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We can think of few cars more soulless than the new Lexus GS. From its cheaply trimmed interior to its lifeless steering and brakes to its confused and ungainly styling the GS is a bunt when Lexus should be swinging for the bleachers.

And that’s just what it did with the new IS. You’d expect the IS to feel more driver focused, and it does. But its the immaculately conceived interior finish (far better than the GS or even a 5 series) and more imposing appearance that really make the car gel. Top Gear’s Tom Ford nails the IS with his description in this piece.

instead of the GS’s jowls, we get cheekbones and chin, plus a more defined bottom and sharper shoulders. So it’s a tidier, tauter interpretation of the new Lexus L-Finesse design language that we’ve already seen rolled out to decidedly muted applause in the GS. More resolved here, though, the version that got the same genes but ate less curry and doughnuts. This is A Good Thing…

The seats are also a bit flat across the base… it’s not always the most comfortable car in which to thrash because you tend to hold on to the steering wheel for support rather than direction.

the inside is a really very nice place in which to insulate yourself from the greyness of the real world… There’s… the feeling of solidity…

You can imagine the BMW engineers getting hold of this new IS250 somewhere in a darkened warehouse and torturing its secrets out of it with military-grade intrusion software and miniature toffee hammers, while swearing softly in Bavarian and trying to think of an excuse.

it’s very hard not to be impressed with this new IS250. And very hard to imagine that when the early-adopter atmosphere of the noughties gets a handle on the whole anti-hero image thing, BMW is going to have to try much harder to sell you a car.

We’re impressed – and get the sense that if it wasn’t for the lumpy, shoulder hunching rear seat of the IS, Lexus wouldn’t sell a single GS…

UPDATE:

The ride is agitated at village speeds but improves markedly as the pace increases. Through the bumpy, gnarled back-lanes of Surrey, the IS was utterly unflappable. It glides over snags, feeding the bumps into your subconscious but never letting them intrude unnecessarily into the process of making progress. The all-new speed-sensitive electric power steering won’t surprise or delight you initially, but up the pace and things become much more impressive. It’s as though the rack shrinks as your commitment grows. Dive for a corner and the nose of the IS darts as it grips and turns in. You throw it into corners faster and deeper and it keeps gripping; understeer hardly seems to enter the equation: flick-flack through a quick direction change and the car just stays with you. It’s so unexpected that it’s unnerving at first. One might almost be forced to utter an incredulous ‘I don’t believe it’. On the cold, greasy roads of our test route the lack of understeer means the back feels quite eager to play, but most of the time you just concentrate on using that surgical front end to slice through a corner. When the rear does come round, the IS remains unflustered and an instinctive twitch of opposite lock catches it quickly. Admittedly there’s not a stream of grainy feedback, but the steering is nicely weighted and the body always feels taut and controlled. The only down-sides to the pointy front end are that it’s a little too sensitive on the motorway and that it has a mild tendency to wander and pull slightly under heavy braking… there is still a slightly digital quality to driving the IS250, particularly with the arcade-game gearshift, but in terms of exceeding your expectations, the IS would be a five-star car. source: evo

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2005 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Lexus.