Mine is the 5th gear by the time I'm at that speed (under normal acceleration). Under slightly heavier acceleration, it'll shift back to 4 to continue accelerating and then back to 5.

Normal?

 

Mine constantly confuses me the way it shifts at times that I have learned to live with it. since I quit paying attention to it now it does'nt bother me.
Mine is on the list for the flash firmware update but from reading posts from all the LS430 members that had that procedure done it only makes the Tranny shift at a higher RPM range and lowers MPG's ever so slightly.

Mine will behave the way you describe but not at all times, and when I had the battery disconnected last weekend for sometime when replacing the drive belt - it reset the engine/tranny COM modules and it shifted at higher RPM's for a time until it learned my driving habits and started shifting at lower RPM's.

I believe this is an issue that probably will never be truly corrected to our expectations by Lexus - but it's a small negative drowned out by all the positives of the car.

 

Marklouis - thanks for the input. Good to know I'm not the only one out there that notices that odd shifting at times.

 

It's probably in 5th if not 6th. Like Mark said, depends on how much gas you give it. I feel the car defaults to the highest gear possible at any given time unless you're very aggressive with the throttle. I notice the odd shifting as well, the trans is always hunting around (probably between 4,5,6) when I'm just cruising along. The real annoyance is the hesitation it gets when you slow down (probably like 15 mph or so) then want to accelerate, seem like the trans goes into a deep sleep and forgets to grab a gear lol.

 

I guess more (gears) is not always better .

 

Sort of like bicycles... 24-speed, really? I have a feeling we'll be 8 speed for awhile, then cap at 10 speed perhaps

 

I checked out mine this morning. If I was easy on the pedal (<2000 RPM) it was in 4th gear at 35 MPH. If I drove a little harder (>2000 RPM) it was in 3rd gear at 35 MPH.

 

There are so many inputs and so much computer code to modern transmissions it's almost pointless to try and compare. The transmissions are more sophisticated than a home computer of a decade earlier!

So long as it's not doing anything obviously uncomfortable/weird/jerky/dangerous I wouldn't over-analyze it; it's already thinking way harder about its job than you should be.

 

Yup my 01 has 5 gears and is butter smooth. I barely feel the shifts

 

I couldn't begin to tell you what gear I am in when accelerating from a stop until I reach cruise speed. And that is regardless of cruise speed. The transmission is so smooth I can't detect shifts. Can't get much better than that. And this with 6 gears.