I agree with you. I bought the IS350 F Sport over the 335 because I genuinely thought it was the better car. But BMW kept updating and bringing the performance while Lexus just gave us cosmetic upgrades. Lately, BMW has really been bringing the performance and its crazy to get an F car over a comparable M car. The M340 is better than the C43 and S4 and probably the RCF. Also, BMW unreliability is greatly exaggerated. I have buddies whose BMW only had minor issues but are 6 years old and running strong. They keep up with maintenance and the cars just run. Its a great brand.

 

IMO, the IS will be more important than ever without a GS around. They need some sort of meaningful "entry level" RWD- sedan unless they're going to completely concede that segment to BMW/MB/Audi which I would find hard to believe.

I was thinking about this too... It seems like they're content with flashing what they can do when they want, just to show you they can, then they regress to the mean. BMW seems to be getting a little better in overall quality - seems like they are closing that gap faster than Lexus is closing any sort of performance gaps.

 

Speaking of lexus and performance, they spent billions on the spectacular LFA, and for what? Only to continue the half-hearted efforts with rare as unicorn GS-F's, IS-F's, and the weaksauce F-sport trims.

Right now, Lexus is an SUV brand with one (fwd) sedan (ES) that sells.

hopefully this new IS when announced, is substantive and impressive!

 

Bottom line is, Lexus has just lost its way. Time to move on.

 

Not sure in other areas, but BMW & Mercedes are in the same boat. Other than 3 series and C class, everything else is X3, X5, or GLC, GLE.

 

You can't reason with these people. I've got most on ignore. They are the 'Usual Suspects" who continuously bash Lexus Performance cars having never owned a "F" car or even a Performance of any kind or even driven them. They keep promoting that BMW's are reliable based on a "friend" that had one. Look at Repairpal, JD Power, and Consumer Reports. Data and Statistics don't lie. Here they are being negative on a thread about a car before it has even debuted. I could have guessed who would be commenting. I won't be subscribing to this thread and won't see the peoples replies who are on my ignore. If you are looking for a thread of people that care about the newly update IS, this isn't it. LOL!

 

I'm hearing now on some other sites that the IS has been cancelled in China too? This whole pattern feels all too familiar. First the GS, now this...

 

Or in Europe X1, X2, GLA, GLB, etc.

Only country where sedans still sell well in China, which is why you see German sedans being more catered to Chinese markets right now. Whole segment is dropping in both US and EU for years now and only thing that save it is large incentives (vs much smaller ones for CUVs).

 

Good plan.

Sedans will continue to fall in North America.

 

Not bashing Lexus here...I want to see Lexus succeed and continue to offer cars that I want to drive. Pretending the decisions they make are the right decisions when you don’t feel they arent doesn’t help them do that though.

As I’ve said before, I’ve been a Lexus customer for 22 years. I think my viewpoint has merit.

Releasing the IS as a third refresh vs a new model is another huge mistake.

 

I think the only way to make it all work for an all new design is for Lexus to share a platform with another brand.

 

Why does the worlds largest automaker need other brands to develop their platforms for them?

And...they have the platform. That was the whole
point of the GA-L offshoot of the TNGA platform.

 

I think your missing just a few models lol

2 series - sedan, coupe, convertible
4 series - coupe, convertible, grancoupe
5 series - sedan, wagon
7 series - sedan
8 series - coupe, convertible, grancoupe
Z4 - convertible
i8 - coupe, convertible

Then you also got M model for each.

MB has even more models than BMW.
Audi also has bunch of sedans, coupes, grancoupes etc.

If Lexus only offered half of these models - ppl would be thrilled.

 

The IS could be released as a refresh, and could do well, but it needs an entirely new infotainment system / center stack. It needs to modernize the front end. Oh and new engines. Besides that...

 

Toyota/Lexus seems to be very big on getting the most mileage out of a design as possible.