diablo1

As of Saturday morning, I am the proud owner of a brand new IS 350! Things were pretty busy this weekend and I didn't get a chance to take any pics, but I'll do so soon and post them here. I got tungsten pearl, black leather, sport package, nav, park assist, headlight washers, and preferred accessory package (wheel locks, floor mats, trunk net). As anyone who lives in the northeast may know, there are pretty much only three configurations available here: premium w/no nav, lux w/nav, and sport w/nav - all with parrk assist, headlight washers, and with or without preferred accessory package.

My MSRP with destination was $43,069. I paid $1500 upfront and got a lease of $707/month. I rolled the taxes into the payment, which is kind of bad in NY because they then charge you tax and interest ON THE TAX! But, I didn't want to pay $3000+ in taxes upfront and risk it disappearing if anything should happen to the car. From pretty much everything I've read, you want to put down as little as possible upfront on a lease. The $1500 included first month payment, $600 lease initiation charge to Lexus Financial, and then a few assorted fees for licensing, registration, tire recycling fee, and so on. The dealership installed an actual permanent license plate before I picked it up, so that was pretty cool - no temporary plates to deal with. My dealership was Lexus of Manhattan. PM me if you want more info about that. The experience was good overall - which it should have been, considering I paid them MSRP.

Here are my subjective first impressions based on what myself and a couple friends thought:

PARK ASSIST: you should get this! There have been several threads about how it works, so I won't go into too much detail about that. A diagram comes up showing you which corners/sides of the car are close to obstacles. It also beeps slowly, quicker, and then steady tone as you get closer to objects. If you are backing up, it shows the diagram in a small window while the backup camera shows on the rest of the display. I'm not a big fan of parallel parking, but I have to say that this makes it really easy. I didn't especially want this feature, but now that I have it, I feel it is definitely worth the money. Good job Lexus!

STOCK STEREO: No ML's are available around here, but honestly, the normal stereo is really good. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but my friends said it sounded really good in both the front and back seat. It gets plenty loud, and it seems like there are speakers everywhere. It's more than enough for most people, I would think. Haven't tried the CD or aux in yet, but radio sounds great.

BACKSEAT ROOM: I asked everyone who sat in the backseat what they thought of it. People between 5'2" and 5'11" were sitting back there, and everyone said it was fine. I said a lot of people had been complaining about it online, but none of my friends said they were uncomfortable. It's not a limo, it's a small sports sedan. Backseat is more than adequate for this category.

NAV: Best one I've ever used, although I've never used an Acura one, which people say is as good or better. Entering a destination is the only thing that you get locked out from when you are driving, as far as I can tell. Everything else still works. I like how you can split the screen to have two different maps, one zoomed in far and one zoomed out, or have a map on the left and route guidance diagrams on the right. Very slick.

VENTILATED SEATS: In my car they work quickly and powerfully. The cool air really cools you down in a hurry. Hot air is a little less strong but you can still definitely feel it.

BREAK IN PERIOD: This is the only thing I don't like! I really want to floor it and feel the acceleration... Instead I'm driving like I'm 85 years old... At least for the next few hundred miles.

I am extremely satisfied with this car. I guess it's on the expensive end for this class, but when you look at the features that come standard, or other features that are available here but not on any other comparable car (ventilated seats, backup camera, 306 HP), it is still a great value in my book.

Here are some other cars I considered and why I didn't get them:

AUDI S4 SEDAN (auto): I almost bought this car. It is a great car, no way around it. V-8 engine, AWD handling, fantastic interior. Compared to the IS350, it is overpriced - the one I was looking at was pretty loaded at around $55k MSRP. Residual on the lease was terrible - 53% for a 2005.5 model. Audi is not known to have the best reliability, but supposedly they are improving. The nav and other technology just isn't as good as in the Lexus. Also it gets around 15 MPG in real world driving according to people on audiworld.com. That plus the $1700 gas guzzler tax makes that one expensive engine! But, great car if you can afford tons of gas, and don't mind the reliability risk of a German car.

