Hell yes. Love the stacked exhausts. Now let me pray for a manual or 8 speed auto.

hm, praying for an 8 speed auto in a “performance” car eh, typical toyota.
Id rather have a 335i
im sure a non-///M BMW has more performance potential than this F poppy****. That badge looks entirely out of place as well. Yes the stacked exhausts are cool, but outside of looks, this car has little going for it.

and would it have been so hard to develop some LED taillamps? if a RAV-4 has them why doesnt the IS?

All 2006 ISs have LEDs…

Not to defend Lexus but heck A4, you talk a lot of **** for someone who obviously never driven the “F poppy****”. I’ll refrain my judgement until a test drive.

I read somewhere that’ll have the 8 speed auto.

what exactly does the “F” stand for? M stands for motorsport, AMG stands for..something in german but why “F”? did they just randomly select a letter?

They are LED, Passat. They’re just a wedge design instead of matrix.

Vdub, I believe Lexus stated in their press release (I found it on this neat thing called a “Google”) that “F” stands for “Fast”. True story.

Its going to drive like a couch. Like they all do. There will be no manual and it will be silent and smooth. Not sporty.

BTW, has anyone tried the new TT 2.0T? Braking at 130mph the car felt unstable. The older Volvo S40 felt more assuring, I wonder if anyone had the same experience…

Fast, Furious, Formula, whatever it’s like “M” for BMW, macho mucho blah blah…

calisto, have you driven it? or any IS for that matter? no? i see.

F stands for Formula. Its supposed to be a celebration of Toyota’s F1 heritage. Considering it willl have a lower price than a M3 (

I drove the IS 350 because I wanted to see if they had actually done a car that was fun to drive. Like I said it was a couch. It was comfortable, quiet, and a smooth ride. It also leaned heavily in corners and the engine was silent. I am simply giving my humble prediction of the IS-F. It will be better than the base IS in every way. It might even be as good as a base 3 series.

thats funny, the IS350 non sport feels just like the 330i/335i non sport. i guess cars are now couches? anyway if i wanted a way too stiff riding sport bmw or M3, i would rather get a lotus and save some money. high performance luxury? there is amg and thats about it. finally some competition, seriously looking forward to this lex.

^exactly what i was saying

the taillights on that concept sure as hell dont look like LED’s to me

but if you say so i guess they do

A4, still hung up on LEDs? you know the current 3 series doesnt have LEDs, right?

Just like most other lexus’s what it does it does well but what makes it unique? why would I want to buy it over anything else on the market? cost?

gsh –” you know the current 3 series doesnt have LEDs, right?”

The 335i coupe does.

Vdub–”AMG stands for..something in german”

“The company was founded back in 1967 by Hans Werner Aufrecht (A) and his partner Eberhard Melcher (M), whilst Aufrecht’s birthplace of Großaspach (G) sup-plied the third letter in the company name. ”

-from World Car Fans

Why this sudden interest in 8 speed autos? thats just two extra gears for the car to hunt & peck with. Build an engine with a wide power band and the extra gears wouldn’t be needed. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by this IS-F, but stacked exhaust and 8 speed auto rumors are making it difficult to have any hope left.

^^^ Well said Kenny W

It might do well because the stock IS350 runs like low 13s in the 1/4 mile with some upgrade like tighter suspension and higher air flow Toyota might have themself another sport car. Come on guys remember the supra.

yeah exactly the coupe does just as i was saying this should – and apparently does as a high performance model. I dont care about the base models but all i was saying is that if a camry comes with regular lamps, and the camry hybrid comes with LED’s, a more attractive taillight cluster ought to be designed with a matrix-pattern or something for the flagship model. The SL-AMG’s manage to smoke their taillights over the stock version, which it a good inexpensive change in itself.

The stacked exhausts look contrived and gimmicky. Eight speed gearbox? Is this technology for technology sake or do the buyers want it?

And yet the fact that it is a Lexus and that it will do everything effortlessly appeals to this hassled Subaru driver.

Instead of 8 speed auto, which is practically unacceptable for a sports car, they should make some DSG variant for the lineups. Then they’ll probably get some serious attention. Though, if I want ultra luxury I’d still go for a comfy Lexus. Audi seems to have the best balance of all.

rice now available standard. but in all seriousness y did lexus steel some poor chavs exhaust.

“I drove the IS 350 because I wanted to see if they had actually done a car that was fun to drive. Like I said it was a couch. It was comfortable, quiet, and a smooth ride. It also leaned heavily in corners and the engine was silent. I am simply giving my humble prediction of the IS-F. It will be better than the base IS in every way. It might even be as good as a base 3 series. ”

What are you talking about.. did you drive it around in the parking lot with a salesmen. You quite obviously did not attend any of the “Taste of Lexus” events over the past months. You want the IS to feel like an Evo or something?

Should we be expecting performance numbers like this: http://www.millenworks.com/html/concept_vehicles.htm?&navItemIndex=12

Knowing Lexus, I wouldn’t be surprised to see their big ass V8 shoved into the IS-F.

