Not every car is going to be the same size, depends on what your needs are. You don't buy cars for the friends you might have in the back seat but rather for yourself or your family. Theres not much leg room but i never have to sit back there. Overall the design on the outside looks very sport unlike the C-Class.

 

It is a two seat, four door car IMO. Ahhhh, but I love my 350.

 

If you and your remaining 3 friends are 5 feet 8 or 9 inch tall , the car is comfortable and spacious enough and yeah a kid aged about 9 can sit in the middle back seat too. If your like around 6 feet tall , the back can get cramped if the back seat passenger is also 6 feet tall. If he/she is shorter , he could probably adjust. If you're the only one driving the car mostly. This car is perfect.

 

I get that but although I love the Lexus brand I can still look at them objectively. It doesn't make sense to not accomodate a larger customer base. The Benz C is about the same size externally but the interior is roomy enough for people even bigger than me. Why can't
lexus do that?

 

The biggest disadvantage of the IS is the interior size, it IS small. I am 190cm and have almost zero space above my head in the drivers seat. I have to lower the drivers seat all the way down to fit in somehow. Compared to my old Corolla the IS is much smaller. Every time I drive another car and sit back in the IS I can feel how small it is (especially the headroom)

My friends, colleagues are about the same size like me, if we go out somewhere we almost never use the IS as we can not fit in... There is absolutely no legroom in the rear for them. If I travel with my girlfriend, my sister and his boyfriend the car is ok (not comfortable in the long run, but ok) as the girls are smaller and we can put my gfriends seat in higher position to give a bit legroom to my sisters boyfriend...

 

Not that I am in happy with the IS when I want the room which is like 3% of the time, Lexus did what they did to be objective and to differentiate customers clearly.

If you want small, snug, balanced and nimble -> IS
If you want slightly more roomy and balanced -> GS
If you want really roomy -> ES

How funny....When I owned the 1999 Mazda Protege, it had WAY more rear leg room than the Corolla and as much as the Honda Accord.

The Corolla has grown over time and I drove one few months back, and it felt like I was sitting inside a ball. That is how they have designed the interior. Every surface is concave giving you the feeling of more room within the same exterior size. Pathetic approach to design. To make matters worse the Corolla was like driving a Jet scooter, literally. Small, and no real sense of direction.

 

Like others have said, the back is too tight. However, I rarely have anyone in the back, so it works for me!