[timzerofive]

http://www.latimes.com/

Will the IS cars steal sales from BMW? I rather doubt it. BMW's customers have a different set of imperatives and the Lexus doesn't offer enough driver involvement to guile them away. But in the everybody-but-BMW segment, the IS is a force to be reckoned with. I give it an A-, maybe a B+ if I'm grading on the curves.


"A triple scoop of Lexus styling

IF watchers of automotive styling wondered where all the flares, waveforms and undulations went on the latest BMW 3-series, I've found them: They're on Lexus' new IS sport sedans. Inspired by the company's new design language, called L-Finesse — which sounds like the name of a Mexican wrestler — the luxury division of Toyota has managed, not quite consciously, to build the 3-series that Munich would have built if they hadn't gotten a straitjacket on design chief Chris Bangle.

Man, this is one frothy bit of styling. Even the taillight lenses have little meringue-like peaks whipped into them. The cat's-eye headlights are right off Grandma's nightstand. The dorsal contours plunge down the roof rails, onto the hood and into the bumper in the shape of a divining rod over an east Texas aquifer. The triangular fog-light apertures and bumper opening follow the same V-shaped contours, which ultimately has the effect of giving the car kind of a happy, slightly stoned grin. Heading aft, the rising shoulder lines leave the midsection of the car looking thick and slack below the windows and create something like an optical illusion: The rear wheels look smaller than the fronts.

Football and car styling are games of inches. The GS 430 sedan — also an L-Finesse styling exemplar — has an easy fluidity about it, a stately aerodynamic flow. The same styling language on the IS — almost 9 inches shorter — looks crowded and turbulent. As El Finesse might say, "Ay caramba!"

This is Lexus' second edition of an entry-level rear-drive sport-compact sedan. The first try, the IS 300, introduced in 2000, was a stubby little vest gun with chronographic gauges and seats that fit like an Eisenhower jacket. It was competent and likable but bereft of serious sports-sedan mojo. I personally really liked the SportCross variant and hope another sport wagon remains in the product plan. In any event, younger sport-sedan buyers stayed away in droves.

Lexus started burnishing its sport-sedan credentials in 2005 with the GS sedans, the GS 300 and GS 430, which are meant to bracket BMW's 5-series. The company seems to like this pincer-like strategy, and so the new IS comes in two flavors: the 2.5-liter, 204-horsepower IS 250 and the much horsier 3.5-liter, 306-hp IS 350.

I drove the first example I could get my hands on, which was an IS 250, but now that choice seems inspired. For one thing, the IS 250 can be had with a six-speed manual transmission (a six-speed automatic is the sole gear-swapper on the IS 350). All-wheel drive is also exclusive to the IS 250, although that could easily change in the next model year...."

(EDITED)

[2006bmw]

I've read the article but I don't know if it's been posted here. You might want to link the article and only post a portion. Posting the entire article is a copyright violation and you don't want the owners of the cite to be getting nasty "cease and desist" letters from LA Times' lawyers.