The black interior gets pretty brutal while sitting in the sun, what I do is put a sun blocker in the windshield and upon approach to the vehicle, I press and hold the FOB unlock button as that opens all the windows to let all the hot air out. If the conditions don't permit to let the top down, the a/c and cool seats work almost instantly

 

I was behind an IS250C last week and it was moving along nicely so you can certainly go for the fuel economy.

Synthetic will result in a higher priced oil change but the benefits more than make up for the difference.

The "orange" interior is named Saddle but I believe it comes with black interior panels. There is also red if you find a Pebble Beach model, but I digress. If you live in an area that gets a lot of sun you might want to go for the alabaster interior. It does show the dirt--especially scuff marks on the thresholds.

 

The alabaster gets dirty really easily and shows its age quickly. Unless properly maintained I'm thinking it may slightly depress your resale.

The 250C is slow; I have one. It just really didn't matter to me in a DD. I've owned and driven faster cars (and still own one) and I rarely ever tapped into that power. Conversely, the gas savings are negligible. 22 MPG vs 24 MPG nets you, optimistically, $300 in fuel savings per year. Maybe $500 if you're cross country driving. It shouldn't factor much into your decision. If going used and you really don't care much for the extra horses, buy whichever one comes up in the best condition, colors & options/packages for your price range like I did.

These cars are pretty rare so if you're impatient, beggars cannot necessarily be choosers (I'm still waiting for a good '11/'12 manual to show up locally and have looked for years til I just gave up)

 

[I realize I'm posting to a thread that hasn't been updated in a month, and the OP may have moved on]

I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet, but the most obvious reason to get an IS350C over an IS250C is to avoid the headache of the carbon deposit issue. It has yet to be proven whether the updates partway through the 2010 model year (my wife's IS250C is a late-2010 model) have eliminated the carbon deposit problem on the IS250/IS250C. The 3.5 liter engine doesn't have this issue since it has port and direct injection, so the back of the valves get cleaned by the fuel/air mixture. The engine in the IS250 has only direct injectors.

 

Hello all. Wanted to bump this thread because I found a 2011 is250c with saddle interior and light blue exterior (my favorite of the colors). 58k miles and priced at 24k, which seems like a pretty good price. Although the high mileage worries me a little, but I like buying a 2011 which would theoretically come with a bigger warranty right? I was also reading how there's a bit of maintenance to do at the 60k mark.

Will the saddle interior be easier to keep clean than the alabaster? I'm not good keeping up on car maintenance.

If it has the GPS dash does it definitely have a backup camera or are those separate features?