Now that the performance figures of the IS-F have been released, there remains only one significant mystery surrounding the car: How much will it cost in the US?
One way to figure it out is to take the Japanese price and go backwards, but a straight-up conversion of the ¥7.66 million retail in US dollars is $65,324, far too much for the American market. However, the Japanese pay higher prices for automobiles, so in light of that, let’s get some comparison figures.
The base IS 350 in Japan retails for ¥4.8 million, in the US, the same car costs $35,905. Converting the Yen to US dollars ($40,934) shows a markup of $5,029, or 12.3%. For debate’s sake, the base LS 460 in Japan is ¥7.7 million, compared to $61,500 in the US. The difference, after all the converting, is $4,165, or 7.9%.
Now, taking the average of the differences, 10.1%, brings the IS-F US price total down $6597, for a total of $58,727, which I would still consider on the high side. The 2008 M3 is reportedly in the same ballpark, and I don’t know if that’s a battle Lexus wants to fight.