Looks like Chrysler’s “Daytona Blue” paint.

Well, there is not much else to comment on in these little pics.

I’ll try not to be a biased ass like A4, but in response to Sean, I have been to Taste of Lexus. As well as all the Mazda events, and one of those Car & Driver events. The new IS was fun in a straight line. Other than that, the ultra smooth steering that they’ve put in every Lexus and Toyota felt really annoying. It feels like it’s designed for people who don’t like to turn, and in a straight line, you don’t have to. But I like twisty roads and twisty races. I like the steering to feel sharp and connected. You can’t get that in a Lexus/Toyota unfortunately. So yeah, for someone going sporty, maybe they do want it to feel like an evo (tho I haven’t driven an evo version of a lancer yet). But if not, then hey, the IS is perfect for someone who wants excellent luxury and isn’t so interested in motorsport, but still wants some major kick.

This car has potential to be great, but they need to de-Lexify it somewhat. What I mean is it MUST be offered with a manual, and they need to seriously stiffen the suspension and put in some major handling upgrades. The base IS is too soft, too heavy to be a serious handler. They can fix it, but I’ve yet to see a Lexus product that can handle very well, say on the order of an M3 or better.
Those praising the old Supra – that car was not a great handler either – way too heavy.

Funny, but up until recently even the M5 wasn’t offered with a true manual.

Unique? Come on, do you think BMW’s and Audi’s are unique? They’re all over the place. They’re still great cars, but far from unique. Find a car under $50K that’s truely unique.

Perhaps there are people in their engineering and marketing department that get paid a lot to make major decisions. Those people aren’t the people on this board. Lexus is aiming this squarely at professionals that enjoy luxury and refinement, but want some more spunk to their drive. What’s wrong with that? More than likely, these customers also commute in a bunch of stop-and-go traffic. A manual is horrible for that type of driving.

A4: is there any car out there that you actually DO like? And can buy?

Stop wasting your breath…new G35 will spank them all!

^Right, with all 306 hp right….I think not. And if you question that look at the revamped VQ in the 350z, 306hp, and Infiniti is not going to top the Z in performance. The 335 is faster, and the IS350 is right there with it. If they put a V8 in the new IS the G won’t even come close.

the only reason the m5 was not offered with a manual was due to the time needed for developement. and dont say it wasn’t up until recently becase the previous gen m5 had a 6 speed. there was no point to your post.

If infiniti had a performance brand, their G version would kick the **** out of this car and you know it doublearon. The G35 pisses all over the IS350 not just in terms of speed, but especially in terms of driving dynamics and overall excitement. Not to mention AWD is offered on it, while the IS250 ****brick is the only one with an AWD option.

the G35 only has AWD on the sedan

should be good, but I wish they had picked a letter other than F

thank you moogleii. I too went to the “Taste of Lexus”. I am not trying to rail on lexus here. They are solid well built cars that just are not sporty. The F will be insanly popular whether or not it is fast and/or sporty.

Nice, more rusted Toy Ota’s in few months…woohoo…keep the crappy cars coming…

G35 Sport has the rear steer option as well which may beat the rest of the competition when it comes to turns. So it’s not all about straight line performance. But I haven’t got the chance to test drive one yet…

we’ll judge it when it comes out.. but that badge sure does look out of place.. i think they can do without the silver background.. just use the F that’s outlined

and…. LOL ricardo

Well.. I haven’t driven an E46 M3 yet. But lets reserve judgement til the car comes out please. And I’ve been driving around a 06 G35X Rental for the past couple days, I must say it sure is badass, but it’s not the more powerful coupe and they just came out with the 07.. give it all some time for proper comparison

^^Try practicing what you preach. You make the same types of moronic comments about other vehicles profiled on this blog, too. Talk about needing to get off the “high horse.”

Try focusing on what we’re talking about here and not changing the subject

Lexus makes quality luxury cars. At least give them credit on that. Don’t make assumptions on a car you have NEVER driven.

Lambo: I DID focus on the subject in a much earlier post that was censored (due to a link to another blog) and subsequently, removed. I said that I would reserve judgement until I could see it for myself. My comment hardly qualifies as a “hater” comment.

As for “changing the subject,” you’re full of ****. I’m sick of reading your posts about how great Toyota is & how all other automakers pale by comparison. Get over yourself. Toyota, Lexus in particular, is not known for attracting enthusiasts these days, especially now that the Supra is gone. Hence, the skepiticsm in the comments here. Don’t be pissed off at everyone else for not agreeing with you all the time.

Grow up asshole, not everyone is an enthusiast, I personally am, you most likely are, most people here are, but the reality is most people are not, and Toyota knows how to build cars for the normal person, the average person, and guess what, the average person outnumbers the enthusiast 1,000 to 1. So get real, and when it comes to building cars that aren’t geared towards enthusiasts, Toyota is the best, that’s the fact, compare it to any other non enthuisiast car and they reign supreme, get out of denial