Lexus IS 250 Sports Luxury 2009 Review

Lexus IS250 Sports Luxury - Road Test

RRP: $56,490 (Prestige)
Price as tested: $80,990 (Sports Luxury spec)
Crash rating: 5 stars
Fuel: E10 ULP or better
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 9.1
CO2 emissions (g/km): 214
Also consider: Audi A4 (more here); BMW 325i (more here); Mercedes-Benz C 240 (more here)

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

Lexus's announcement of this midlife upgrade to its IS250 sedan was almost lost in the din surrounding the launch late last year of the hotrod IS-F and the Sydney motor show appearance of its upcoming IS250C droptop.

It's not hard to see how. On the surface, this is easily missed, business-as-usual facelift stuff, with minor remodelling to the grille and headlights, bumpers and tail lights plus a couple of new hues. Just enough to show the spotters you're driving a new one.

The most significant exterior change is in the sensible relocation of the side indicator repeaters into the wing mirror housings. The underbody has also received some aerodynamic tweaks. Indoors sees revisions to the console, instrumentation and switchgear, for ease of use.

As in the past, it's easy to get comfortable, with the Sport Luxury spec IS250's heated and air-cooled front seats electrically adjustable through all the important planes. But you don't have to be an NBL pro to feel the pinch beneath its low roofline, front and back, particularly in sunroofed models. Put four six-footers in it and you have fair scope for argument over the apportionment of legroom between front and rear.

Retractable rear headrests and nice, big wing mirrors help overcome less than sweeping vistas to the rear. The high-end Sports Luxury model we tested completes the picture with a reversing camera. Packaged with satnav, it's optional lower down the range.

The Sports Luxury also sports new 17-inch wheels. The resulting tyre profile no doubt colludes with the sports-tuned suspension to generate more jiggle than the entry level Prestige model's 16-inchers. If you like your ride on the soft side, look to the Prestige -- go easy on the option packs and you can save up to $25,000 into the bargain.

But all this serves to obscure bigger and more important changes made out of sight, starting with transmission improvements. The six-speed manual available on the Prestige gets a shorter, smoother shift action, while the six-speed sequential auto benefits from some of the technologies introduced in the IS-F. Shift times have been trimmed to around 0.8 seconds. 

More importantly, it gets manual override in Drive. Where once you had to shift the stick into Sport mode to get the steering wheel paddles working, now you can operate them any time… Just hit the downshift paddle and it's all yours. Squeeze the upshift paddle for a moment or two when you're done and it reverts to Auto. This is a valuable addition in a car not famous for its low-end torque.

Another major change is the replacement of the old stability control system with Lexus's Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM). VDIM melds the stability control with ABS, traction control and steering into a kind of ready-for-anything electronic supernanny. It's an important safety inclusion, so Lexus has made it standard across the range.

The IS-F lets you switch off VDIM entirely, giving the daring the chance to push its 300kW-plus V8 to its distant limits. The IS250 doesn't. That said it gives drivers a fair bit of leeway before cutting in for real.
 
At a little over or under 1600kg depending on specification, the IS250's no lightweight and its sedate 2.5-litre six feels the strain at times. Under the stewardship of the cruise on the hilly F3 freeway north of Sydney, it rummaged around the gearbox with noticeable discomfort on uphill stretches. This can hardly be helping on the fuel economy and emissions fronts -- areas in which it struggles to keep up with its German competitors.

On the flat, the adaptive cruise function makes for meditative freeway driving, with enough midrange kick to keep the stress levels down overtaking. In times like these, it's easy to love this car for the way it keeps ambient noise at bay, letting its fabulous 300-watt, 14-speaker Mark Levinson audio system fill the space instead. Standard on the Sports Luxury, optional on the midrangers with the satnav, it's as good as car audio gets -- at least until you climb aboard a Bentley with the $15,000 Naim option.

Along with those signature high-grade materials and flawless build quality, the other big Lexus plus has always been the kit you get for your money. Even in the base-level $56,490 Prestige you get lots of leather, dual-zone climate control, keyless operation, seat heating, electric everything and auto headlights.  The option list is limited to satnav, reversing camera, moonroof and audio upgrades.
 
The $80,990 Sports Luxury has all that plus superior trim, bigger alloys, xenon headlights that look round corners, the lot. Suffice to say the only option is a reverse one -- delete the moonroof and pocket $2500.

At the wheel, the IS is much more about road feel than its bigger siblings. Climbing straight out of an LS460 and into this left me wishing the LS was this intimate with the surfaces over which it wafts.

Nicely weighted, relatively high-geared steering gives enough feedback to make the IS a fun car in corners. It's here, though, that the engine remains a letdown, however.

Climb behind the wheel of BMW's 125i or 325i and you can feel what the IS is lacking. It's visible on paper -- the IS finds its peak 252Nm quite high up, at 4800rpm. The BMW's 270Nm comes on around 2500, giving it a muscular flexibility that makes even the manual gearbox a low-stress experience, while serving up a bit of fun on demand.

That's what's missing in the IS250. It's not a boring drive, it's a relaxing one, but more oomph -- particularly down low -- would make it that much more relaxing. And exciting.