Lexus IS F 2009 Review

Lexus IS F

Road Test

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.5/5.0
Safety: 2.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.0/5.0

The IS F is the first attempt by Lexus to promote a muscle car in the prestige and luxury passenger car market. This point, combined with its proximity in price to two well regarded rear-wheel drive German sports sedans (BMW M3 and the Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG) will lead some to think that the Lexus is not up to snuff.

It's 'only' about $15,000 cheaper than the two German cars, but around $60,000 more expensive than the HSV Senator and $50,000 beyond the price of the FPV GT-P. All of these cars are designed to achieve similar ends: big horsepower, rear-wheel drive, four doors and macho looks -- in varying degrees of subtlety and prestige.

Yet for all the tough competition above and below it, the IS F acquits itself very well in its own little niche. Despite its added expense, it's more like one of the locally-manufactured sports sedans than the BMW or the Mercedes.

First impressions of the IS F aren't 'impressive' at all. Commuting home in stop/start traffic, the IS F feels just a bit light in the loafers after the very tight and focused M3 driven a few months back. That softness is a consequence of the IS F's conventional automatic transmission as much as anything else.

The eight-speed box is worthy but a little uninspiring after the M DCT transmission in the M3, but it does come with a Sports mode setting to change throttle response and shift points. Choose this setting (the other, 'Snow', is unlikely to find much use in Australia) and the transmission will hold gears if you select one using the shift paddles -- even with the lever still in Drive mode. The paddles respond to driver input faster than the lever, in our experience, but, frankly, nothing like as quickly as the paddles in the M3.

Compared with the dual-clutch box it seems a bit passive at times. By allowing a little slip before the engine's torque reaches the drive wheels, it makes the engine feel somewhat off the boil. It's only when you pull into a gap in the traffic and drop the hammer that the engine lets you know it's on the job.

The engine feels, in character, like a powerplant that needs some revs up to give its best -- in contrast to the smaller engine powering the M3, the 'Minuteman' of prestige V8s. The IS F's 5.0-litre V8 engine also sounds less Euro-thoroughbred in a sense, but it needs to be running at 4000rpm on the tacho to begin delivering true acceleration.

When it does though, phew!

From that engine speed there's full-throated induction roar to signal the engine's intent. The powerplant will run hard right up to maximum revs (7000rpm) and then bounce around at that engine speed until you change up a gear.

At freeway speeds the engine reminds you constantly it's awaiting your command. Not that it's by any means noisy, just there's a barely discernible vibration lingering just below the level of hearing. Everything else is quiet, although there were buzzing squeaks from loose fittings -- emanating, it seemed, from the general area of the glovebox and from the driver's side B-pillar.

The tyres weren't unduly noisy, despite being capable of taming the car's startling performance potential. In fact, even on coarse bitumen out in the country, they were no worse than many other tyres of higher profile.

Steering is not as sharp as we recall of the BMW M3 -- but it's still pretty direct and transmits enough feedback through the wheel, plus the turn-in is quick, but not unsettling. This is yet another aspect of the IS F's dynamics more akin to an HSV or FPV than an M3 or C 63.

The IS F's suspension is tight and firm, but owners could live with it. If they are buying an IS F they don't expect their muscle car to ride like a marshmallow. There's not much give in the IS F's suspension over lesser bumps, but it will cope reasonably well with larger undulations and irregularities in the road surface.

It's harder to provoke power-on oversteer than to kick the tail out on a trailing throttle, but the car will crab sideways in the wet -- in a straight line. Overall then, the handling is what you might call neutral, but the roadholding is more poised if the tail is squatting a bit.

As with anything that doesn't meet with the IS F's parameters for what's safe from a health and safety perspective, the stability control system is right on top of things at the first sign of trouble. Having said that, the stability control has a lot of power to rein in and it generally does so without it being too obvious. We would ultimately place the Lexus system ahead of the stability control tried in the Jaguar XF 4.2, for example.

The fact that you can progressively downgrade the stability controls assistance is a plus for keen drivers.

Lexus has equipped the IS F with capable brakes. They're a bit savage and squeal a little on gentle halts, but it's good to know that they'll do the trick when the driver is pressing on. On that subject, the IS F is deceptively quick at times and even on known roads it can reach corners sooner than expected -- and usually travelling at speeds higher than anticipated.

When you do find yourself in the position of needing to react to a rapidly changing situation, the driving position is fantastic. The toggle for the electric steering column adjustment is fast and accurate.

Unlike certain German cars that shall remain nameless, it's easy and quick to find a comfortable and appropriate seating position that will provide a clear view of the instruments and easy reach of the steering wheel, shift lever and the pedals. There's an enormous footrest to provide your left foot with somewhere to perch and the seats are heavily contoured and really hold you in place, but not in a way that will have you restless and fidgety within half an hour.

If there's one issue with the driving position, it's the placement of the assist grip above the door -- too close to this reviewer's head while the car was accelerating out of a bumpy corner, as it turned out. That's also a symptom of the headroom, which is at a premium in the front. Mostly, that's a consequence of the standard sunroof (a delete option if you don't want it), which will eat into the headroom available for taller drivers.

The IS F is not without other flaws in daily driving, we've noticed. Visibility when reversing is somewhat hampered by the stylish but broadly opaque C-pillars (this is the same situation with the IS donor car, by definition).

Adaptive headlighting operates in low beam as well as high-beam setting, but doesn't provide quite the same level of side-to-side swivelling as in Audis and BMWs tested recently. It's still a boon though and the lighting generally is very effective, in both low and high beam modes.

The reverse parking guidance has been tuned to give you relatively little response time to the unbroken tone indicating that the car is within proximity of the car or wall behind. Whereas most such systems will increase the frequency of the tone in a slower sequence, the IS F's system changes frequency with geometric suddenness over the last 15cm or so.

We've used better satnav systems. The one in the IS F is not what you would call intuitive to use and after a couple of occasions when it attempted to detour us past a major arterial road headed in the same direction to join a freeway so we could travel all of three kilometres, we gave up on it.

Developed to prevent car-jacking, the two-stage remote central locking is annoying, in that you have to unlock it twice for passengers and that applies to them leaving the car also. If they don't know how to unlock the door when leaving (the car locks up all four doors at speeds above 30km/h), the driver must do it for them.

Finally, the rain-sensing wipers wouldn't operate during a very light drizzle and the IS F lacks the two-stage indicators fitted to its German rivals.

But these are relatively minor annoyances from a car that is much more satisfying than it is irritating.

In essence, the Lexus is probably better compared, as stated before, with a high-spec HSV or FPV. It remains very refined and offers many of the attributes expected of a Lexus, but in its tone it's more like the two Aussie cars.

One could argue that the BMW has more soul. Where the BMW is as unerring as a track car, the IS F makes for an easier daily-driver, but the Lexus leaves little wanting as a genuinely capable sporting sedan.

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