BMW 300i or xi: Handles great. I don't like the look of the new one that much, but that is subjective. The interior feels 20 years old. Nav screen is small and comes with iDrive - not too into that. Also the turn signal lever is really weird in this car - anyone who has driven it knows what I mean. Overall good car though, and free service makes it even more appealing. I just liked the Lexus overall for looks, reliability, and technology.

INFINITI G35. Fun to drive, spacious in the back, interior much improved in the current model. Gas mileage is pretty bad, slightly better than the S4. Mostly I just didn't like how this car looked. The coupe looks a lot better but isn't for more than two people. Also the front seat controls are weird (they're on the right of the driver's seat, not the left), and the stereo controls seem backwards - volume and tuning ***** are switched.

blueIS350

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear that park assist is useful. I ordered it too. I also looked at the BMW330i, great drive but the interior turned me off... I just hope the Lexus IS will score as hight as the BMW 3 (5 stars) in crash tests.

spwolf

congrats, have fun!

isdsms

Sounds like a GREAT car!

Gian

Congrats, dude!

njgs

diablo1 click on this thread to see how you can overide the nav so it won't lock you out while in motion.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=167666

upbull340

Thanks for the review. My dealer is going to give me a 350 to drive for the weekend. He has too now that I found out he gave my Executive VP one for his wife to drive. Look forward to playing with the NAV system and other cool features.

I too was looking at an S4. But in my case I would like a 2004 or 2005. Still on my list but the 350 is going to be hard to pass up.

diablo1

upbull - a big reason I passed on the S4 is that I will be doing a lot of highway driving - leaving NYC to go skiing in Vt, visiting my parents in NH, etc. So for those 4-6 hr trips, the gas mileage on that car would just kill me. Also it has a pretty small gas tank - I think range on one tank is only around 250 miles - pretty painful for road trips. That plus the $1700 gas guzzler tax finally made me steer clear. Plus it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that my car isn't harming the environment as much - hey by buying a Lexus, I'm supporting the company that makes the Prius!!! haha!

Sam Khoury

Congratulations diablo1! Even though there are a lot of people against putting the tax in the payment, I think you did the right thing. Btw, could you send me a PM with the name of the salesperson you dealt with at Lexus of Manhattan.

markulele

My MSRP with destination was $43,069. I paid $1500 upfront and got a lease of $707/month. I rolled the taxes into the payment, which is kind of bad in NY because they


nice review, but man, you sure don't mind burning 707/month.

this is just like a very small 1 bedrom rental in san jose,

you must be well off financially

have fun

markulele

you get a loaner for the whole weekend?
are you an auto dealer executive?
and then you are still going to sell it after you enjoyed for one weekend?

do you think that is nice ?

i worked at GM Oppel, and we would get american imported cars, to research, and adapt to european roads, so employees who worked in that project could sign up to have it for weekend. But we did not resell it, we too it apart eventually.

Gojirra99

Good review, & congrats for the new car Enjoy !!

diablo1

That's just how much it costs to lease the car. I don't think I'm necessarily more or less well off than anyone else on this forum who has bought/leased the car.

diablo1

Ya, but what I didn't like about it is that you don't have the physical cue of the lever still being up/down to remind you that the signal is still on. I just meant it was "weird" in the sense of "unconventional". But I've read other reviews by people who liked it, so I'm sure you can get used to it. It's just a bit disconcerting the first time, because it works differently from the turn signal in every other car.

Do you have the '06 3-series? I was wondering if this is a new feature for this year, or if BMW has been making their turn signals this way for a while?

diablo1

I just like having the simple/normal operation of the lever. Up = right signal, middle = nothing, down = left signal. Most people expect turn signals to work this way, and it's surprising when it doesn't. It's similar to my objection that in the G35, the tuning **** is on the left, and volume is on the right, whereas in every other car I have ever driven, it's the other way around. It's not necessarily a bad way to do things, but it's different and a bit surprising. But, since I only used the BMW setup for a few minutes on two test drives, I obviously can't knock it - you use it all the time and seem to like it, so I'll take your word for it that it works fine once you get used to it.

Are you considering an IS350, even with its low-tech turn signal?