The 2014 car gives up nothing in terms of sensation and feedback from the driver's seat. It slices and dices and feels planted all the time. The steering is direct, predictable, and communicates enough information to the driver. No one would call this sedan overpowered, especially not with 255mm meats in the rear. It'll lift-throttle oversteer if forced, but should drifting be your IS 250 obsession for whatever reason, you'd probably be better off with a square-stance model.
Electronics teething troubles aside, the IS 250 F Sport works for the real world. It's an energetic handler, firm yet compliant, and not uncomfortable. It's decently quiet. You can show off the F Sport's sliding, LFA-inspired meter/thin-film transistor display to friends and family -- the display's information panel features three fuel economy-related tabs, one for tire pressure, and most coolly, one for gear position. There are now two console cupholders instead of one. You can seemingly sit lower than in the older model, which can be helpful for taller drivers. However, the low hip point combined with the high center console height can make the interior feel cramped, even though the 2014 version is statistically ahead in all regards. We hope a fresh powertrain is under consideration.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz2RauDYya7

The question on everyone's minds was vocalized by technical editor KC Colwell : " Is it possible that the BMW has the worst steering here?"

This is the first 3 series that feels less thoroughly engineered than its competition. It's competent, it's spacious, it's comfortable ; but in comparison to other cars in its segment, the 3 series is undercooked.

Compared with the other 2 cars here, the 3 series feels immense and slow-witted.

And that is what's most damning : The M Sport is capable, but it's not as engaging as either opponent.

Here's how the First Test went down. The early-build IS 250 F Sport was delivered to us after it partook in the 2014 IS media launch in Austin, Texas -- the navigation system had Texas destinations programmed into it. Snooping around the infotainment system with the Remote Touch mouse controller (which could really use a physical 'back' button) is how we found glitches in the interface software. Our past experience with the Remote Touch multimedia system has been generally positive, though the mouse could stand to be more precise. But this IS 250's screen froze twice as we tried to cycle through apps and functions. The first time it happened, we were on a long drive and the nav showed us locked in the same position for several minutes (we were still barreling down the highway) before unfreezing of its own accord. Control of the sound system went missing, too -- neither the steering wheel switches nor the center stack's volume or tune/scroll ***** could change what we were listening to or the audio level. (At least it wasn't magically increasing the volume.) In the second instance, the display suddenly went blank (it was set to the nav as well) but rebooted in less than a minute.

Another oddity in the car was the Snow button below the Drive Mode Select dial (Eco, Normal, and Sport) and stability/traction control switch on the center console. Pressing it didn't start the car in second gear, but then again, we didn't have the all-wheel-drive IS 250. To make sure we weren't part of some funny game, we checked for half-shafts behind the front wheels, and there weren't any.