jlin101

completely different animals--RL is a luxoboat with minimal sports intention, like an ES on steroid, perhaps. I, too, considered RL briefly (inticed by the huge discount dealers were willing to take to get the car off the lot), but quickly ruled it out. If AWD is important to you, then go with either RL or GS300/350 AWD, although the latter will probably cost >50k.

duckduck

Maybe a better comparison would be between the ES350 and the RL. ES350 is bigger and has the power to match the RL. The IS is a totally different beast =P

acerfan

I heard that the Toyota sienna can go 0-60 in 7.3 secs? not sure. minivans are catching up.

haha anyways, like everyone else said, the two are very different. But I think I would go with the IS because overall build for Lexus/Toyota is much better than the RL. of course, this is my point of view. My son owns a Acura TL and there have been cases of rattles or at least that's what he says.

Mike_TX

Al was right about the minivan analogy ... that was someting called "hyperbole", meaning exaggeration for effect, or to make a point.

As for the IS250, perhaps "embarassing" is relative, but I have to admit the performance of the 250 strikes me that way. It's a personal opinion - like everything else we express on these forums - but I frankly don't know why Lexus put a 204hp engine in that car.

I would have preferred to see it with, maybe, 240hp. That would still distance it enough from the 350, while giving it enough power to take care of itself in a freeway pissing contest.Again - this is only my opinion. we all have them, and you're entitled to yours. So am I.

But the RL is positioned such that 6.8 is silly. Even its own cheaper stablemate, the TL, will outrun it handily. But more importantly, its competition will outrun it handily, and if you can't run with the big dogs ... well, you get it.

Mike_TX

The consumers out there don't all agree that wood is tacky. Some even think that aluminum, carbon fiber (especially the fake stuff most cars under $300,000 have in them), and other hard surface materials are cold and harsh and that wood is warmer and richer.

That must be why carmakers keep on putting wood in their high-end cars!

Ramon

Some... (some being majority in this case) would argue the exact opposite.

StockIS350

Drive both and buy the one that suits your needs.

RL
slightly bigger on the inside, more comfortable
4 wheel drive, handles pretty damn good for such a heavy car
quick but slow for todays standards
300 hp in a 4000 car = a little slow

IS 350
cheaper
quick
nimble
hit the brakes at 80 mph and watch it bow
small on back seating room

to me a great performer for the money and I think the styling is nice

lifeisgood

Fake wood is tacky (most gm cars), plastic aluminum is tacky (Ford) but real aluminium can be done tastefully, carbon fiber looks pretty good, but real wood blows the other stuff away. A matter of personal preference, I suppose, but I think Lexus IS wood trim is one of the best features of the interior. Every time I show someone the interior, they comment on how nice the wood trim is. But truth be told, I don't care for the wood trim in the Infiniti
G35.

Anyway, BMW, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and others apparently agree that their cars (to paraphrase Seinfield) are wood-worthy.

dclive

The 06 RLs around here are $41,000 and thereabouts, plus TT+L.

The 06 IS350 + Lux + ML + Navi is $40,500 or so.

The prices are pretty similar. The RL is a considerably larger car, and the navi system, while not touchscreen, does have XM Radio's traffic warnings in it, plus a year of free XM radio, plus a few other tech niceties the IS350 doesn't have.

The IS350 has the hot engine, better handling, is more fun to drive, looks a lot nicer (to me - the RL is pretty plain), and probably will hold value a bit better too.

It depends on what you want - a small sporty sedan competing with the G35 and BMW 3-series (with more emphasis on lux rather than sport) or a larger luxury car to compete with the M35 and MB E-series (at a discounted price of thousands less than those two.)

heasyrider

Thanks for everyone's input. Some real valid points here. Usually when I start thinking about a new car, I narrow it down to one car pretty quickly. The IS 350 is at the top. Probably my only hesitation would be the interior room, but, the excitement factor may overide that. I have no kids and my wife has the SUV.

ff_

The 250 could use more torque and shorter gearing. I couldn't care less about the HP number. Still, the car moves along just fine, and is more than enough for the vast majority of the people on the road.


It's not uncommon for "lower" cars in a vehicle line to be faster than their parents. The IS350 is faster than the LS430. The 550i is faster than the 750i. And so on.
I do agree that the RL should really have a V8. The fact that it doesn't is the main reason why the car doesn't sell well in the US.

LexFather

Horespower does sell in this class but is not the only selling point. Lexus 250 and BMW 325 and Audi 2.0 and Benz Kompressor sales far outnumber their larger engine cars. People still are drawn to prestige, quality, features and with gas prices increasing, the smaller engine cars will continue to sell well and always outsell the larger engine cars.

Heck in Europe, BMW and Benz offer 6 cylinder S classes and SLs and 6 series cars.

I agree with the RL statements, they initially advertised 300hp (now 290) but it just isn't a very quick car. I would say 0-60 in 7 seconds is now average and as you stated, the TL is quicker.

ff_

They also offer manual transmissions in cars that would never get them here in the states. One more reason to move to Germany

LexFather

THis is correct

Ramon

There is a difference between having a small, weaker engine in a car like the IS, 3 series and C class versus having one in a car like the RL. There isn't that kind of versatility in engine choices when you move up to a vehicle like the RL, it's competition is not using weak under powered engines. In the case of an IS class vehicle, its different. Every manufacturer out there has a weaker, and what some may consider to be underpowered engine in those classes so a manufacturer can easily get away with doing that and still sell the vehcle. If you're going to have an underpowered motor in an RL, atleast do yourself a favor and have other engine options available.

Basically, it's all about what your compeition is doing. It is not uncommon for them to put smaller motors overseas, that is why you see it there and they still sell. It is not uncommon for the smaller vehicles in the states to have an "underpowered" version of a car, that is why they sell. It IS uncommon to have an underpowered flagship luxury sedan in the states, and that is why the RL does NOT sell.

As far as the S class is concerned, I actually saw an S 350 a few weeks back in San Diego.