this looks like crap...

 

I saw them at my dealer today and was very impressed. I thought it was a great update. I see no similarity at all with the Corolla.

 

Yea seriously, I don't know what corollas your looking at, but they must be pretty good looking if your comparing them to this bet handsome sexy car.

 

Corolla certainly does look similar, but cannot match chrome classiness & upmarketness of facelifted 2017 IS.
Meanwhile Corolla interior is a complete shocker; so too Corolla's performance, handling & NVH.

 

Take away the swoosh light and straighten out the spindle grill and you have the Corolla front bumper. On the 2015s they at least had the extra side contour.

 

and take away the bumper, the headlights, the doors, the rear quarter panel, and the trunk, and the wheels. then yea, i can see what you're saying about the IS looking like a corolla

 

Good one!

 

I can see where the casual viewer can glance at a Toyota and see some resemblance to Lexus due to the bolder larger black grills now present onto Corollas and Camrys, but it ends there.

 

The new corolla and Camry esp the corolla look like plastic surgery gone completely wrong.

 

it was a very bad decision for toyota to start putting spindle grills on Toyotas, especially the lame corolla and camry. say what you will, but the resemblance is there and in a bad way

 

I don't see anything "spindle shaped" about the Corolla grill. The center flares out, not in.

I was was unsure when I first saw the pictures of the 17 IS, but after viewing an atomic silver F Sport at the dealer yesterday, I think it's a nice improvement that represents much better in person.

 

Agree. Nothing Corolla-like except a close overall length. And the '17 IS is also growing on me too! Unique and stands out among the crowd.

 

Agreed. I've realized that almost all post 2012 Lexus models don't photograph nearly as well as they look in person.

 

Here's a pic of my 2017 day I picked her up. I honestly think the refresh is way better than people are giving it credit for. For starters it's less busy than previous look, and spindle grille waist points are brought up higher than before with deeper flared bottom grille. A more sophisticated, almost German look vs. prior 100% Japanese identity.

 

The overall silouhette is similar.
Rival makes and models bear a similar overall resemblance as a three box design on four wheels.

Ditto engines and suspensions - they are basically all internal combustion engines, with A-shaped suspension arms at the front, and lateral & longitudinal suspension arms in the rear suspended by coil over shockies etc.

However, the devil is in the detail.

Toyota did a fantastic job with Corolla's exterior, however, the Corolla interior, engines and chassis still fall well short of the Lexus 3.5IS.
As always, the Corolla is certainly better value, but that's just the Law of Diminishing Returns at work - twice the cost, but never twice the car.
If you want to own a Corolla over an IS, that's your choice...