Lexus,

Personally, 2005/06 cannot come fast enough for me. I think it is going to be a great year(s) for enthusiast who enjoy the entry level luxury sedans. The old guard: Audi (A4-S4) , BMW (3 series-M) and
Mercedes (C-AMG)) are throwing everything they got to fend off the upstarts Acura (TL-RL), Infiniti (G35-M45)
and of course Lexus (IS3??). Hopefully, you will not disappoint the cult following that has been build on the current generation IS300 so that you will be able to get "my" $35,000 to $45,000 on the next generation
IS3??.

I look forward to the day when Lexus will be included in the "Super Sedan" class that is currently occupied by the mighty BMW M, the smooth Mercedes AMG, the subtle Audi S4 and the junk yard dog CTS V. Untill then,
I shall keep the faith!


Sincerely,

Lexus fanboy Shoei

well the TL/RL and G35/M45 imho aren't in the league with the 3 series/a4/c class... they are too big.... (i don't put cars together according to prices if possible, otherwise i will have to compare the e class with the LS430). the tsx would be a contender imho

the new IS i think would be nice, specailly when lexus say this time it's going to be REAL contender with teh 3 series. that should mean more options on engines and body style. can't wait.

but i hope its price range won't reach over 40k, which i think would be a bad move on lexus (unless the car is spectacular) coz' lexus win by good cars at a lower price. for over 40k, first of all it hits the range of the gs3 (bad), and it's too close to the price of the top 3 series

If it does come with a hardtop convertible version, that model will likely be $40K+ but still reasonable . . .

yeah i agree if it does come with hard top, then 40k is very reasonable (and better be), however i don't think it make any sense. the 3 series (even m3) come with soft top, hard top is just too much money for a car of this class (it should be geared towards younger people). if anything, it should be sc300 or so. when lexus released the sc430, they planned to have sc300 the yr after, but since the sc430 sells so well, the scrapped that project. so you can see the lines laid out by lexus.

and if you look at mb, they don't have c class hard top. they have the sl hard top. and they do have sl350 in europe, but here in the US, the least model is sl500, just like the sc with sc430.

comments?

Well, I think a hardtop convert. does make sense for the new IS, it'll be like a slk (you' ve fogotten about ?)with back seats.

. . . or a CLK with hardtop convert. Actually the CLK is also based on a modified C class platform. Look at the much wider range of car models of Mercedes & BMW , Lexus also needs to widen their range of offerings if they want to sell even more cars. Right now Lexus is winning the vehicles sales race but they sell more SUV's than cars.

damn i completel forgot about the slk and the clk, you are right on well now that's up to lexus to make the call now

Some visuals for the thread...



2006 A4





2006 RS4





2006 1 Series





2006 3 Series





2006 M5

2005 300C SRT-8





2006 Charger





2006 M45





2006 Zephyr

2005 CLS Class





2006 CLS 55 AMG





2005 Quattroporte





2006 Galant

2006 Grand Prix





2006 Jetta





2006 Passat

Psukhu,

Thanks for posting the pics. I didn't expenct any responses to my post, so it's nice to see other ppl also looking forward to 2005-06 models!

Keep the faith!

shoei

okok, don't go too OT now. stay up with teh is300 or i will have to move it to car chat

it's stil nice to see all the new cars though

but for what we care in this thread, i am really looking forward to the new IS and see how it competes with the bmw and mb. it's going to be fun

O boy the compitition is looking real tough.

Agreed.

Lots of good looking cars with similar lines, headlights, and wheels.