Bulldog 1
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Had a few hours to kill at my number one sales volume in the world Lexus dealership yesterday while waiting on a schedule free maintenance, and I talked my VIP sales manager into a test drive to kill some time. Having never driven the oh so popular 4 cylinder turbo engine that every manufacturer has cloned as an entry level gateway to luxury car ownership, I had to experience this engine for myself, since it's now the engine du jour for the IS, RC and GS.
My only interest, and the hook that effectively worked on my dumb consumer sensibility, was that you could take a $50,000 car and drop it nearly $10,000 by dropping a substandard power train
into it.
So, off we went for an extended drive in a 2016 IS 200t loaded with options. The first thing that caught my attention about the ride was how neutral it was compared to my 2014 IS250, which was pretty soft and never gave me the confidence needed to go hard into corners the way I can effortlessly with my 2015 IS250 F Sport.
My F Sport is sports car hard and ensures the drive gets to experience every imperfection in the road. At OEM spec air pressures. The 2016 had a very solid suspension feel to it, but it was neither sedan soft of F Sport hard.
It was more or less neutral in that you didn't feel anything. It seems to absorb the punishment of less than perfect road surfaces and yet deliver little feedback to the driver, which could be construed as less punishing, to be honest.
And, just as I had imagined, the 4-cylinder delivered exactly what I had expected. A noisy, high revving, slow to react and slow off the line engine that was hard pressed to get the IS moving, so I could only imagine how this lack of instant acceleration would exponentially compound itself stepping into the heavier RC with a sports car expectation, and the much heavier GS, with a true luxury car sedan expectation.
I was able to drive on surface streets on a varying neighborhood course that took me down winding roads in the neighborhood out to fast moving surface streets and save for the local P.D. who hampered my initial desires to "stomp on it", different driving scenarios short of being in a flat out highway or interstate.
Through the various paces, again about three times longer than an normal test drive would be, I came away with the same impression each time. Bogged down, slow to react, until that turbo kicks in and then it's a very long pull through the RPM range with palpable power coming on at the higher range.
If that were my first ever impression of driving a Lexus, it surely would have turned me away, not too motivated to return. Having two current V6 powered models at home with one being a RWD and one being a more powerful FWD, I know what Lexus is capable of more satisfying driving experiences.
It solidified my belief that -CAFE be damned, it's not really MY problem- there is no room in my garage for anything less than a 6-cylinder vehicle.
I turned away from many domestic, imported and luxury brand options in lieu of my perpetual return to Lexus every 1-2.5 years for a refreshed model precisely because I refused to succumb to a 4-cylinder with its under-powered and underwhelming driving experience, and my lack of hysteria over a few MPG among friends.
The car seemed more refined as far as the suspension, which my VIP sales manager attributed to (insert Japanese name here, I don't remember) Lexus / Japanese focus on always improving. He figures if they could find a way to improve the drive in any way, they will implement it year over year, regardless of any refresh or not.
We both agreed that my current vehicles are superior in several ways, and there was no real compelling reason to stress myself financially by attempting to upgrade either one.
On the ES350, as long as they continue to offer the 3.5L V6 with 268HP as their standard power train, I feel confident, we'll be back for another.
On the IS250 F Sport, it is now apparent to me that I will not be letting go of this car until Lexus comes to repo it because I will not accept the 4-cylinder power train and I rue that Lexus decision to jettison Matador Red Mica from the IS palette.
My only interest, and the hook that effectively worked on my dumb consumer sensibility, was that you could take a $50,000 car and drop it nearly $10,000 by dropping a substandard power train
into it.So, off we went for an extended drive in a 2016 IS 200t loaded with options. The first thing that caught my attention about the ride was how neutral it was compared to my 2014 IS250, which was pretty soft and never gave me the confidence needed to go hard into corners the way I can effortlessly with my 2015 IS250 F Sport.
My F Sport is sports car hard and ensures the drive gets to experience every imperfection in the road. At OEM spec air pressures. The 2016 had a very solid suspension feel to it, but it was neither sedan soft of F Sport hard.
It was more or less neutral in that you didn't feel anything. It seems to absorb the punishment of less than perfect road surfaces and yet deliver little feedback to the driver, which could be construed as less punishing, to be honest.
And, just as I had imagined, the 4-cylinder delivered exactly what I had expected. A noisy, high revving, slow to react and slow off the line engine that was hard pressed to get the IS moving, so I could only imagine how this lack of instant acceleration would exponentially compound itself stepping into the heavier RC with a sports car expectation, and the much heavier GS, with a true luxury car sedan expectation.
I was able to drive on surface streets on a varying neighborhood course that took me down winding roads in the neighborhood out to fast moving surface streets and save for the local P.D. who hampered my initial desires to "stomp on it", different driving scenarios short of being in a flat out highway or interstate.
Through the various paces, again about three times longer than an normal test drive would be, I came away with the same impression each time. Bogged down, slow to react, until that turbo kicks in and then it's a very long pull through the RPM range with palpable power coming on at the higher range.
If that were my first ever impression of driving a Lexus, it surely would have turned me away, not too motivated to return. Having two current V6 powered models at home with one being a RWD and one being a more powerful FWD, I know what Lexus is capable of more satisfying driving experiences.
It solidified my belief that -CAFE be damned, it's not really MY problem- there is no room in my garage for anything less than a 6-cylinder vehicle.
I turned away from many domestic, imported and luxury brand options in lieu of my perpetual return to Lexus every 1-2.5 years for a refreshed model precisely because I refused to succumb to a 4-cylinder with its under-powered and underwhelming driving experience, and my lack of hysteria over a few MPG among friends.
The car seemed more refined as far as the suspension, which my VIP sales manager attributed to (insert Japanese name here, I don't remember) Lexus / Japanese focus on always improving. He figures if they could find a way to improve the drive in any way, they will implement it year over year, regardless of any refresh or not.
We both agreed that my current vehicles are superior in several ways, and there was no real compelling reason to stress myself financially by attempting to upgrade either one.
On the ES350, as long as they continue to offer the 3.5L V6 with 268HP as their standard power train, I feel confident, we'll be back for another.
On the IS250 F Sport, it is now apparent to me that I will not be letting go of this car until Lexus comes to repo it because I will not accept the 4-cylinder power train and I rue that Lexus decision to jettison Matador Red Mica from the IS palette.
