Faults:

Transmission error at 5.000km. Erased by the dealer.

General Comments:

Very comfortable car. It handles perfectly and still feels very comfortable. It could a perfect car if it was not for the engine and the transmission.

The transmission is changing the gears very fast, but time after time it does it in different way than I would do it myself. In normal mode transmission you have to push the accelerator too much in order to get a bit more acceleration. In power mode I hate it when I do a bit more braking, and the transmission goes a few gears down and the revs go up to 3500, then in few second it starts changing back to higher gears with a pull for each gear... I think the standard mode of the transmission could be more responsive. As now I have always to drive in Power mode to get better response to pushing the pedal.

I like that the 6th gear is very long. It helps to have lower consumption. But still the consumption could be better.

Engine. It has 208 hp, but it feels more like 170, may be it's due to very big weight - it says it's 1650kg.. empty. I think the best engine for this car could be 3.5L, the one sold to USA. 2.5 - will be economical choice. Still the consumption is not so low...

So to summarize, I could say it is very nice car, but the consumption or performance could be better, especially if you compare it to rivals like BMW or AUDI.

Faults:

Nothing except a small dent on left side body panel.

General Comments:

I got this car in the autumn of last year. It cruises astonishingly fast, as well as smoothly as velvet.

Her 0-100km/h acceleration time is 5.2sec and 0-400m time is 14.2sec. It is roughly as fast as the BMW 740i with turbocharged 3.0L yielding 326bhp, and much faster than the Mercedes C350.

Along with it, best elapsed acceleration times are 13.5sec for 0-400m and 5.0sec for 0-97km/h according to a major American media. So well run-in example of this car could be as fast as the Mercedes E550 (5467cc/388hp) and the BMW750iL (4398cc/407hp with twin turbochargers)!

So the Lexus IS350 could be called as a kind of giant killer. Namely its performance is almost miraculous for a naturally-aspirated 3.5-litres.

As for fuel economy, her average fuel consumption is about 10km/l, excellent for her output and performance. She's much more economical than the VW Passat 3.2 (3189cc/250hp) with about 9km/l consumption and roughly in same bracket as the Audi A4 2.0TFSI with 211hp motor and lesser performance!

Her handling is quite stable and predictable, albeit somewhat dull. Compared with the BMW335i, her handling is milder and feels comfortable for me. But her cross-wind stability is somewhat inferior to the likes of Audi A4 3.2 Quattro and VW Passat 3.2 4motion (All of these are full time 4WD based on FF.).

Her brakes are good and with solid feeling.

Its rear visibility is not so good, and rear view camera is somewhat inconvenient. And its space for backseat can be better, as wide as the BMW 3-series. Certainly the Mercedes C-Class offers much wider and more usable back space in similar size as the Lexus IS. Of course most FF sedans like the VW Passat and the Citroen C5 are much more spacious than the FR leagues;from the C-Class to the Lexus IS.

As a whole, her ergonomics are on the average level, with some points could be improved.

Paddle shift is not so easy to handle and somewhat abrupt.