It's between these 2. I drove the G37 and felt it lugged doing low speed, stop and go. Most of my driving is city, short distances but I do a fair amount of highway so like more HP. Yet to drive the 350. What is it like at lower speeds, cit driving? I have an RX 450H and it is great which is why I am interested in 350C for my FLA toy.

 

I love My 12 IS350C and when you drive one you won't be dissapointed with the low end performance. There are 0-60 times of 4.9 sec, this thing is a beast in the first 4 gears. It handles awsome in town and in the mountains.

 

We were able to take a few mile test drive of a G37, 2 G37S, and the IS350. Coming from a VW GTI with a turbo 4 the low speed characteristics of all of them were far better than the short wait for the turbo to spool up in the VW. I don't recall any low speed hesitation in any of them and we are very pleased with the power of the IS350C. The stock Infinity's sound a lot healthier than the Lexus but they seemed pretty equal in performance as far as we could tell. We went with the Lexus because my wife preferred the interior but primarily because there seemed to be less cowl shake in the Lexus and the top didn't rattle like all 3 of the Infinitiy's were tried.

Chuck

 

If you want some sound get the Fsport exhaust it has a nice sound when you get on it but it isn't to loud all the time.

 

I spent decades racing cars and motorcycles and have installed performance exhausts on almost all of our street driven vehicles. I was ready to do this to the Lexus too but have changed my mind. There isn't much of a performance gain and I am not thrilled with the design of the F Sport exhaust with the one "dummy" muffler. But mainly I am enjoying the Mark Levinson stereo so much I don't want to detract from that. I am an old guy with lousy hearing (decades of open exhaust racing) but I have never heard music as clearly and cleanly as I do with this stereo. We have had nice home stereo equipment that never sounded as good as this car.

Chuck

 

Wow, I'm glad to hear that you like the Mark Levinson sound system so much. The high, mid and low are so crisp, so clear without any distortion at all. R&B, pop, piano... sound damn good. The surround sound is just wowwwwwwww. However, when the volume is loud, the low bass seems bottom out so hiphop doesn't sound balanced.

 

I get it I'm an old guy myself, just turned 57 yesterday. I drive with the top down most all the time so the music is not that much of a priority to me. If it is 52 deg and the sun is out the top is down and I get to hear the sweet sound of my Fsport exhaust.

 

An used '10 ISC250 & a '09 G37S conv just showed up in the used market in my town. I think I'll go test drive them back to back this weekend. The two dealerships are down the street from each other so I should be able to drive the same loop. Anyone got any suggestions on what to look for between the two?

(Ideally, I'd like to test drive the ISC350 but the closest one is 3 towns over, 4hrs drive away.)

 

If you can't drive an is350c at least drive an is350 to feel the power difference from the 250.

 

ISC vs G

Test drove the IS250C and the G37S conv. this past weekend, they feel like very different cars for a different target market. My wife's observation might be the best way to summarize it in one sentence: “The two cars are like beer and whiskey.” And she would be right (well, she’s always right). The G is a fun little ride, reminds me of the carefree days of college, and a great enabler for fun like a cold case of 24. The ISC is more mature, and like sipping whiskey, there are many details to enjoy.

I know the OP asked about power between IS350 and G37 so this won’t answer his question but hopefully this will come in handily for others.

Usable space is the biggest different I’d found between the two:
- In theory, the G can carry 24 beers in the trunk with the top down but in order to do will require some advance planning. Putting 4 boxes of 6ers will require the top to be up, remove the divider, put down the beer, replace the divider. But once the top is down, there’s no way to put more beer in or take them out. Alternatively, one can use the Pontiac Solstice method of putting one bottle in at a time.
- ISC on the other hand, looks like it would* easily fit 2 cases of 12 and still got room to spare. (*The wife wouldn’t let me bring a case of beer to the dealership so I had to improvise with a box of diaper. Can any current owner confirm the beer carry capacity of the ISC?)
- One negative about the IS is the trunk feels much heavier to close than the G
- ISC got more useable back seats, I’m 5’7”, fits in the back. My legs not pushing in the back of the front seat with my wife sitting in the front but there’s no place for my foot to move. I guess it’d be good enough if we go for an ice-cream run but 45min back there would be the max I would take.
- We tried putting a infant carrier in the back. In the G, the passenger seat has to move more forward than I’d like. The IS seems better for this but with the top up, it’s awkward to get the carrier in the back without opening the back window. (It’s a bigger Chicco seat) It wasn’t an easy task even without the baby in it, not sure if it’s possible with another 10~20lbs in that thing.

Top
- ISC open/close about 10 sec quicker than the G, and looks like ISC has more moving parts.
- The G has 1 continuous piece of fabric for the root liner covering the gaps between the panels, versus you can clearly see where the gap is in the ISC when the top is up. However, in the G they put a stitching across the fabric to hold it into the root so it’s still not a smooth headliner like in their coupe.
- another interesting different, the switch for the top in the G is near the shifter, while it’s on the left of the steering wheel in the ISC. This means you can stand next to your car while you put the top up/down with the Lexus.

