Lexus23

just wondering, does anyone here know if the 250 will be dropped in favor of a new 300 (3.0 V6 with perhaps a little more horsepower and torque than the '06 GS300)? as it is, the IS 250 is way underpowered (slow) compared to its peers. any info would be great!

Koofteh

That would royally **** me off as I've had my car a month so far... hopefully someone can dismiss this possibility.

Why didn't they just offer 300 and 350 from the beginning? There's still an IS300 in certain parts of the world...

jdanon

I wish they never made a 250. 350s are hard to get because of the popularity of AWD up here. 350s seem to only be available in the west and south. The few 350s made for the eastern sales region come in a one size fits all configuration (no options available) and only in certain color combinations.

neil0311

I just bought my 250 a month ago as well, and asked the dealer if any major changed were planned for the 08 model. He told me that there might be color choices or minor package changes, but nothing major. Same as from 06 to 07 where the sharkfin, VSC/TRAC disable switch, color choices and packages were the only changes.

And yeah...no 350's in New England that I could find. I wanted to drive one. Now an AWD 350 would have been a great selling car here.

jdanon

No 350s in Mass. either huh? I'm trying to look down south but really what can I do even if I find one in say Florida? I doubt my local dealer would be willing to go get it. Kind of sad that I have to do all the leg work to find the car and then figure out how to get it. I thought I was paying the sales commission for all the service oriented stuff. Oh yeah I was thinking of just waiting for the '08s to come out in the fall, but I just hate the idea of a new car in the fall seeing as how by November it'll be getting trashed from road salt, sand, ice melt, etc.

youresexii

you couldnt find a 350 in new england?
there were like 2 or 3 of them at the dealer i go to...

jdanon

Interesting you say that, because my dealer claims there are none unless they look further south. I wonder, is there no computerized system for them to find cars? I'm beginning to think there isn't. I'm interested in understanding how the dealer network works because if they are just being lazy then I will be pissed. I am willing to pay sticker price if they can get the car I want. I would think that would be motivation enough.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Nothing confirmed to add the 3.0L V6.

And I seriously doubt it. The 250 sells; it's fast enough for a lot of conservative Lexus drivers. The 350 sells; it's fast enough for a lot of enthusiastic Lexus drivers.

If the 300 comes out, it would take quite a few sales away from the 350. I think Lexus is more concerned about the IS-F than upping the hp on the 250.

As I see it, a hybrid ISh is more likely than an IS300...

bnet504

I suggest that you just go ahead and get quotes from dealers in the south if your dealer is unwilling to cooperate. They'll tell you what cars they have (or will be getting soon) that match your preferences and give you a price. We ended up ordering our IS from Lexus of Sarasota because Lexus of New Orleans was unwilling to take anything off msrp early last year when IS were selling before they even arrived on the lot. The dealer in Florida handled all the shipping details with a guy they trusted and we got enough off msrp that we still made out well after paying about $500 or $600 to transport the car on a truck.

jdanon

If you don't mind me asking, did you deal directly with the dealer in Sarasota and arrange for the car to be delivered to you without ever seeing it in person or meeting the dealer in person? I have no problem paying shipping for the car, I am just curious how that works. At least through a dealer swap the dealer arranges everything and you have some recourse if lets say you get the car and it's scratched up from the long distance transportation or there's something missing, not working, DOA, etc. That's really the only thing that worries me in handling everything on my own.

ben_r_

Boy I hope they wont either. Of course it might make our 250s hold their value a little better too. A lot of people in this nation (like myself) want the 250 because it is the smallest engine Lexus makes and some of us donot want to dump more money than we have to into the oil companies pockets. I would have been perfectly happy with a 4 cyl Lexus, I didnt not need a 3.5 liter engine to go 45 mph max in traffic on my way to and from work everyday. So if they release a 300, when we sell our cars they maybe more desirable because the gas situation is only going to get worse and people might want a luxury car that doesnt use that much gas. Just my 2 cents.

TWQ83

jdanon,

Get pissed ...... because there is a computerized system that allows me to find a IS 350 IN MY REGION!!!!! now I'm in Virginia and can find, if a dealer has a particular vehicle from here to New York, west to the Mississippi, and south to Florida.......... You guys in the Northeast though, you like hidding your stuff from everyone else. Why is that?????

But the system called "Dailey Dealer" up dates daily as to who has what vehicles which ones sold who's been RDR'd ... ect. I believe it has to do with the individual dealership ......... When you DX ( Exchange a vehicle for another, with another dealer. The requesting Dealership forfits the Holdback and Financial incentive,ect. Costing them upwards of $2-3K in profit from Lexus ............. so many dealerships don't like to do that. In your case where your willing to pay MSRP I think it is just plain laziness on the dealership part. Sorry just IMO!

Keep looking and You'll find someone in the area willing to do the DX for you!!!
FYI: we have IS 350's RWD in Virginia and PA, and Maryland.

jdanon

Yeah that does **** me off. I'm in the NYC area, and all the dealers are the same. They say oh there are a few 350s out there, but not red ones like I want. Then they tell me not to bother special ordering because I won't see the thing for at least 6 months which from what I can tell is actually true. Then they say they can only look in their sales region which runs from VA to ME. Is that even true? Problem is they all say the same thing, so at this point I have to believe what they say. It's pretty frustrating to say the least. I've never had this problem with car shopping. Thanks for the info, that provides some insight as to why they wouldn't want to do the dealer swap. I didn't realize there was an economic impact, I just figured I'd be responsible for it in the end anyway. Someone suggested using carsdirect.com but all they do is the same as any of these car websites - they just dish off your phone number to a local dealer. I need some thing that can look across the country to find a car and have the means to get it shipped to me.

Big Andy

There's not a snowball in hells chance of the IS250 being dropped. As for it being underpowered, that's a matter of opinion - it is more powerful than the IS300 it replaced. Don't forget that in many markets the IS250 is the only petrol option offered.

TED_FR

That's not true, the IS300 is more powerfull (213 vs 204) and much torquier than the IS250, which on the top of it .has smaller displacement and is quite heavier.