I went with my best friend to pick up his IS300 yesterday, a couple of thoughts:

The exterior styling of the car is awesome. . . However, the interior seems cheesy. . . Specifically, while the chronograph style instrument panel is well crafted, the center seems like an after thought. . .

Further, the combination of interior materials (leather, cloth, plastic, neoprene (spelling??)) doesn't have that "Lexus" quality. . .

In short, its a nice car, but I'd rather spend my money on the Acura CL-S, BMW 330 or save a bunch and by the Type-R. . .

 

I was in love with the IS before the stook, but mostly the automatic transmission seemed stupid to me. I gotta wait a year before I could get a manual for a sports sedan? Dumb, dumb. Pretty decent car for the price though.

 

Who's going to want the IS300 when Suburu starts pushing out the new WRX. 220's HP and 217 torque...starting price...only US$24,000. Most notably will be the fact that a stick is available. The most bang for your buck in the sports sedan lineup. You'd have to really hate suburu not to buy this car.

 

A good friend of mine has one. It's a decent enough car, but the mixture of all the different materials in the interior was a little too much for me and I found the instruments difficult to read.

And not having a manual transmission? Hmmm, that was just plain wrong!

Overall a nice car though. I drove it for a bit and it's peppy...but it's the baby Lexus, it misses the mark somewhat in carrying that tradition forward.

Nice sedan, a little cream puffy and kind of a hodge podge of all different styles inside, but cool enough.

 

Front wheel drive and a automatic does not equal sports car

too bad they didnt make it rear wheel with a manual.
then they would have a BMW fighter on their hands.

Same goes for the Acura CL type S

Sporty car very well built, but just lacking that little extra umph.......

 

I thought the IS was RWD...?!

Yea, there was a shootout of sedans in one of the rags recently, the IS300 came in third...but I don't recall our of how many. The BMW 330ci came in first, at least, I think that was the model...

 

Greg,

if it's the same mag I read, it came 3rd out of 3. The Bimmer was first, the Benz was 2nd, and the Lex was 3rd. The writer stated that by the 2002 model year, with the 5 spd and a bump up in engine and suspension performance, the IS should not have any problems placing 1st.

I think it was Car&Driver

 

my bad it is rear wheel drive....... sorry

 

Keep in mind the 330 costs about ten grand more than the IS though. Big difference.