It had to come up sooner or later, I'm just surprised I couldn't find where it had.

So I'll start.

I'm on the fence about the front grill. I like it, in pictures. I'm sure I would like it on a 3IS I own when the car is super-clean, but what about the rest of the time when there are plastic bags stuck to the front of it when I'm crusing down the road? Maybe even a chicken wedged in there (for those who cruise the rural areas) or a wayward autistic toddler or two lodged in there head first?

I'm being obviously facetious, but its a REALLY BFG (BFgrill). I like the look of the car overall, and the fact that Lexus is putting a bit of a dent in the "conservative" image the brand might have once had.

Now, the more troubling part. Audi seems to have championed the toddler-catcher grill first. I actually like the fishmouth Lexus implementation of it better, but what's to stop everyone else from following suit (thus heavily devalueing the overall idea) over the next two years? In the last couple of years following my purchase of my 2010 IS, I saw Lexus designers covet the LED lights of the Audi and force them into a headlight that was not originally designed for them. Since then I swear to god I think I saw a Kia with the farking things.. they look like cheap Christmas lights now. Granted, the 3IS does a really nice job with headlights and the LEDs, so a problem from three years ago has apparently been solved going forward (wooooo). But is the "BIG TOOFUS" syndrome just another problematic trendy issue waiting to happen?

I don't know. Probably another 2-3 years before I look at new cars, and we'll see how things go then. BMW created a look with its front grill, and even though others have implemented symmetrical split grills since then, they never took anything away from the brand. And that's what these marketing fockers care about at the end of it all.

 

everyone is following the suit already, every car almost has a big grille, but predator is pretty distinctive.

 

That is why I'll probably go with the non f-sport. The f-sport grill is a bit too much for me. There are really only 3 things I can get use to so far, the f-sport grill and the nike led strips & the scallup headlights, I much rather prefer the led strips to be like the GS or LS model, however I can live with it on the IS. The f-sport grill not so sure that will ever grow on me. It might be better with some European licence plate across it, that would break up some of the height in that area, like we've seen on some pics. Would this be considered a mod?

 

I have a 2011 IS and I think the LED DRLs were implemented well even though the 2006-2010 IS headlights didn't have LED DRLs so I didn't find it a problem. Unlike those LED strips some people buy and tack them on the headlights.

If anything, I don't like how the LED DRLs on the 2014 IS are separated from the headlights. Doesn't look as bad in darker colors of the car though like black. The current GS, ES, LS, etc. have the LED DRLs with the headlights. I can't blame Lexus though for wanting the IS to be different from the competition or the rest of the lineup.

 

Grill is perfect IMO

 

agreed

 

The F SPORT grille actually looks good in person. The standard one looks a little bit off as you go from horizontal grill bars up top to a honeycomb mesh design at the bottom. It would have looked better if they went horizontal all the way across or use an all honeycomb mesh design as the IS does stand for Intelligent Sport.

IS 350 F SPORT


IS 300h (Euro-Spec)

 

I finally saw the IS350 F-Sport in person... I think every thing about the car looks great EXCEPT for the front bumper. The perfect car would be the IS350 F-Sport with the "regular" IS350 front bumper. The F-Sport front bumper just doesn't look right... like somebody trying too hard to get attention.

 

This sums it up
skip to 1:43

 

It will be a big non-story a year after the car has been on the road, just like the spindle grill on the GS F Sport. No one will care. Way too much overanalyzing going on here.

Audi was dissed with their big fishmouth grills and they have managed to really increase their buyer base by going a different direction.

 

This is totally true and likely what will happen. Whenever a polarizing feature surfaces, everyone gets up in arms over it, but then it dies off and all is fine. Audi's big grille is a great example. No one even thinks twice about it now. What makes it so hard to swallow with Lexus is the brand has been known for clean, conservative, and stately designs for over two decades. This is a huge jump. I'm slowly getting used to the new IS, but I would have been ape ***** nuts over the new one much faster if it had a milder front-end.

 

I dunno... the thing is the Audi's have bold front ends.. but they look good! Acura went "different" with that ugly beak and people never accepted it as looking good... to the point where Acura had to tone down that styling feature on more recent models. The Bangle BMW's are another set of cars people never "eventually" accepted as looking good.

I think the regular IS350 looks handsome... but the front end of the F-Sport is just begging for attention. Not only is all that black plastic zig-zag area look odd... but vents/scoops at the bottom half of the bumper look weird in person as well. I tried to get my brain to accept it... but it just can't. But as I said... the rest of the car looks great...

 

I think the new IS looks great all around except that front bumper. It works for the GS but I don't like it on the ES or IS.

Maybe I'll change my mind once I see it in person.

 

This X 1000.

 

My thoughts exactly, Flip....

I only want the F Sport grill, and then I will break it up with a European style stretched-horizontal license plate. I think it looks perfect with that. With no front license plate, I do think it's a little much, from some angles anyway.