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Comments
1) Quality and Reliability...I've had 3 BMW's, and all have had poor quality and reliability. I've lost much time and money owning the Bimmers.
2) Luxury Over Sport...I personally prefer a more luxury ride over a sporty ride. Don't get me wrong--this doesn't mean I don't like a sporty ride. I've had 3 Bimmers to prove it. What I mean is that I don't need to feel every bump on the road to enjoy driving. I need my luxury car to have a decent sporty ride.
3) Money...My wife and I plan to start a family next year, so I need to spend our money wisely. I plan to keep the car for 5-6 years. This means I need a reliable, good-gas-mileage, and low-cost-maintenance car.
4) Style and Ergonomics...I like the way the Lexus looks compared to the BMW. It looks more sporty and nimble. The interior is much better than the BMW. The ML sound system and navigation is definitely much better.
These are just my opinion. Now let the BMW fans start bashing me for voicing my opinion.
Also, (at least from the tests) it looks like the IS350 gets worse mileage than the 330i, but that's not surprising given its power advantage and more weight.
C&D rated "ride" as:
330i: 9
G35: 8
IS350: 7
cars.com:2006 Review
Look at the Lexus-Estimated Fuel Economy (mpg), really bad numbers with a manual tranny. Although they are probably wrong.
I currently have a toyota mr2 spyder and get pretty good mileage. I don't know the official mpg for the IS but I'm pretty sure it will be less than my current car. i did have some doubts about getting a new car but the benefits that the IS provides over the mr2 will be well worth it.
I thought 850i failed because of price . . . too expensive.
Is their something wrong with suiting family needs?
If' that goal supplants handling and driver ergonomics, yes there is something wrong.
Then why bother with the sedans . . . go get a hardtop roadster instead.
6) People will know you are driving a new car. Sure the 3 is a 06, but how many people can tell it is different than 04 or 05?
0) Above all reasons, It is a LEXUS
That's better mileage than the TSX, which is only 4-cylinder and the new Civic Si. May be better mileage than the Accord V6 too and close to the V4 Accord.
Of course, the acceleration is not all that but with premium gas over $3 already in CA, fuel efficiency should have more appeal these days.
The IS300 attracted mostly very young, reckless "tuner" types whose driving habits drove up insurance costs.
Maybe these people will be complaining about how slow the 250 is and how expensive the 350 is and go buy an Evo instead which would normalize IS insurance rates over time.
Plus, the EPA of the IS250 manual is not very good.
The TSX and Civic Si both have 4 cylinder engines with less displacement on lighter cars and neither is rated at 24/32. So IF the IS250 auto gets those figures, I think it's pretty remarkable.
Corvette Z06 6.0L V8 with 400hp getting 18/28
Corvette Z06 7.0L V8 with 505hp getting 16/26
Those are remarkable numbers.
Now,
IS250 2.5L V6 auto with 204hp getting 24/32 is very good, but not "remarkable".
IS250 2.5L V6 manual with 204hp getting 20/29 is pretty "unremarkable".
I guess I just have a higher standard when I say a car has remarkable mpg.
That's not to say that the IS250 (but only in auto form) gets very good mpg numbers.
I'd like to get close to 30 MPG freeway, so I hope they're wrong, too. It will be interesting to see some "real world" results.
The IS is the first car in a very long time that I would like to own based on looks alone. It looks sleek and luxurious!
Here is something positive about the manual tranny, from The Car Connection.com
" The crisp, short-throw manual on the IS 250, meanwhile, was about as good a stick as any in the class, nearly as good as BMW's 3-er."
-- The Car Connection.com
You want shifters that are "nearly as good" as a Honda.....
Knowing Toyota, I'm guessing that the shifter in the new IS will be top-notch... I'm just not too sure about this reviewer....
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I thought I had read somewhere that the shifter in the IS was "rubbery," and was compared to the one in the manual-equipped Camry (4 cyl, of course). Let's hope they're (or I'm) wrong. The shifter in Acura's entry-level TSX is reportedly very slick, so I've got my fingers crossed on the IS.
Is it October yet?
If anybody has an idea as to price breakdown based on the different models and drivetrains..please do share... Im ultimately deciding between the new IS350, Acura TL, and Infiniti G35 (sedan). Tell me if this (lexus) is a better choice over the other two. - alvin
When the IS is available for test drives, you will know the MSRP by then.
The others have been out for years and will be discounted much more than the brand new IS, so the IS will cost more to buy in the beginning even if the MSRP is in the same ballpark range as the others.
