I've researched but couldnt find it. Maybe it's been answered before but i couldnt find it so go easy on me. What was the problem with making manual AWD's? Subaru and Audi have had no problems with it, so whats the deal with Lexus? Anybody know?

 

We can only speculate as we did not engineer the car. Of course you can pretty much say that Lexus had one very simple reason of not doing it: Cost.

The transmission would have to have a new differential to match with the manual gearbox to drive the front wheels. While mechanically this is possible, it would require additional time and money design and produce it. And Toyota/Lexus is an extremely strict company where they won't produce a car unless it's significantly profitable. Basically if you were an analyst for Lexus, you can look at Audi, one of your direct competitors. They sell manual transmission vehicles with quattro AWD but does it sell as well as automatic quattros? No. Lexus probably saw that creating an AWD manual version would lose money. Even if it did have profit, it would be minor to the point where you could put your engineering workforce to other uses. At least that's how I would see it as an analyst.

Another question you may have is why they didn't make an AWD IS350. The simple answer is, again cost as the stock differential MIGHT not hold the extra 102hp too well. Even if it did, The sales of such a car would cut into their already low sales of GS models.

Subaru on the other hand makes AWD manuals as all their cars use the same design AWD so adapting a gearbox is much more cost efficient.

Luckily though, Toyota has been increasing it's stakes on Subaru stocks slowly. Rumor is Toyota and Subaru are creating a sub $20grand to low $20grand RWD compact. Think Scion tC in RWD form and more ponies. One would be sold under Toyota and the other Subaru. Basically this is a sign of a close relationship between the companies which means Subaru will soon become more reliable and Toyota will become even sportier. With that, close company ties or maybe even merging later on will mean Toyota can learn more about creating a driver's car and send that to Lexus and thus hopefully cutting costs needed for better manual gearboxes and AWD systems as Subaru's resources on these two would be readily available.

 

100% correct. Good write up. Along the same lines, they look at how many would sell. And although us enthusiasts want such a combo, the majority of the buying public doesn't. This is what drives their offerings the most. They are in the business to make money before anything else.

 

well put kuuqi