dasbuch

They don't want people to be turds and drift it and tear these cars up. The IS series is designed to be a sports sedan for a market that's beyond the "fast and furious" stage maturity-wise, so if they do things that facilitate abuse of the vehicle they're just tarnishing their own brand.

FinaLpeace

I totally agree that the IS needs more horsepower to bump the 0-60 even closer to 4s.

I have to disagree with drifting and wanting a faster car demonstrate a lower level of maturity etc. There's a series called "shut up and drive" by professional drivers, Justin Bell and Townsend Bell, who in all the series drifted the IS in corners to achieve a faster cornering speed. It's in those corners that they enjoy the fun to drive IS350 F Sport to help Lexus advertise their goal of making the 3rd generation IS. I don't quite understand why some may feel like being able to drive faster and drift concludes to a low level of maturity. The IS markets to target younger buyers......
Sometimes having fun is also taking risk, that's why some people do risky activities such as sky diving and enjoy them.

dasbuch

Yes but most drivers, after they reach a certain stage in life, realize they should not necessarily try everything they see on TV/movies/youtube etc. My point is not that everyone who wants to drift cars is a bad person, but that the car drifting crowd is not Lexus' target market. Thus, no handbrake.

yardie876

As for the IS, I think it's simply down to aesthetics and packaging. The center console is narrow as it is. Adding a hand brake would take away from the precious space available and would throw off the overall look of the center console. Plus I don't think Lexus wants us drifting around the boulevard lol.

dasbuch

It does good things for their brand and image when people aren't slinging their cars all over the road and putting hard miles on them. They like return customers and that means putting CPO cars back on the lot when a customer trades up that is in great shape, has not been abused and chopped up. Toyota makes Scions for the demographic that wants to imitate things they've seen in video games.