The IS350 will be about the same price as the 330i.
Quiet...Shhh... Many I-must-have-a-manual-people do think they have an Italian last name...
Biker, who thinks the best shifting MT is the one in the CTS (better than G35, 3 series, TSX) - which strangely enough is made by Aisin - a Toyota subsidiary.
ON PAGE 395
Post #3941 of 3998 Re: Headroom [ckelly14] by cooney
Has all the stats. you are looking for.
Turns out they have reason. Newest R&T gave a time of 6.0 for IS350, much more in the expected range.
One possible reason was CD tested a preproduction IS. Maybe they should take a mulligan and redo the comparo with a production one.
So regarding the 0-60 time of 5.1 secs., it's possible that C&D made another typo/mistake
I dont understand the statement about using a preproduction model- wouldnt R/T have used one as well, so that doesnt explain the difference.
Besides, since it was a comparison test.... similar test conditions applied to all eight models, and regardless of the actual times, their relativity should tell something... the Lexus blows the doors off the other vehicles, period.
~alpha
However, the IS350 did not ACTUALLY go 0-60 in 5.1s on the test day (and neither did the G35 get 5.9s or the 330i get 6.0s). I'm not sure by how much, but ALL of the cars tested were in actuality slower than the reported times.
C&D corrects for temperatures and test conditions, and I think it was really hot on the test day, which would usually have an adverse effect on straightline performance. Which means that all of the cars, including the IS350, had their times adjusted downwards.
Doesn't change that the IS350's relative performance was still hands down ahead of the others.
It is possible that the IS350's acceleration is not much affected by heat or cold for whatever reason, but we can never be sure.
C&D: 5.1s
MT: 5.5s
R&T: 6.0s
Edmunds: 6.1s
Average: 5.675s
It looks like Lexus's estimate of 5.6s was pretty much dead on.
Preproduction means it isn't the regular car that people can buy. Engineers can do all sort of tweaking to it. IS350 finished 2nd to 330 mostly due to its strong engine performance (earning it 1st place in that category) with the engine that does 5.1, not the regular engine.
~alpha
So which of the lesser evils would you rather have? A pre-production/production Lexus IS350 that is *capable* of doing 5.1s on a 0-60 or a *production* BMW 330i that had a faulty ignition button and ABS failure that resulted in a 360 spin at 70 mph on a desert hill road?
BTW, I confirmed it. I got the magazine during lunch and tallied the two individual columns. The bimmer and the IS350 tied
CrimsonO2
"BMW's win many of our comparison test for the same reason marothoners prefer running shoes to mukluks. They just work better for the task at hand."
Personally, I don't think this was a very good analogy :P . Well, duh, it's supposed to be a comparison test. For those that don't kow what mukluks are, they are boots worn by Eskimos. I don't think any of these cars that came in 2nd to 8th place are "mukluks" :P . Sure, I could understand this analogy if they were comparing BMW's to trucks. I really would have second thoughts about giving high praise to a car that "malfunctioned" and "its dash ablaze in emergency alerts". :sick:
Sure BMW makes great cars but based on this comparison test (2005 - latest & most current test) with all the problems that they experienced "shortly after it was delivered" it would be foolhardy to rank it #1. Heck, they even had to use their braking number from a previous test because their car spunout.
In reference to the hot temps during that day, "air-conditioning performance [was] now destined to be a major factor in the test". For the car they deemed #1, "the A/C struggled in the heat". They should proof what they write because IIRC, they stated that BMW "just works better for the task at hand"
To me, I just think if a car deserves to be #1, it's tops for valid reasons. C&D and other automotive mags should really check themselves.
Charlatans.
You know, those mugs down at R&T were similarly impressed. "More baby GS than 3-series competitor."
Idiot pigs. Where do they hire these guys? Local AA meetings?
Well I feel better. At least that explains the ghost point towards the final tally.
CrimsonO2
In all likelihood, IS350 still can't beat G35 in acceleration times, despite more hp and 4 more years of development. Remember C&D graded G as having the better chassis. So the only area that IS beats G is the interior, G prevails in all else.
"At the test site we measure humidity, barometric pressure, and temperature. To eliminate the effects of weather on performance, we employ proprietary empirical correction factors to adjust all results to dry air at 14.7 psi and 60 degrees Fahrenheit using PsyCalc 98 software (www.linric.com) to crunch the weather data. Since cars run best in cold dense air, our correction tends to add time to results generated in low-temperature, high-pressure conditions and subtract time from hot-weather, low-pressure tests."
http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=2509&page_number=2