Was looking into getting a 2015 IS350 AWD and when I was searching this forum, I found a thread that said that in order to change the headlight bulb on this car, you have to replace the entire headlight!?

The OEM headlights are $1000 dollars a pop! I was going to buy this car because I like the reliability but that seems like I'm locking myself into a guaranteed $2000 bill FOR HEADLIGHTS.

Surely that can't be the case for all IS 350? The thread in particular sits here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ght-bulbs.html

Is this for all IS350's or is it just the F-sport?

 

Not sure you may know how reliable led headlights are but LEDs especially on cars are going to last longer than you will ever own the car. They dont go out like regular filament bulbs do. Yes there will be peoples that die but your buying a lexus. If you really think people are replacing headlights every 5 years for 1k a pop Your wrong. Unless your are destroying these headlights with a baseball bat they arent going to break and if it does you can easily just open it up and replace the led housing if you are a diyer.

 

I've had my car since 2013 with LED headlights they haven't gone out. My previous IS with HID went out within 4 yrs but dealer replaced it under warranty it was just bulb but would've cost over $300 due to labor. LED will last a lot longer.

 

Referring to 2014-16 IS, there are 2 headlights available...Single projector HID and Dual projector LED.
The one you are referring to is the Dual projector LED...where the LED's are not replaceable.
However, if they do go out it likely isn't the LED itself, but rather the module that controls it. It may be possible to just replace the module instead of the entire headlight.
The odd headlight has gone out here and there, but without knowing the history of every vehicle, it's hard to say if it was the vehicles fault or something else...i.e. was the vehicle in an accident? is the headlight housing cracked letting water in? etc.
What headlight the car comes with really depends on trim package and region...basically just look at the headlight and see if it has one or two projectors...that's the easiest way to know which one it is.

 

All cars are going through route, with that said failure rates for LED are very low so the risk is low for yours to fail unless you are keeping the car past 10yrs, even then the risk is still low as LEDs can last an insane amount of operating hours. Look at LED/LED TVs, a quality brand will last 10yrs+, my TVs from 2007 and 2009 still work perfectly and have way more hours of use than what you would put your headlights through. I would not worry about it on a top tier auto brand. A buddy of mine has a friend that had his rear LED light fail on a VW and it cost him $900 CDN to replace it, but that's VW for you, electrical failures.