Road Test: Lexus IS250

By Damien Tomlinson - 14/June/2006

When Lexus released the IS200 back in 1999, it announced that it was serious about taking a chunk out of the luxury car market in all classes.

Some saw the introduction of the smaller car as a concession from Lexus that its more expensive, larger models weren't enough to sustain it, similar to the reaction to Mercedes-Benz's introduction of the A-Class. 

In reality, it was a brilliant marketing move. 

As luxury brands develop momentum with the public, buyers get interested, and the introduction of an entry-level shoehorn into the Lexus world meant the company could snare buyers early and then do their best to keep them.

The IS200, with its weird engine size (a 2.0-litre L6!), outrageous styling (for the time - those taillights!) and, importantly, keen pricing (about $50,000), stole the show from the Benz C-Class and BMW's 3 Series, and the motoring public reaped the benefits. As a colleague of mine, Feann Torr, exclaimed: “if you're thinking of entering the prestige car market, this would be a brilliant place to start.” Mission accomplished, Lexus.

By 2005, the IS200 had been joined by the IS300 mid-life update, featuring a larger 3.0-litre six, but the model's life was ending. There was much anticipation in the motoring world about the hyped IS250, which hit our shores in November 2005. Despite the overwhelming success of the older model, the world's buyers had moved on. They now wanted distinctive styling, acres of leather, opulent luxury appointments, big wheels and a certain “wow” factor. The perfect illustration of the change in buyer attitude is to compare a 1999 BMW 5 Series to its 2005 counterpart.

So the all-new IS250 was released, and I'm here to tell you it was everything the motoring public wanted, and more. Bold looks, luxury interior, next-gen electronics in the style of the excellent GS and a bad attitude give Lexus the reception it was hoping for.

The Lexus IS250 is a very handy thing through a corner, and with it's high-tech functionality, it makes driving in a range of conditions easy

Engine: Lexus 2.5-litre Vee 6-cylinder (4GR-FSE) The longitudinally mounted 2500cc V6 engine features 4-valves per cylinder actuated by dual overhead camshafts (DOHC) per cylinder bank. The engine block is aluminium, the cylinder heads are aluminium alloy and the compression ratio is a manic 12.0:1. The Lexus IS250 is fitted with a 65 litre fuel tank and will accept 95 RON and higher grades of fuel. Fuel Consumption: 9.1L/100km (combined) Max Power: 153kW @ 6400rpm Max Torque: 252Nm @ 4800rpm 0-100km/h: 8.4 seconds Max Speed: 225km/h

Lexus has created a very nice interior space with the IS250, with a good mixture of sports and prestige

We motoring journalists are a spoilt bunch. We are in the unique position of informing potential buyers about the quality and suitability of the car world's new products. If you're serious about your cars, you read a few articles about the one you're thinking of and arm yourself with some knowledge before walking into a car dealership to be diddled by Slick at the showroom.

Car makers, in a constant bid for free positive publicity, spend heaps of money trying to convince motoring journalists of the quality of their product. Therefore, we journos are constantly punching above our societal weight in dealing with flashy PR people, attending lavish product launches and over-the-top drive days, jetting off to motor shows and having full access to all the detailed information we need. 

The company's justification is that positive promotion by an independent media is invaluable to sales, so they turn it on.

As I’ve said before, those new to the game can go into it with all the objective resolve they like; that is, until they sip a free cocktail and pocket a free umbrella. Suddenly they're gushing superlatives and gleefully accepting PR drivel, copied verbatim into their 'reviews'. Well, we at Web Wombat are a little bit different.

See, Internet media organisations are yet to achieve the standing they deserve. Despite the Internet being one of the first resources used for car-buying research, car makers - sorry, some car makers - believe the Internet is a second-rate medium lagging behind newspapers and magazines. Hence why you won't see some specific car reviews on our site - their buyers don’t use the Internet.

But I digress. What I was getting at was the fact that, as the first public contact for a car maker's products, it's in the best interests of the marques to pamper the writers. This is why you won't see many reviews of base models. We get to drive some sensational cars, and can only draw parallels to the likely performance/quality of the range's base models.

The above soap-box rant means I say the following with absolute honesty. Having driven the top-of-the-range IS250 Sports Luxury for this test, I can report that it's the best new car under $80,000 on the market today. Lexus deserves plaudits for building a car so full of equipment, wanting for nothing, that its competition is still reeling. This car, in all-options-ticked form, draws much from its bigger brother the GS, but packs little less than the flagship LS430.

A quick list of the standard on-board equipment: sat-nav, Bluetooth phone system, front and rear sonar with rear camera and Park Assist graphics, next-generation electronic power steering, fully electric seats with memory function, smart keyless entry/ignition, electronic rear sunblind, bi-Xenon swivelling, self-levelling headlights and laser-guided cruise control.

Of course the lesser models, which start at $53,890, miss out on most of that, but there's no denying this fact: to get a similarly equipped Audi, Mercedes-Benz or BMW, think six figures. Lexus has set a new benchmark for mid-size luxury cars.