Blind spots
- The G I tested have reverse camera and the ISC got parking sensors in both the front and back. Sensors in the front is a great idea, and with trucks fit for Sir Mix-A-Lot, I'm leaning toward finding a car with Sat Nav and backup camera.
- Forgot to test parallel parking with the top up, my bad

Driving position
- The G seat seems to feel wider, and it's nice that the instruments moves up/down with the steering wheel
- With the retracting steering wheel in the ISC, I'm not sure why anyone would upgrade to a flat bottom one other than for looks (having say that, that would be my second upgrade after putting in 2012+ headlights, Vanity: Definitely my favourite sin)
- I didn't test putting a cup in the cup holder but can someone tell us if the cup would get in the way of your elbow?

Gearing / Gas milage
- The G37s was a six speed manual, while the IS250C was a six speed auto, so aside from the engine these were very different cars I test drove. One thing to note, in the G the gas pedal is much deeper than the brake, it's very hard to heel and toe.
- seems odd to me but at 60mps, it seems that the G37 spins close to 500 - 800 rpm faster than the is250c. May be I should look up the gear ratios on both cars.
- From the bar graph readout the G seems to use the least amount of fuel while coursing at around 50mph, the ISC on the other seems to use less at 60mph then at 50mph. It's really hard to tell what's the MPG is with the stupid bars, couldn't they just display a number like in the RX?

Sound
- The Bose speaker on the head rest in the G sounds very nice even with the top down
- The base system in the ISC was alright, I wish I had a chance to try the Mark Levinson in it. I remember the M/L system sounds awesome in a LS I test drove many years ago.

Feel
- Driving back to back on the same road, you can feel the cowl shake in the G much more than in the IS. With the top up, the ISC wasn't bad but the G still feels like it's very unhappy with hitting bumps while in the curves.
- The interesting thing about the ISC is that with the top up, it feels very much like my RX350. It's nice and quite. All the layouts feel very logical. The one thing that I might need to get use to is my RX have the tech on the left, the ISC has it on the right. So I kept looking down for speed and kept getting RPM...

Power
- if the OP is coming from a hybird, both might be disappointing for acceleration from stop. I find the even the CR-Z hybird I test drove a few weeks ago got better pick up from 0 to 35 (first 2 gears or so) than both the G37s and IS250C. The 250c doesn't want to wake up until past 50 mph, while the G37s kicks both asses going from 35 to 70 mph. I would like to try the IS350c but I couldn't even find a used IS350 at any dealer within 100 mile from here.

 

Very good review overall. I think you should review more on the "handling performance" aspect.

I respectfully disagree on the power assessment. The CR-Z hybrid is in NO way accelerate better than the IS250C, and not even close to G37s. These 3 cars are in totally three different classes in term of power.

G37s should accelerate the fastest comparing to IS250C and CR-Z, Period. Only IS350 or IS350C is comparable to the G37s in term of power.

CR-Z is faster than G37s, seriously?? you must be doing something wrong!

 

+1. Maybe if the transmission setting is set for snow and you feather the throttle. Never drove the IS250. We seriously tested the standing start acceleration of both the IS350C and the G37 and G37S multiple times before deciding on the Lexus. It would take electronic timing to determine any difference. But it is a joke to think any Honda hybrid can accelerate anywhere near the level of either of those two cars.

Chuck

 

I'm not saying it's faster overall, but it feels faster to 35 mph, I guess that's the magic of instant torque of electric motor in a hybrids. (After 35 mph the CR-Z is a dog, a dog stuck in molasses) Acceleration to 60: G37 > IS250C > CR-Z. Just included that bit about hybrid for OP who's coming from a RX450h. Those who never driven a hybrid should go take one for a spin, I never understood them until I test drove one, accelerating from red lights is very interesting. I'd almost say it's a reverse turbo, you get power where you normally get turbo lag and lose that power around when the turbo would normally kicks in. (*Million dollar idea: a hybrid with a turbo engine)

As for handling I couldn't test it as much as I'd like. My 7 month pregnant wife was with me so I dialled it down a notch. I'd say the ISC is more confident inspiring, but on the on ramp I take everyday, I ended up taking it at almost the same speed between the 2. (I was doing the driving, the wife recorded data like rpm at different speed and speed at different turns.) The other interesting observation, with the top up, the ISC feel much more rigid. The rigidity feeling between top up / down on the G isn't as much. And with the top down, both cars feel more balance with more weight in the back.

 

I've owned both.. Both fun cars but the G37 was more fun to drive. The G35/G37 is more sporty, more throttle sensitive and better steering feel, however the car is plague with issues (transmission lag, oil consumption on higher miles). If you want a blast for a few years then get the G37 (I only kept my car for 1 year from new so I never saw any major issues but read from other owners later down the line to start having issues.., if you're looking for longevity the IS350 is the better long-term car.

 

treead, your "feeling" is your "perception" which is not reality so it CAN be wrong. Both G37, IS250C is faster than CR-Z from 0-35, and 0-60. That is the fact you need to open your mind to accept.

I have driven hybrids. They are built for fuel economy but not for acceleration. Most of them are slow as turtle.