they do, its called the IS250.

 

^^^ And that motor is being removed from the lineup FINALLY

 

Is the 3.5 V6 still the same on the IS/RC/GS for 2016?

 

did you hear anything about this 300?

 

Reserved for the AWD market.....

 

hopefully Ultra Sonic Blue makes return to F Sport models here in US.

 

i don't think they gonna do the MMC for model year '16. that sucks cuz a lot of people gonna flock to the new 200T or 300 AWD and then watch the '17 model year MMC comes out.

 

Is the 300 AWD a new engine option with more power than the 2.0T ?

 

it is not going to have more power from 3.0l... at least not torque... having few hp more at 6700 rpm shouldnt really matter at all. It will likely be a bit slower but smoother.

 

Absolutely. At this point I truly believe the 3.5L V6 will remain unchanged for the entire life cycle of the 3IS. I think Lexus believes "its good enough" and they don't need to do anything with it.

 

that's interesting that they're coming back with the 3.0 v6. I personally like choices. Although they were not available for the same model year, the 3GS for example had some good engine choices 300, 350, 430, 460, 400h and AWD variants

 

Kaizen, it is likely the Lexus trainer only has information on 2016 model year offerings. The idea that the 2GR-FSE will not be replaced beyond that, may not be something they can accurately state or determine, if such information has been withheld from them by senior personnel.

In my own work, there are many things going on at Land Rover, that I am not fully aware of or privy to for security reasons. Jaguar concerns more of my duties, but still limitations between different programmes in some cases.

Why would that be the case? Lexus has trademarked both sets of IS200t/RC200t and IS300/RC300 in the U.S. market. They have also renewed the former two as of March 2015 (RC200t) and May 2015 (IS200t). They have not been abandoned either.

Kaizen has also reported both are coming for MY2016. Whether this applies differently in parts of Europe and Asia, is another question of course.

 

That is very correct, it won't be 2016. It is very much the U.S. 2017 model year or MY2018 by mid-2017. Design work on that IF for the 2017 model year, would be finished by now. Later than that, maybe early 2016 approval.

How far can they really take the 3IS in terms of design improvement? Toning it down, simple changes, or aligning it with future Lexus designs on the way? Why hasn't one even seen the facellift GS yet, especially if sales begin in September?

 

That could be the single best marketing choice they could make with any 3IS update.

 

its weird... i assume then that there is a packaging issue with 2.0t and AWD in some vehicles, cant see what else.

But I like it that they did the effort and did 3GR-FSE and not just carried over 2.5l engine.

As to the 2GR-FSE, update version is in Tacoma and RX... I am having hard time believing it is not coming to IS/GS soon... but then again, what exactly is soon? It could be next spring too.

As to GS - I assume that GS-F is showing us the way BUT what is confusing to me is that GS interior did not change much for MMC... for instance, I would assume infotainment unit would be new from RX (and LX) and steering wheel would be updated version as well.