The IS250 is not going to appeal to every IS200 buyer. Its styling is much more aggressive than the previous car, and that might take some adjusting to. There are bulges, angles, flares and ripples all over this car's new skin, and many in the lawn bowls fraternity will not like what they see. The IS250 is designed to appeal to younger people, the upwardly mobile, DINKs etc. 

That said, step inside and it's all Lexus leather luxury that anyone of any age will appreciate. It's almost impossible not to feel comfortable in there. Plush leather seats, a light, airy cabin, tactile surfaces, nice, contrasting colours and plenty of glass.The IS250 is a small car, and rear-seat passengers may not appreciate the accommodation available behind tall front passengers, but at the same time, the IS250 has generous boot room for a car this size.

The view from the cockpit is great. Dials are invisible unless the car is switched on, a la Honda Accord Euro, which I personally thought was nice. All controls are centred on the driver and everything is within easy reach and it's nice to drive a prestige car that was designed for the right-hand-drive market - indicators are on the right of the wheel and it all feels natural.

The 2.5-litre V6, with 153kW and 252Nm, has 34 per cent more power and 29 per cent more torque than the outgoing 2.0-litre straight six it replaces. With combined fuel consumption of 9.1 litres/100km, it's 8 per cent more economical than the previous engine, despite the increase in cubes, and 14.2 per cent better than the IS300. It's also a lot quicker than the IS200 it replaces, taking 8.4 seconds to reach 100km/h from standstill, and topping out at 225km/h.

Big wheels up front and even bigger wheels at the rear (225/54 R17s and 245/45 R17s respectively) and taut-ish suspension help the car's performance characteristics, and the keen punter will be rewarded by the rear-wheel-drive configuration. In manual mode, fanging the IS through the bends or down mountain sweepers is a joy and the quad-cam dual VVTi V6 is a potent, scalable donk that's just as at home on the freeway at low revs as it is punching out of a corner at high revs. The 6-speed is does a great job of transferring the power to the rear wheels, and is happy to rev out if you want to, or upshift with a good deal of smoothness.

Unfortunately I must say Lexus still suffers from Toyota-itis - that is, some of the switchgear feels like it came from a Camry. Apart from that, Lexus has gone to great pains to reward motorists with attention to little details. There are no textured-look plastics, the leather wheel is suitably chunky and the visuals are stunning. The seats are also heated or cooled, using the air conditioning to blow air through the perforated leather buckets, which is a nice touch.

So with smart key in the pocket, the IS250 is ready to go. Stamp on the brake and thumb the START button and the little beast rockets to life.The driver in you will love the new cockpit, with its F1-style paddles for manual mode and slick changes but true to form Lexus has taken the softly softly approach to NVH, so the sound of the engine does not back up the aggressive exterior visuals. This was disappointing, but I guess Lexus wasn't about to part with its reputation for quiet, smooth motoring.

I think Audi's DSG transmission is the benchmark for semi-autos, and this Lexus 'box just wasn't clever enough to impress. Where Audi lets you interrupt the transmission with the flick of a paddle at any time, the Lexus will only allow this if the transmission is in manual mode. A small thing maybe, but I'd like to be able to kick down a cog without taking a hand off the wheel.

Lexus has developed its reversing system a step further to now include a dynamic diagram on the screen when reverse is engaged, which shows you where the car will end up. Move the wheel and the diagram moves, allowing you, when in reverse parallel mode, to move the diagram to the desired parking spot and follow it in to the spot. It gives you a parking vector of sorts. The wizardry that abounds in this car is mind-boggling.

The system also has a straight reversing system, which shows the extremities of the car to allow you to line it up safely between two obstacles behind. All of these things take some getting used to but, once mastered, they're excellent driving aids. Despite all this techno-wizardry, some fool managed to put a nice dent in the back of my press demonstrator. Might have been the same bloke that pranged Feann's Audi S4.

The laser cruise control is a development of the system from the LS and G, and again it's been developed further. While I criticised the LS's overcautious distancing, which allowed other drivers to dive in front, the IS's system is much more advanced, and allows you to track other cars at a much shorter distance. The system also works in the rain (previously it cancelled when the wipers were engaged).

If anything, one criticism of the cruise control system is that you can't turn it off. Sounds silly, I know, but when you're negotiating a busy motorway, for instance, it's impossible to “loom up” on cars. This means that, where before you could announce your arrival behind ignorant right-lane hogs by looming behind them, the laser system won't allow it without manual overriding. This means that, more often that not, you actually have the cruise control disengaged, which cancels the point of having cruise control altogether.

Overall: 4.5/5

Lexus has done successfully what some others have and do struggle to - introduce a new, upgraded model of an existing car. The new IS250 is markedly better in all aspects than the car it replaces, and makes some significant advances in important areas that will have the competition scrambling to the drawing board. The car’s combination of luxury, athleticism and styling is almost perfect, and buyer trends since launch have proven the car's acceptance. As I said, I don't think there's a better car on the market for less than $80,000. The only thing better than it could be the IS350, which is coming soon, so stay tuned.