natnut

Ahem....

http://www.motortrend.com/future/con...ew_lexus_rc_f/

SW17LS

I will be the first person to jump up and down!

SimTide985

Yeah, it's hard to get a grasp of the IS350's true potential while in city driving with traffic. You won't really feel it come alive until you push it around a bit.

SimTide985

For the record, the only thing keeping this car back is the lack of 8 speed transmission in the AWD and its fuel economy.

I wouldn't hesitate to get this car but I would really prefer the AWD model and with the 8 speed transmission found in the RWD

driven5373

Why would you want AWD in Arizona?

SimTide985

There's a 50/50 chance I won't be in Arizona this time come next year.

Just thinking ahead.

natnut

Here's another balanced and fair-minded review of the IS350 (non F-Sport) :


Take home message : he RAVED about the chassis and the steering of the IS and he did so despite going into the review expecting a Lexus to be boring to drive.

Keep in mind also that it's a non F-Sport he's driving so it doesn't have the adaptive shocks ( AVS) of the F-Sport package yet he was impressed with how the IS soaked up the bumps while handling beautifully. AVS from my limited personal test drives actually IMPROVES ride when in normal mode so for a base suspension to be so capable already is even more impressive.

Looks like Lexus engineers really did their homework when designing the car's base structure and suspension even before resorting to electronic trickery.

Maybe it's my Lexus fanboy speaking but it seems to me like he all but declared the IS to be better driving than the 3 series.

So before people continue on about the missing options on the new IS F-Sport and comparing it unfavorably to similarly/cheaper priced rivals which do have these options, they should also consider the considerable R&D dollars that went into the base engineering of the car as well as the complicated AVS of the F-Sport.

I would so love to see how an even more powerful engine than the 3.5L V6 would do in the new IS chassis. The chassis and base suspension seems to be begging for more....

Ramon

Was there less R&D done for the f-sports being sold in other countries?

Glashub

"F SPORT is 30,495 GBP and 33,495 GBP respectively, and includes aluminum pedals, 18-inch wheels, bespoke front grille and a firmer sports suspension. Premier is available from 35,495 GBP / 38,495 GBP and packs sat-nav, electrically-adjustable heated ventilated front seats and 15-speaker Mark Levinson audio system." http://www.worldcarfans.com/11302145...g-announced-uk

This means to get the fully loaded Fsport w/ ML one would have to pay $60,210.03 US (use currency conversion tool). Who in America will pay 60K + destination fees + taxes for a small car? As a business owner (and it seems I'm may be one of the few on this forum) I get the mathematics, psychology, and the business sense applied by Lexus.

American consumers are not Japanese consumers. Studies show that even our Canadian cousins respond to triggers, keywords, and images differently. A company can go out of business marketing to Canadians like they're Americans.

And a company can go out of business prepping for the sales of a 60K+ small car to Americans who equate wealth with size. In EU there is no such association.

Even a maxed out M sport comes in under 60K - http://www.carsdirect.com/build/opti...dLightbox=true

And if I see more than 3 of those a year in SoCal I'd be surprised.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I love those wheels.I've always been a fan of the Lexus 5 spokes.

driven5373

I for one am just as happy without all the frilly options. Give me an Evo with a smooth shifting tranny, nice interior and comfy seats, and smooth ride when not driving in a spirited fashion, and I would be happy. That's all that is needed.

peteharvey

Do you want a bigger capacity 3.7L V6 like Infiniti, or a 4.0 V6 etc?
Or a smaller 3.0L V6 with twin turbos aka 335i?
Or say a 3.0L V6 with twin turbos, and electric hybrid at the rear?

SW17LS

It actually doesn't mean that at all. You can't use conversion rates to tell you what a specific car would cost here vs in the UK or whatever. Adjusted for exchange a GS300h costs $200,000 USD in Singapore (we just had this discussion in another thread). Does that mean if they made a GS300h here it would cost $200,000? No. Different markets are different markets.

I am also a business owner. I have owned and sold several businesses in my life, sold the first one when I was 22.

I understand what they want to do...make more money. The mathematics=more dollars per unit. I think their desire to make more money in this and a few other instances is at the worst case short sighted and potentially detrimental in the long run, and in the best case its a slap in the face to their customers and enthusiasts.

Glashub

It's not meant to be an apple to apple comparison. Do you have another way to determine the cost of a fully loaded Fsport? Explain why a car that cost a certain amount in one pounds can't be converted as a simple comparison?

It's easy to state what everyone thinks -- the obvious -- which businesses only are in business to "make more money". But given the highly competitive nature of the auto industry -- it is simply a case of maintaining a margin even though the manufacturer is selling a bigger car with m ore standard features than last years. One way to do this is to target what the demo/psychos models will sell and to optimize the manufacturing to deliver what data states will sell.

Form Forbes - "Fast forward to the present, and seemingly all cars are good. No doubt some can point to outliers, but in general if you buy a car today you can rest assured that it will start tomorrow, a year from now, and five years from now. Those who purchased new cars in the last five years know this intimately, that the modern auto generally doesn’t break down all that often. In short, cars are simple, prosaic, and easy in a modern sense to manufacture well.

But because they’re easy to produce, there’s little advantage to be had in manufacturing them for the middle market. Unions can be blamed, and no doubt the $1,500 per car cost of union labor will be trotted out a great deal in the coming weeks, but the facts are that unions or no unions, mid-range cars are yesterday’s innovation.

Precisely because they’re yesterday’s innovation the profits in the space aren’t sufficient to attract talent or investment. If anyone can produce reliable cars, why be in the business? No doubt Americans could if they chose to manufacture great tube socks, toothpicks and paperclips, but why produce what anyone can? If anyone can produce something, the margins are naturally going to be small. Cars today fall into the ‘anyone can produce them’ category, and the fact that they do explains Detroit’s demise more than anything else."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamn...ican-cars-did/

As a person who has uh bought and sold several businesses certainly you understand the above along with EBITA and reporting to stock holders.

AndyL

Thanks for the video. It confirms with my test drive of the new IS in general. The ride improvement is noticeable over the 2IS when there is road bump.

However, this guy in the video needs to do more homework before spilling up wrong info or wrong negatives. Obviously the car in the video has twin headlights but the guy pointed to it and say it is HID. Later he commented how much lack of space for him to put the smart key fob and his cell phone in the car ---- he forgot there is a armrest storage and with the NAV screen, the phone can be connected with bluetooth anyway and be stored in the armrest storage. How difficult for him to spend a minute or two to verify the info given to him... simply amazing.. LOL