I hear ya...but he literally said it's better at everything and the IS 500 is a complete disappointment. I agree with you WRT similarities with the 350 F Sport.

"The IS 350 wasn't promised to be a hot performer so....here we are with this"....

Strong words and very poorly delivered. Hopefully, folks considering will take the necessary steps to find out more before they make their final decision.

I will add one caveat.....I do have a Pedal Commander that I use from time to time, so I don't necessarily have any issues with the transmission after it's warmed. No issues with the steering that he seems to think is the biggest letdown.

I traded in a 2022 BMW M440i for my IS500 and had the same discussions there. It's not a true M car....but I found it better than the current M4 when factoring cost/performance. It was about the same price as the IS 500.

 

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

Love how the IS500 carries on the 1960s muscle car tradition of manufacturers stuffing their biggest engine into their smallest car with little upgrades to anything else. Yes, many of us would’ve gladly paid $4-5k extra for better brakes and oil/transmission coolers but we all understand why Lexus chose a lower MSRP over more track oriented equipment.

Besides, spending 30 minutes complaining that the IS500 is not a modern day IS-F makes about as much sense as complaining that it can’t tow 7500 lbs.

 

I don't think he's wrong with everything that he said but I think his own expectation prior to driving the car really created bias in his review. It almost seems like he expected this to be an M/RS/AMG competitor (and we all know that it isn't supposed to be) even though he didn't say it out loud. I do agree with him and wished Lexus put the 10 speed from the LC in this car but I understand why they didn't. They would've had to put it in the RC-F as well and it really wouldn't make sense for a car that's reaching end of production plus it's more cost effective as a company since a lot is carried over from the IS350 RWD. I'm sure we all would've loved for this to be a full F car but most of us knew it isn't going in so that's why we are satisfied with our purchase.

Just my two cents.

 

Here is a huge one he got wrong that this is the same engine as the one in the IS F. It isn't. There are many changes, it's not just bumped up compression and some tuning. When he said that he lost any credibility. For someone who claims to know, he does not. He is full of crap.

Here is a good spot to read from...
http://australiancar.reviews/2UR-GSE-engine.php

 

totally agree. CCN put too much emotion into this review. All based on an oversold expectations that he had incorrectly assumed or had been given. It's been mostly met by equally strong emotions by us in reaction to his emotions. However we mostly don't disagree with this factual observations.

The IS500 car is more like the older GS430, SC400, SC430 where they were just an additional engine option, but otherwise the same car.

 

Your last line is correct, yet somehow he missed that.

I disagree with lots of his "factual" observations as he got lots of "facts" wrong. Is it a perfect car? No. Was it sold as the IS F? No. Is it as specced up as an F car like the GS F or RC F are? No. But he was stuck on the they ran out of money, it's incomplete shtick. It's his take but he's wrong. Maybe it's his way of trying to have an angle on the debate. This car is basically the last gasp of the 2UR-GSE V8 and swan song for the current IS platform and that motor. I am thankful they did it as it looked like they would not. It took them 8 years of the platform to release what many of us wanted in 2014.

I don't care that he doesn't think it is perfect or God's gift to humanity in car form. (that's the MK4 Supra /sarcasm)

When someone blows their facts so hard then I get upset. Too many youtubers suck at basic facts. If you say something try to back it up.

 

​​​​​​​i'm replying a lot because i've seen many of his videos over the last year. He used to work for Toyota/Lexus dealerships for over a decade. So he certainly could of been part of the teams that did the first rebuilds and actually did learn.

 

I also enjoy the pedal commander on mine. I had one on my v8 auto camaro as well.

 

I had to go back and re-watch video since i first watched it while working. I understood that the context he's saying is that the ISF was a better and different than a 2IS in many different ways, vs the IS500 is only better than a 3IS in 1 single way (engine). And to him that was a letdown and a complete disappointment. Again he had the wrong expectations but where is the factual inaccuracy?

I rewatched again. What exact facts did he get wrong? Most of his opinion based statements started with "i feel like they did this because...". I agree with most people here that he had the wrong expectations of what this car was supposed to be, but when he described the car itself directly he basically said the same things that everybody on this board says about it.

 

^^^ same here. I went back and rewatched the contents and agree that his expectations were a bit more than what this car was intended, but his observations about the shortcomings of this car mirrors our gripes as well.

 

I made that change within a week of getting the car. Go ahead and try it, there's no harm. It takes 30 seconds. If you don't like it, then another 30 seconds will put you back to stock. I grabbed a pack of vacuum caps from an auto parts store for like 4 bucks.

The change is obvious, but not dramatic, if that makes sense. Overall I prefer the earlier onset of intake noise with the flap perma-open. I spend a lot more time in the 2000-3000 rpm range than 3000+, so it's nice to hear intake noise more frequently. The sound of the engine, after all, is the whole reason I bought this car.

 

This is EXACTLY why I fell in love with the car upon seeing the reveal video, even when I never thought about Lexus as a possible car choice before.

 

His harping on the fake sound and how unusual it was to have it.. Yes it has it so turn it off and there is none but he never mentioned you can do that. The RC F has ASC that is active in Sport S+ but no button to turn it On / Off! The GS F had an On / Off ASC button, not a volume control like the IS 500 so it is not unprecedented with the Lexus performance V8 cars to have it.

During 19:54-20:23 in the video he says... "All they did was increase the compression. And then they tweaked a little bit of the tuning to get it that last push to 472hp."

Uh No it is not the same motor, they did a lot more than that as I posted here...
http://australiancar.reviews/2UR-GSE-engine.php

A fair amount of hardware changed. If it was easy IS F guys would have swapped the parts to get the same power.

Like I said before I don't care if the review is all positive and agrees with me 100%, heck it can disagree with me 100% and that is fine. Just get your facts straight and he did not. If you don't like the car or it disappoints you, great, it's not for everyone. If you like it great. We have different reasons for liking it.

 

just tried it. Agree it’s not dramatic but you’ll definitely hear/notice it.