Used 2019 Lexus IS 350 Consumer Reviews
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2016 IS350 F Sport
I hesitated to buy this car because of Consumer Reports rating. They did not like the car very much. Later I found their review was based on the entry level IS. My opinion is that this car is awesome. I have owned over fifty cars in my life. I am hard to please. This car accomplishes what it is supposed to do. When you factor in reliability it wins the class with little competition.
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My second IS and it's nice
Pros: - The car performs perfectly for the US. It easily accelerates to speed (and for passing on the highway) and it handles like a dream when the roads get twisty. - You're going to play with the guage cluster a lot. It's cool and fun. - The seats are probably the most comfortable I've ever had in a luxury sports sedan (owned or ridden in is300, bmw 328xi, audi s4). This vehicle is comfy. - It's a Lexus. It just works. And when I'm done driving it, the resale value of this car will be fantastic. (I sold my old is300 after 10 years for $10k.) - It's got all the luxury I need (heated seats/steering wheel, ventilated seats, nav system, blindspot detection with crosstraffic (saved me twice already), bluetooth, USB port, etc.) - It's really roomy compared to the old IS300 (and they finally made the seats split folding!) Cons: - It does sit low. I'm also a cyclist, so I've added a hitch to the rear which makes it worse! It will get rock chips in the hood. And it will rub on steep driveways. - It's not great on fuel economy. I generally don't "play" with it a lot and I'm getting around 22mpg. - The brakes do produce a lot of dust, so expect to give it a cleaning regularly Go see it in person. Some people hate the styling, but I think it's less gaudy in person. (The photos of the front make it look awful.) I haven't had it in the snow yet, but I expect that the AWD and all season tires will do just fine. Update 4/17/2016.... I've now been through some winter driving in DC with the car. I have the AWD and it felt as solid as my 2005 Infiniti FX35 in the snow. I was able to drive it up to Pennsylvania to go snowboarding 4 or 5 times without issue. That said, I suspect if the snow got deep (over the bumper) that the snow performance could degrade pretty quickly. (The car sits fairly low.)
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- F SPORT SedanMSRP: $27,123278 mi away
- Base SedanMSRP: $26,995282 mi away
- F SPORT SedanMSRP: $29,998646 mi away
Great car, with a few exceptions
I lease a Lexus IS350 with the F-Sport option, and for the past 3 years it has been a lot of fun to drive. I turn mine in this May so I figured I have enough experience with it to write an honest review. First of all, I'm not a race car driver, so I don't much to compare against. But this car feels very sporty to me, has plenty of pickup, good handling, and a snappy suspension. The infotainment system is fantastic. I especially love the 2nd display sitting behind the steering wheel. It's top-notch; plenty of bling and wow factor when you show a friend how the main dial moves over to reveal a 2nd screen. And it's functional, allowing you to do 2 things at once (music + navigation for example). The voice activation is decent enough. I really grew to like the center console "mouse" so if you test drive this car, don't be too put off by it. It grows on you. There is one big negative though, and you should know this before purchasing or leasing. The road noise is excessive. I realize this is a sporty car that sits low to the ground, but that shouldn't be an excuse for having to jack up the volume on your music at 55 MPH on a road that isn't all that old. And yes, this is with the standard tires AND with new replacements. The bottom carriage of the car simply does not have enough insulation to block out what is happening underneath. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but I can imagine some people would hate it. If you test drive, make sure to insist driving the car on a highway, preferrably one that hasn't been re-surfaced in the past couple years.
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Love my IS350
Love the feel and handling of this car. It's so fun to drive. Only qualms: Car vents for air conditioning could be stronger, I have to turn air all the way up to feel anything and then it's loud and annoying. Also, I should have opted for the better quality sound system. However, I feel confidant that it will always take me to and from wherever I have to go...safely. Previously I had 2 BMWs. I love the way my IS350 drives better than the 3 series I had. I also had the X5 and loved it but it was too big. I opted for this smaller sporty car and have the same fun driving this as I did the X5 even though they are two completely different vehicles. I wouldn't trade this car for anything.
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Awesome blend of sport and luxury.
I wanted to drive mine for a few months before rating it. My first impressions were nothing but positive, so I thought I would drive it for a bit before advising others. Here are the categories that are important to me: Looks: Exterior: I love the way my IS350 F Sport looks. I've read that it's polarizing, and I think that's pretty accurate. For me, it's perfect. Looks: Interior: I love the interior. This was the main reason I chose Lexus over Audi, BMW, or Mercedes. Since I'm on the inside, I care about that more than the exterior. The mouse takes some time to get used to, but now it's like 2nd nature. I love the way it clicks into position depending on which screen I'm in. It doesn't just free float like a traditional mouse. It knows where each button is on each screen, and gives physical feedback as you toggle. The guages are one of the best features. It's extremely easy to have the info you want clearly visible. Performance: I almost always drive in Sport+ mode. The only time I drive in Normal mode is on the interstate (for the extra gas mileage). In town, it's just too much fun to drive in Sport+ mode to worry about the gas savings. The F Sport in the RWD is the way to go due to the 8 speed transmission. Every gear is so smooth and acceleration is adequate for normal driving. One of my favorite parts of driving in Sport+ mode is the throaty engine sound when the RPM go above 3k. It gives the extra feel to the experience of driving a sports car without having it become obnoxious.
