MrParis

Hello everyone..


I just had some dumb questions..

I was looking at the acura tsx and the TL.. then i drove the is250... which i like better than both.. my concerns are these

1: low profile tires wear ... I hear you replace the tires 3 times a year..
any solution to fixing this?
2: reliable .. Im sure its good being a lexus.. but is there any known problems?
3: likes and dislikes of car... vent to me all you like and dont like

Thanks
MrParis

MikeFoxx

iTrader: (8)

1: Just pay attention to your alignment... failure to do so will have you buying tires. OEM tires aren't low profile compared to many of those running aftermarket wheels. I bought my car on Father's day this year and tires are wearing evenly and still plenty of life left. I commute 80 miles a day 5 days a week.
2: Check the FAQ sticky there are common issues as with all cars but most are covered through recalls
3: I love my 350 ... only dislike is I can't stop looking for things to buy for it after telling myself it was going to stay stock forever.

FSportIS

iTrader: (13)

1. No, not true, not in my case, not on my IS250, nor my IS350. My OEM tires last 25k miles and still have some tread left. Even though the IS have the inner tire wear issue, but if you have a proper alignment especially all toe @ 0 or close to 0, you should be fine. My current new tires on both cars are still brand new (8-9 tread depth) even after about 5k miles and driven hard on autocross.

2. HELL YEAH! I drove both IS250, and IS350 hard everyday and they have been driven to their limit through autocross/tracks. All i need is routine maintenance, nothing has broken down yet.
Common known issues:
A. Carbon build up. This happens most on older IS250. Both my cars don't have this issue.
B. Alternator going out. This is actually a maintenance wear and tear item. I had this on IS350 @ 93k miles.
C. Navigator screen went out (frozen, or black out etc). Easy do it yourself fix, plenty of guidance on this forum. I had this on IS350 @ 90k miles and some ebay guy fixed it for me for couple hundred bucks.
D. Water pump acting up .... I don't have this happening yet on both car yet.

3. Likes likes likes likes likes likes likes ...
a. It is damn fun to drive right out of the box. With just an additional F Sport sway bar and traction control off, this car is such an incredible machine to do power slide on autocross
b. Everything inside and outside feels luxurious.
c. Maintenance is easy and cheaper than most other cars in the same class.
d. This ClubLexus community
e. 1st gear in IS350 is INCREDIBLE!!! 0-40 MPH in the IS350 will WOW you! It pulls almost as quick as a Lamboghini, no kidding!

Dislikes:
1. This car is NOT a tune friendly car. When you buy this, you do NOT expect to gain much horse power unless you spend crazy amount of money doing something unique. The typical HP gain is 20 HP (give or take) you get is from header + intake + exhaust.
2. Rear seats have little leg room.
3. Some cricking noises inside the cabin. I have this on my IS350 but not on my new IS250.
4. Time and money spent on mods lol the mod bugs will begin immediately once you get it

adam2104

Hey there. I just went through the same thing as you. I drove an Acura ILX, Acura TL, VW GTI, Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe MT and AT, and a number of other cars before driving a 2013 IS 250 F-Sport. The Lexus was by far the nicest one compared to all the others I drove. It just oozed quality. The VW was a pretty close second to be honest, but the shorter wheelbase and terrible reliability turned me away from that. Ultimately I ended up buying the certified pre-owned 2013 IS 250 F-Sport. I've had it just about a week now, so I'll comment on your questions below:

1. Three times a year for tires? I certainly hope not. I've had my car 8 days and the tires still look ok I think this one depends on a lot of factors, the type and quality of the tire, how you drive, etc. I wouldn't / didn't put any stock in this concern when I purchased.

2. I based my decision on what I know of Lexus and Toyota in general. They typically tend to be better than average when it comes to reliability. However, as with all cars, there are always issues that come up. For the IS I think those issues depend largely on which one you have, 250 or 350, and what model year it is. Mine is a 2013 and has 11,400 miles on it, so far it's be reliable, for whatever that is worth.

3. Likes and dislikes, this is going to be a long list. I'm coming from a 2006 Honda Accord EX-V6 sedan with navigation. At the time I bought it this was the highest end model you could get. My likes / dislikes are based on the comparison between that Accord and my new IS 250.

Likes:
--Handling. The IS is significantly more nimble and inspires a lot more confidence.
--Interior quality. Seriously, this thing looks great inside.
--Seats. The IS seats have way more lateral support.
--Slightly smaller, fits in my garage better.
--Headlights. Nice and bright and have auto leveling too.
--Road noise. The IS is quieter on the highway than the Accord was. Though the stock Dunlops on the IS are kinda noisy, I'll be replacing those with a different brand when needed.
--TPMS, my Accord didn't have that.

