2017 Lexus IS350 F Sport RWD

Automakers mimic each other. It’s one of the reasons for the character-sapping convergence among modern cars that we often lament. Take, for example, the entry-luxury sports-sedan segment, where nearly every automaker has fully turbocharged engine lineups and complicated electronic adjustments for practically every vehicle parameter from the suspension to the transmission. And then there’s the Lexus IS350 F Sport.

It, too, has an adaptive suspension and adjustable driving modes, but the steering, suspension, and powertrain cannot be individually adjusted as in the BMW 3-series or the Audi A4. You get four choices, including one good default Normal setting. The V-6–powered IS350 F Sport isn’t turbocharged like BMW’s 340i or Audi’s S4. And at $50,154 fully loaded, this range-topping, sportiest IS maxes out at approximately where pricing for the six-cylinder 3-series starts.

Nearer to 3

The Lexus isn’t above mimicry, as it clearly bogeys the 3-series—but it’s the E90-generation 3-series that went out of production in 2011. That’s good, because from a driving standpoint we still view that car more fondly than we do today’s F30 3-series. When this IS350 F Sport first appeared in 2013, it beat the current-gen 3-series in our sports-sedan comparison test. Four years later, the IS350 F Sport has undergone a mild refresh and gained standard active-safety features such as adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warning but has lost none of its charm.

Careful tuning lends the IS350 F Sport impressive range, from quiet and smooth and, well, Lexus-like, to quick-witted and screwed down. Yet it doesn’t feel like different cars at each extreme. This used to be the hallmark of BMW’s sedans, which could change demeanor from junior-executive commuters to back-road ballerinas as the driver’s mood dictated. Today, the 3-series is bipolar, ranging from the too-soft Comfort driving mode to an overly stiff ride and hair-trigger throttle in Sport Plus.

Not so the cohesively tuned Lexus. There is an Alfa Romeo Giulia–like linear progression through the IS350’s driving modes, from Normal through Sport S and Sport S+. Changes to the F Sport–exclusive adaptive suspension’s stiffness level don’t immediately register, and the steering incrementally takes on more heft without ever feeling like the airlock on the Red October. The car’s responses to control inputs in the lazy Eco mode and the less boring settings are recognizably the same car.

It all works. The baseline F Sport suspension tune is comfortable yet tied down, keeping body motions in check without beating up the passengers. The sport modes tighten up the dampers’ rebound control more than anything else, so impact harshness over expansion joints or potholes doesn’t worsen—nor does the ride in general. Sport S and Sport S+ also sharpen the stick with which the engine and eight-speed automatic transmission are poked. Oh, and that naturally aspirated V-6 makes great sounds, particularly above 4000 rpm when an intake resonator nicely amplifies each gulp of air the engine takes in. The characterful V-6 builds power linearly and revs eagerly, lacking only in outright punch.

The steering could return more feedback, too, and a little extra crispness from the eight-speed automatic and brake pedal wouldn’t hurt. Still, it all fits the comfort-minded Lexus thread throughout the IS350 that stitches together the suspension’s buttery bump compliance, the transmission’s creamy upshifts, and the radio knobs’ hydraulic resistance to form a consistent, rounded-edge flavor. It tastes and smells like a Lexus, albeit one with quick steering guiding a balanced chassis.

Track Trials

Nonetheless, the less powerful BMW 330i wipes the floor with the IS at the track. Despite having 306 horsepower and 277 lb-ft of torque to the Bimmer’s 248 ponies and 258 lb-ft, the some 200-pounds-heavier Lexus trails the 330i to 60 mph by 0.6 second. The six-cylinder, 320-hp 340i does the deed 1.2 seconds quicker still. This Lexus recorded a weakish 0.84 g on our skidpad, though that was enough to give it a 0.01-g edge over the last 330i we tested. On spicier tires, the 3-series has nuzzled close to the 1.0-g mark, an achievement no IS350 we’ve tested has approached.

Lexus could toss a turbocharger or two under the IS350’s hood, slap on some gummier summer tires, and ratchet the suspension to full spank-ze-driver German stiffness levels and post better numbers. It could, but it shouldn’t. (That’s what a full-blown F model like the 467-hp RC F is for.) Instead Lexus should throw some effort behind updating the IS’s infotainment control interface. The onscreen buttons are scattered about, intended to be selected computer mouse–style using a console-mounted joystick. This is hard to do in a moving car—or even a stationary one. A rotary knob like BMW’s or Audi’s and listlike menus would be far less distracting.

Loads cooler is the digital tachometer. Cleanly displaying both a digital speedometer and trip information within the boundaries of its physical ring, it can motor itself to the right to reveal a second display with audio, navigation, trip, and settings menus. Tap a steering-wheel button and the tach scoots back to the gauge pod’s center. Other details delight, too, including the supportive front seats, the spacious rear door openings that ease ingress and egress, and the large-ish trunk. Lexus even provides actual knobs for volume and tuning as well as hard buttons for the climate control system, possibly as penance for its infotainment sins.

Another sin? That the rest of the IS range—and, frankly, Lexus’s other sedans save for the similarly sweet GS F—don’t have anywhere near this IS350 F Sport’s mojo. For all the cohesiveness of this specific trim level with this specific engine and rear-wheel drive, the IS lineup is rather inconsistent. The four-cylinder IS200t, non–F Sport IS350, and lesser V-6–powered IS300 can’t compare. Say what you will about modern 3-series’s scatterbrained, multimodal, or wonky chassis setups: at least they’re all like that. Imagine the entire IS family mimicking the IS350 F Sport’s mix of everyday livability and sportiness. Now that would be something worth copying.

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan

PRICE AS TESTED: $50,154 (base price: $46,100)

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection

Displacement: 211 cu in, 3456 cc
Power: 306 hp @ 6400 rpm
Torque: 277 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 110.2 in
Length: 184.3 in
Width: 71.3 in Height: 56.3 in
Passenger volume: 92 cu ft
Trunk volume: 11 cu ft
Curb weight: 3785 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 6.0 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 14.4 sec
Zero to 130 mph: 27.0 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 6.4 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 3.3 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 4.2 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 14.4 sec @ 100 mph
Top speed (mfr's est): 143 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 176 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.84 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA combined/city/highway: 22/19/28 mpg
C/D observed: 22 mpg
C/D observed 75-mph highway driving: 30 mpg
C/D observed highway range: 520 mi