I would like to lease an IS250 AWD. However, the thought of a small 2.5 liter engine that produces 204 hp with 0-60 in 8.3 secs seems to discourage me from buying the car. I love everything else about the car. I need AWD as I live in michigan and have driven Rear Wheel Drive Lexus cars with problems in the Winter. I own SUV's and I really do not want another SUV. What are other thoughts in terms of performance?

I have another question. I have not test driven the car, but how much more sporty of a ride is it compared to an RX, LS, LX, or GX ? Sorry for the newbie question.

 

try subaru legacy. AWD and hauls butt.

 

And very UGLY

 

Well I haven't driven an new IS250 yet, but i've driven a few IS300's... and let me tell you... the RX, and more so GX and LX (truck based platforms) are going to be the furthest thing away from sporty if you're cross shopping with an IS.

However, did u look into the G35x? It has almost as much hp as the IS350 and its awd...

Also, there's the A4 although reliability may be an issue there.

 

check the car and driver stats. i think they have the IS250AWD in the low 7 second range...

 

I test drove several 250 awd's as well as get them for loaner cars. My 250 RWD feels quicker. I hear it's around .5 sec faster to 60. I did not like the feel AWD, feels heavy, I prefer RWD.

I've also had a RX as a loaner. There is no comparing the RX to the IS. The RX felt like a boat and the brakes were much worse.

I was suprised how much more powerful the 250 feels now with several thousand miles on it. Obviously the 350 would be more to my liking, but could not justify the price increase.

Perhaps you should get the RWD with dedicated snow tires for winter?

 

Here is what I found for a guy asking about 0-60 on the IS250

Lexus IS250 RWD 6-Spd Manual Issue-4/06
0-60: 7.1 sec
0-100 MPH: 19.1

AWD loses almost a half second 0-60 speed to the 2WD model and 12 mph at the top end.

Not sure on the times for the Automatic.