That's pretty stupid of Lexus to go in the wrong direction, as far as acceleration goes. No excuse to get beat by a Honda or Toyota, no excuse at all. Who gives a crap if handling is a little better? It's not like those every day sedans are going to take it to the track to see what up.

The is350 is supposed to be a sports sedan, so why in the heck are they making it heavier and slower? Whose steering the ship over there, Mr Magoo?

Hopefully Lexus gets their head on straight by the time I need to upgrade my 2014 is350.

 

Just don't upgrade to the 2017 model...its slower

 

I'd take that 0-60 time with a grain of salt. Heck, the IS 300 should be able to do 6.0 on a good day - I think C&D had a bad run with their testing this time.

 

The IS is just a generally (relatively) slow and heavy car with a somewhat lazy transmission (tuned for reliability) BMWs can rocket off the line and do everything well because they're highly tuned and unrestricted. They're cars cut from the same cloth, but assembled by a very different tailor. Remember the IS was made in response to the 3-Series. Not the other way around. So naturally there will have to be some catch up to do. Lexus has done quite well in this regard and is the only reason why I own one today after owning so many BMWs. Quite good quality, good handling, good braking. But still not there in terms of outright performance. Give it enough time and Lexus will do better next go around.

 

+1, "relatively" is the operating word, but then again, it's all that matters. To be honest, I thought it just felt like a more solid vehicle compared to the C-class and 4-series GC to which I compared it before buying. i.e. I got more a feeling of quality from the IS. I didn't drive any of the cars hard enough during the test drive to know about the performance, really, so I went based on what I had seen in reviews that the IS would be more appreciated by enthusiasts or those who value handling, especially handling feel, over straight-line speed. Though, on paper, the IS's handling isn't any better than its rivals, especially with the stock tires.

 

I test drive the 3 series heavily and pretty hard as my friends have them. I found the IS350 to have better handling. The 335 was definitely faster but I felt the 328 at the time was not especially at highway speeds. On paper, handling is almost impossible to gauge as the metrics are very limited in telling you the overall capabilities of the vehicle. I prefer a relative track test to see how the car fares.

At VIR, the IS350 did very well. I've attached an expert from the results. It fares much more closely with the more capable 335 than the lower 328/330. To tell you the truth, I find the F30 chassis really disappointing compared to its predecessors.

 

Yeah, that is a great point about the handling. It really is subjective for virtually all buyers. I haven't tracked mine and am not sure whether I will (though I did just discover a nearby road course...), so I think for me it was always just confidence that won me over - felt more in tune with the IS than the other cars I tried.

 

this may be a whole other thread, but isn't the rolling start 5 - 60 mph the more relevant & meaningful acceleration metric for everyday driving? and in that metric the 2017 is clearly in line with past instumented tests of this generation. it's also in line with comments made about the power & acceleration in nearly every review of this model, even by the reviewers who really like this car and pick this car over faster cars in comparison tests