Dislikes:
--Slower off the line than the Accord by a decent amount. The Accord V6 was no slouch when it came to acceleration. The newest Accord V6 coupe with a manual that I test drove was impressively quick (275hp, 252lbs of torque). Driving my IS 250 I wouldn't stand a chance in a straight line sprint.
--Have to look down to see radio station, volume, and clock. My old Accord had all that information in a tiny, maybe 1 inch high, display near the top of the dash. I didn't know how much I used that feature until I didn't have it.
--Scratching on the door sills. Not sure what's up with this but I touched the door sill with the plastic tool from my vacuum and it left a big scratch on it. So, I need to be careful there I guess.
--Requires premium gas
--Radio presets don't wrap around, but go to next page instead. The IS has 6 pages of radio presets I can set. I'm only using the first two, and it doesn't wrap around. For example, say I'm using station 1 on the first page. I can change all the way to station 6 on the first page, and if I press down again I'm on station 1 of the second page, not the first page. My Accord used to wrap around, so I could go from station 6 on page 1 to station 1 on page 1, with just one click. In the IS I need to either touch the screen, or click the channel up button 5 times to get there. I can easily see the argument to have it scroll to the next page of presets, that way one could have a bunch of channels, but I'm only using the first 2 pages, so when I accidentally end up on page 3 I get some random station I didn't program. Who knows, maybe it actually wraps around when I get to page 6, channel 6, but I haven't tried it. Maybe there's a way to change the behavior of this, but I haven't it yet.

I could probably list a few more things but I think that's probably enough for now.

Keo

iTrader: (9)

1) Tires is great. Better than other Tires out there.
2) Yes
3) Me Like 350

FSportIS

iTrader: (13)

Lol, we had same previous car. It sound like you should have gone with the IS350 instead. I can tell you, the IS350 is significantly having lot more torque and HP and it will pulls you from stop like no other car. It is definitely faster than Accord v6 off the line. I regretted getting the IS250 but I end up buying the IS350 few years later. Now i own both

For tires, go with Hankook v12 or Michelin Pilot Super Sport. The handling will improve even more with these two.

kiryu

Acuras and hondas are hell reliable, except the transmissions
My friends tsx tranny dead at 97k miles, and my CL did an amazing 258k miles on 2 transmissions

1. Tires depends how u drive i guess
2. Super reliable except a couple of items mentioned by others above
3. If power is ur thing get the 350

One thing that bugs me to HELL on both the IS 350 and IS F is the single cup holder... It also doesnt accept any larger cups than normal. If u carpool with wife who always wants a starbucks its a pain. The back seats have cup holders but they spill, the door ones spill when u open and close the doors and are very small

MikeFoxx

iTrader: (8)

LOL dude this is my only gripe and i didnt think of it. She always orders her venti passion tea lemonade and a venti ice water... i'm sitting there like where is my drink going??? she always puts the ice water in the rear and i hold mine till I can sneak it into the cup holder. The whole time I drive like an old man cause I don't want the water in the back to spill.

chxpla2

I have 20" after market wheels with low profile tires, just put a new set of tires on after 1yr and 20k miles. I drive a lot and usually more aggressively. And I hate that there is only one cup holder! HAHA really the only complaint I have.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

you can get all season tires instead that will have longer treadlife than summers

Mike_1GO

iTrader: (2)

not trying to bash on acura's (I work for acura) but the tsx gets annoying driving it daily from all the engine noise and since it revs like a motorcycle its gets tiring overtime. the TL is a nicer drive but overly stiff suspension you feel all the dips and ruts on the road. interior quality of late model acura's is no where near Lexus. For example, acura uses shiny plastic for their wood trim whereas lexus uses real wood. i drive acura's all day and there are a lot of cheap touches here and there most notably in the interior that become apparent as soon as i get into my Lexus at the end of the day and compare the 2 brands. the level of refinement you get from lexus suspension is much greater than acura. lexus is quieter and the engines are silky smooth. transmissions shift a lot smoother and don't jolt around like acura's on upshifts and downshifts. the higher the miles on an acura, the more loose the transmissions feel. with lexus, they tend to hold up much better. also worth noting is the small car battery in the tsx dies easily when not driven for a few weeks in the cold.

sw2oboi

iTrader: (12)

1: low profile tires wear ... I hear you replace the tires 3 times a year..
any solution to fixing this?
-that's a bit of an exaggeration, life of tires depends on many factors
2: reliable .. Im sure its good being a lexus.. but is there any known problems?
-known probs are all over this forums
3: likes and dislikes of car... vent to me all you like and dont like
-the things I dislike about this car are reason why I sold the car, it just wasn't meant to be for me. I wanted more of a drivers car. What I do like the reliability and cost of ownership.

tomiv9

1. The stock tires on my 2009 250 awd lasted till about 50k miles.
2. issue with pre 2010 250s is the carbon buildup

MrParis

Thanks for all the helpful feed back.. I was looking at a 2011 is 250..

I agree with the acura guy..,. the interior on the lex is way nicer.. thats why i liked it more..

tires I guess if you align them and get all season shouldnt be a problem..

My only gripe i have with the car is no hid lights on awd ones... only if it has navi... kinda silly.. when ever car in its class has it...

so any problems with the 2011 is 250?

davidma415

iTrader: (1)

Pretty sure HID was an option, even on AWD ones.