and navi is light years ahead of the tsx

Have owned lots of Honda and Lexus over the years, and Lexus paint quality is also light years ahead of Honda . The paint on the ls and sc we have had don't even come close to thin Honda paint

Maybe things are different in canada

 

Great post. Seems to be a common theme. Some gripes here and there going from a value luxury car like Acura to a more upscale offering, but the guts under the hood are usually enough for enthusiasts.

 

I have a 2011 Lexus IS350 FSport and love it!! IT's truly the nicest car I have ever owned!

 

I test drove an IS before the TSX. It is much smaller inside but more important to me is that it's much more expensive than the TSX especially the 350 and F series.

 

i like the IS. I just can't stand looking at it.

 

I'm a huge fan of the IS... Interior is a little too small for me though.

That's why I don't go with Navi, granted the screen makes it look "nice" but I rather just use my phone for Navi these days.

 

Great post!

I did test drove 14 IS 250 Premium...

At first glance, I liked how the car was small but the dash was oriented toward the driver and felt like i was in a desk or something...

I did put some gas in the IS250, but it seems like tsx's acceleration was more responsible and somewhat quicker...

Interior was top notch but i didn't like the navigation...

And because IS cost more, it should be more nicer than TSX but some of the things aren't quiet better...

I did at some pointed hated my tsx because it lacked push start, 5 speed, slow, and outdated... but what if TSX's price tag was along the IS' price? I would think that TSX would make much more better car then.

 

Good post dwk, I know you made a thread awhile back which seemed like you regretted buying a TSX a bit, but looks like you've changed your views now.

I don't think it's fair to say the TSX is slow though when the IS 250 with a V6 does 0-60 in about the same time (7.5 seconds). Overall, yes it probably is a bit slow, but when comparing the two the differences are negligible.

 

I'm curious, what OEM nav system do you like?

 

I know I beat that point to death, so to be fair I'll admit and say I don't like any OEM nav system in particular, nor have I had much hands-on experience with anything else. tl;dr is at the bottom.

What I was really getting at was how OEM car manufacturers (and/or whoever they decide to contract to do the work) have no real consideration for human factors and user experience. We're currently living in a world with smart/super phones where useability of the phones/devices are for the most part, intuitive, seamless, have very little lag, and screens are pleasant to look at with great resolution. The OEM navigation in the TSX is dated, I understand. I'm not saying I hate it because Acura (or the 3rd party who made it) makes a nav today that is many years behind compared to the rest of the industry. But, as it is 2015 right now and this car was designed/made in 2008, that navi's age is more than just a little apparent.

Lack of human factors:

1. Inputting of addresses using the selection knob thing is a huge pain in the ass.
2. Maybe this is Canada-only (live in Toronto), but many streets are not recognized via voice input, making item #1 inescapable.
3. Non-voice input is done via a combination of the selection knob and a slew of buttons on my console that all could have been replaced with a proper UI and a touch screen unit. I'll give this point some slack since this car did debut in 2008, but my point still stands if someone wants to cross shop the CU2 with new economy cars that come with touchscreen units.

Additional expenses for services*:

1. Map updates cost $100/year.
2. Real-time traffic and weather from SiriusXM costs $13.25/month as a non-Sirius and non-XM subscriber (which is me).

*I understand that most of these items are probably not exclusive to Acura and/or the TSX at all and that they probably are the case with most if not all OEM navis available today. It's still a gripe for me when I consider this vs. simply using Google Maps on my phone, which offers all of the above-mentioned services at the cost of nothing because I'm already paying for a data plan. I personally don't agree with having to pay such ridiculous prices for those features.

As many others here have mentioned, the screen's resolution is terrible when keeping with today's tech. This is one of the issues with having the car designed/built in 2008 as well. And even though they have made an attempt to improve it in the 2011 MMC, it's still not great. I give this one some slack again because the car is old. But I can't help but admit it sucks when I look at this screen after using the monitors at work or even simply after looking at my smartphone.

I have one more small gripe about the nav. I noticed that when I took an on-ramp onto a highway that literally runs above and parallel to the road I was just on, one time the navi thought I was still on the local road underneath the highway, when in fact I was actually on the highway itself. It was telling me every few seconds to take turns here and there, as if I should drive myself into the guard rails and off the highway. This led me to believe that the navi's infrastructure either doesn't take altitude into consideration, or I was just unlucky in triggering a bug in the car's navi itself. Either way, that was quite an interesting experience.

tl;dr
Yeah I take shots at the tech/nav in our cars, but mostly because the TSX is old. But it doesn't mean these issues aren't present when you cross shop a used TSX with even the newer economy cars that come with an optional touch-screen nav unit that is likely superior to ours in a few ways. If I had bought this car new in 2008/09, I likely wouldn't have complained. But times have changed, and I can see/feel the obvious lacking in my car's nav as a result.

 

xtc- I won't attempt to discount or argue any of the points you just made, 'cause I happen to agree with all of it. I will point out though that my 2011 nav looks way better than my 2015 MDX's navi screen. Whenever I drive that MDX then get back into my TSX, I feel pretty damn good about how it looks. Still not the best UI, but that new MDX makes it look awesome!

 

Yeah it's a shame to hear that the newer navs are even worse. Perhaps the TSX's nav really is the pinnacle of OEM navigation technology

I was in the TLX and the dual screen setup threw me off. It's even more counter intuitive than my TSX's, and the lag is unbearable. So yeah, I guess the TSX's nav isn't so bad after all. But then again, I'm not happy about it since Google Maps on my phone is literally 10x more useful

 

Wait our 80s nav in our tsx is better than the 2015 mdx?
Holy hell
I can't imagine how bad the mdx is

I love my Lexus nav. I even love the mouse it comes with .

 

Here is a review of the 2015 MDX infotainment system

 

You need to remove and repair your phone if it's taking nearly a minute to connect to the IS.