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2014 Lexus IS350 F-Sport
Owned this car for about 5 months now for my wife and we love it I occasionally drive it now and then. Coming from a 2012 MB C250 it’s definitely an upgrade. With 306hp you don’t really feel it since the car is somewhat heavy but you do feel the torque of 277 at a dead stop and you floor it. But once it’s up there it speed it tends to fell sluggish compared to other cars. The ride is smooth and quiet. Too quiet for me to be honest but hey your buying a Japanese luxury car. My only complaint is the voice command is extremely trash. It either won’t understand what your saying or do something completely opposite. Entering an address is a pain because 7 out of 10 times it’ll be wrong so I just use my phone. Haven’t had any major issues on this car since it is a daily driver miles will go up fast
Love This Car!
I got a '15 CPO Fsport AWD Nebula gray - After etensively driving the '14 BMW 328i & 15 Audi Q50 - the overall exterior lines, road performance and overall ride quality of the IS350 outperformed its competitors. Pros: Though it lacks the horsepower at the line of the Q50- it Brakes and handles like a dream at high speed - put it in sport ++ mode and the suspension brakign and handline tighten and you actually feel really safe takign the turns at high speed! The Rioja red F-sport interior includes the race stitching, metallic side panel, F-sport badging, and maybe one the coolest LED instrument gauges out there. At first I hated the front grill, but seriosuly go see one of these in person - it looks mean - the side profile and sightlines in the fsport version are some of the prettiest on the road imho. Have only owned this for 2 weeks - so havent test it for winter conditions but the all seasons shoudl be fine with awd. I have it in sport & ++ mode a lot so my mpg prolly not the best. Cons: The backseat is pretty small unless you have little kids like me, legroom could be cramped with an older family. Make sure and get the protection package put on it, as you will get rock chips on lower sitting front end.
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Switched after 4 BMWs and a lot of problems
I am a self admitted car guy. I have had no less than 8 cars since 2000 and have either driven BMWs or Volvos. I see a lot of posts about Lexus vs. the BMW. I would ask the BMW owner to specify when they are reviewing their car-is it before or after 50,000 miles. I have had a 3 series, 5 series, 2008 X-5 4.8 L and a 2014 X-3. In 50% of my BMWs, I had major mechanical issues in or around 50,000 miles. Without hestitation, my favorite car was my 2008 X-5. It was fast and luxurious, but after spending 3 days at the dealer for a high pitched transmission whine, I decided not to wait for the full repair bill. I recently picked up a 2014 Lexus IS 350 F sport with 19" wheels. The car is an absolute blast to drive and the interior is amazing. I find the sport+ mode super responsive with an engine that has no lag and keeps giving. What makes me love this car is the reliability. With the BMWs, I was constantly worried about a major repair bill-with the Lexus, which I bought with 39,xxx miles, I feel like the car is just getting warmed up. It's a car that is both reliable and fast and one I can see myself driving for a long time. It clearly is not as fast or tight as a 335, but it's way more reliable.
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Aging Well
A one year review on a 2019 IS350 AWD F-sport 2. So far 6,500 trouble free miles. Car is a daily driver in all conditions, handles good in snow/ice, running high performance winter tires so it could be better. The looks of the car grow on you with the big grill, can see BMW has copied some areas on the new 2021 3&4 series. The Lexus Atomic Silver is beautiful paint, not too soft, a fine cut, polish and ceramic coating makes it look liquid in the sunlight. Brakes are spot on for mild to aggressive daily driving. Adjustable suspension makes a nice improvement in the corners. Now for some areas its lacking. Transmission: 6 speed Aisin is an ok transmission, very lacking in the shift quality of the ZF 8 speed. In eco mode it thinks the engine produces lots of torque at low RMP's and upshifts too early, it sport it wants to hold gears just because someone programmed it that way, in manual mode it tries to shift fast but just causes a rough shift instead, also in the AWD models the transfer case causes and large hump that can get in the way on the left hand drive models. Interior: layout is decent but lacking an adjustable sun visor for the side windows, very poor place to cut cost? Also no option for head-ups display like we see in much cheaper cars and in the competition. Engine: likely on of the most reliable engines in production, but its starting to show its age in lack of low end torque and just ok fuel economy. I do highly recommend if you buy your car and keep it for lots of miles or years, for fun of driving the Genesis G70 and BMW 3 series are better choices if you lease and keep 2-4 years. Update: my car recently had the fuel pump recall, otherwise has been problem free. I did try a new 2021 IS350 F-Sport and i can say the 2019 is a better car. The 2021 update is very disappointing. It does not address several short comings of the previous gen, actually makes things worse. For 2021 the IS 350 and RC 350 had an change in fuel consumption rating, the MPG went up some. From what i can tell it comes down to shift points in the transmission, the transmission in any mode is always trying to get to the highest gear as fast as possible.
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Will not buy another Lexus
Just traded in my 08 cadillac CTS on this new 2014 IS350 AWD. I have been a GM guy all my life and decided to go with my first import car. I looked at BMW, Audi, Ford Fusion and a few others. If you are looking for a true sport sedan, look else were. This is more luxury than sport. It has a very comfortable interior and perfectly laid out. It does handle great and has very impressive performance. I still think BMW does handle a little better. Audi was a little too stiff riding but had a lush interior. But Lexus fit all my requirements this time. I have only owned it for a couple months, so far, so good. I hope it's reliable as they say. Updated Oct.09/16 Reliability has been OK. Something drained the battery one day, and when taken to the dealer, they had no explanation. This happens to my friends GS350 constantly. The voice activation/navigation is a joke and Lexus should be embarrassed. Lots of road noise for a car of this price. I will be trading this car in for another brand once the warranty is due.
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