RoiteTrom

So after reading many reviews and comments on the interior of the 3IS, I noticed that there are a mix of people saying that the material used in the 3IS is cheap, while many others say it is fine quality.

My question is: How can you tell?? I always see people leaving these comments, but they never say why or how it is nice or cheap. I'm confused as to how you can tell if the material in a car is cheap or not. Anyone wanna gimme their opinions?

Jbreezie

Are you talking about the Nuluxe seats? It feels like leather to me! I felt other make's pleather and the nuluxe feels the softest!

HanaleiISF

No one has ever asked if my Nuluxe was something other than leather. I think all the material in the car are top notch except for the black plastic on the center console. Looks out dated.

Loe

hard plastics in the lower door panel and the side of the center console is cheap, where the previous generation had soft stuff(and also the 3series, Q50, C-class). The silver trim is painted plastic, again cheap. However, everything is tied down great and moves with a quality deft feel. All soft vinyl/plastics feels well padded and durable.

corradoMR2

Having owned several Lexus vehicles including the previous 2IS, where the 3IS falls a little short as Loe above posted is in the usage of more hard plastic in the cabin and the loss of fold-out door bins. The design also gives the impression of a "downgrade" (but it's perception only) as it moves from a more luxurious softly padded traditional Lexus interior with lighter tones, plastics (including the dash), thicker carpeting, and more wood, to a now sportier, fighter-jet cockpit interior highlighted by a black-only dash.

However, the 2IS had a "cheap" quality HVAC plastic panel as it creaked and rattled to no end from Day 1. 3IS is rock solid and not a single rattle.

So in short, the 3IS has a little more hard plastic but overall a much more solid vault-like feel on the interior including the switch gear.

hades281

Agree with corradoMR2.

The lower half of the door panels could have used some more attention in the design department. I do miss the fold-out cubbies in the door from 2IS and the speaker grilles ought to be upgraded. (I think the speaker grilles look super cheap.)

As for the center console, the plastic side panels can be replaced with padded ones from F-sport cars, and most likely we should be able to retrofit Lexus RC padded trim parts onto our cars. I'd like to do that if it's not too expensive.

Build quality though is better overall than the 2IS. The whole center stack on 2IS cars was a mess of thin creaky plastic; the dashboards tended to develop a gap above the a/c vent. Also the controls in the door (windows, mirrors, etc) are nicely illuminated in our cars. Nuluxe is a great durable material. Many 2IS cars have a problem where the dashboard begins to "melt" in the sun due to UV exposure and hopefully that won't happen on our cars.

I think that the base Lexus interiors are either on par or better than the base Audi/MB/BMW interiors, but the German cars in their fully loaded form are probably fancier and more plush than IS cars are.

bhvrdr

To me the interior is more toyota than it is lexus. For example, if you pick any single entry level german sports sedan or even the cadillac ats you will see some sort of luxury trim on the dash and door panels. It may be a strip of aluminum, carbon fiber, or ash wood or something of the likes but it is a nice touch. Our door panels are all black and relatively void of any character details. I saw this lack of detail in an RX350 we got as a loaner car too. Once you step up to the GS350 you get all those nice touches, which is funny because I could have bought a GS350 for what I paid for my IS350

Mike

IS1911

My only "complaint" is the carpeting. When I had a Porsche 911 you could sink into that carpeting but I realize that's not a fair comparison because of the price point so here's another. My 14 year old Toyota Camry had carpeting that was softer and thicker than the stuff in my IS. Now that being said I did invest in a set of those WeatherTech custom floor liners (which are AWESOME!) so I guess in the end carpeting doesn't matter that much to me.

electrohou

Yes the f-sport silver trim is kinda cheap, that's why you wrap it in carbon fiber, which costs $20 and 2 hours of your time.

Compared to my old 335i, this is350 f sport is an upgrade in every way, except for the stock trim which you just carbon wrap. Leather is much nicer than the hard rough 3 series leather. Don't miss 335i at all.

Larry96815

My third Lexus, I want my leather back.

AndyL

Being an owner of 2IS and 3IS, here is my take -- overall the quality of 3IS is better than 2IS if we are talking about fit and finish. Material wise, the weakest link in the interior of 3IS lies in the area of the door panels and the centre console where the climate control, infotainment system and the gear box.

For the door panels, I find the lower portions of the door panels fine although I do miss the fold-out capability of the storage. But to be fair, the fold-out lid would be difficult to be integrated with the design of the door panels of 3IS. And without the fold-out feature, holding things there is perfectly fine. What I find the door panels lacking is the embellishment of the arch above the window. It is now painted in black with much less plastic cladding. However, the door panels won't be that bothersome as they are considered to have adequate wear and tear resistance.

Not the same thing can be said for the black centre console panels. They are simply too prone to swirls. And some slight indention can be seen around the gear box if you look closely.

However, this only applies to 2014 IS. Lexus has already fixed it in 2015 where the hard black plastic is replaced with a matte panels with a soft refined look/touch.

Despite the "cheap" hard black plastic used on the console panels, they look incredible under sunlight as I can see they are not solid black but black with pearl effect if under pristine condition. Also the buttons for the climate control and the climate control panel plate are actually have some thicker paint.

To preserve and prevent the centre console panels from deterioration, I am now experimenting with a product from Gtechniq called C6 Matte Dash where it claims to add abrasion resistance and it lasts for 6 months -- you have wait for 24 hours between 2 layers of C6 and I think it does add something to the surface. I also topped it up with my usual vinyl/leather/plastic conditioner called Satin Pro from Jeff Werkstatt.

HanaleiISF

I think my feet touched the carpet on the way home from the dealership and didn't drive it again until my weather techs came. Lexus carpet I hardly knew ye

link13

I have no complaints about the interior. That said, I tend to keep cars for long periods of time and my previous DD was my 1994 GS300. Different worlds. I did like it when I was giving my friend's son a ride to a party (the son is 14) and he got in the car and said, "wow, this red is bad ***." That's how I feel about it.

tC2IS350

I have no complaints with the materials used in the interior. Soft touch materials are soft, the arm rests on the doors have enough cushion. I also actually like the fact that the carpets aren't super fluffy or plush, it makes them easier to vacuum. Sure, the material under the arm rests on the doors is hard, but it's not like anyone typically touches that area on a regular basis.

We all won't know for a few years how the quality is from a long-term stand point, but I'm happy now.

damtachoa

They build cars to make money. They don't build cars for what you want. That's the ways all companies out there do nowadays. So don't complain about quality.

Buying a car over $40K without having a memory seat and power steering, that's a ridiculous.