The Lexus IS-F is something of an oddball in Lexus' lineup. The company is working hard to get a more serious performance edge to its products, including launching its 'F-Sport' performance line of aftermarket parts, but the truth is few hardcore performance enthusiasts think Lexus when they want to go fast. There is undoubtedly ample justification for that sentiment elsewhere in the Lexus lineup, but when it comes to the IS-F, things are different.
This car has something almost no other Lexus I've ever driven has exhibited in any perceptible degree: personality. Far from the bland and obeisant cars found elsewhere in the lineup - even bearing the IS tag - the raucous and bawdy IS-F is the real black sheep of the flock.
Styling and ExteriorThe IS-F is, in almost every aesthetic sense, a mildly hopped-up IS. An aggressive body kit, wide front air intakes and extractors behind the front wheel arches make up the major visual nods toward the 5.0L V8 that lives under the hood.
Inside, even fewer concessions to the car's high-performance nature have been made, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Eschewing the woody and often oddly leathery interiors found in the GS and LS range, the IS series features an almost skin-like rubber substance for its dash and interior, complemented appropriately by durable plastic and aluminum pieces. Far from seeming cheap, at least in my eye, the interior comes off as focused and driver-oriented - at first.
A particularly nice touch is the white carbon-fiber-look center console and door accent trim. The brightness really offsets the otherwise dark and mildly oppressive cabin, and the carbon-fiber treatment gives the car one more touch of performance-oriented flair.
The rear seat's lack of room is worth mentioning, but it's hardly noteworthy. The 3-series, C-Class, Infiniti G35, and essentially every other mid-size luxury sedan on earth all lack much in the way of room in the back seat. It's for children, packages, and occasional trips with adults, not cross-country touring.
TechnicalThe 5.0L V8 under the hood of the IS-F is anything but ordinary, despite its derivation from the LS-series. Rated at 416hp (310kW) and 371lb-ft (502Nm) of torque, the engine pulls readily from any RPM, and keeps right on pulling to redline.
But the music starts at about 4,000rpm. That's when the vacuum valve opens up the secondary intake box and the car can really breathe. The sound of that tuned length of air vibrating as it enters the now-howling V8 engine, combined with the blatty note of the exhaust is an aural delight every gearhead or hotshoe should experience at least once in their lives.
That exhaust note may appear to be piped through two pairs of stacked oval pipes out back, but in reality those are just pretty plastic pieces molded into the bumper for show - the real exhaust outlets are unremarkable, thin and made of plain steel. A cursory squat behind the car will prove this unfortunate fact, and in a sense, this minor deception encapsulates the nature of the car.
Once you're done dancing on the accelerator, there's surprisingly little to backup the car's promise. No manual transmission is available; instead an eight-speed automatic with paddle-shifters is standard. Set the car into full sport mode by toggling some switches and the eight-cog system behaves well enough, but there will be no really on-the-edge driving here without compromise.
Perhaps it's a personal bias I have toward doing my own shifting, maybe it's a lack of faith in computers, but the element of car control that's taken away with the automatic gearbox is downright annoying when it comes to driving the IS-F hard. The paddle shifters work well enough, the transmission is surprisingly quick for an automatic when in sport mode, and it even rev-matches (sort of), but the big picture is still a feeling of being held back.
Other aspects of the car's arsenal are similarly hit-and-miss. The brakes are strong and confidence-inspiring, repeating their work readily in back-roads driving. The suspension balance, on the other hand, tends toward being a bit too soft for seriously quick transitional work, and overall chassis balance is viciously biased toward snap oversteer - be very careful completely disabling traction control, especially if it's wet out, though in the right hands it can still be balanced on the edge.
On the RoadDuring the daily bits, however, it's perfect. Docile, demure and even doddering - all adjectives that can happily be used to describe the IS-F as you one-hand the car around neighborhood bends, soaking up the bumps with the relatively compliant suspension on the way to work, spilling not a drop of coffee. Passengers will never notice the '-F'-ness of the car, so long as the driver keeps their right foot from getting itchy, and the IS-F melts into the background of simply driveable passenger vehicles. Oh, it'll leap to freeway speed and beyond after a brief lag when you bury the pedal, but otherwise it's perfectly passive.
All of that might sound like anathema to the enthusiast that wants to be seen in their hot sedan, but the Lexus is a supremely capable daily driver in a way that many more hardcore vehicles simply can't be. And perhaps that's Lexus' brand of performance - it performs best in the 99% of the situations it will actually be driven, giving up the last 10% of its performance for civility and comfort.
Fuel efficiency will leave a bit to be desired, though, if the IS-F is put to the commuter test. Rated at 16mpg city and 23mpg highway, my real-world average under a mix of moderate city and highway use with a few good floggings thrown in was just a tick under 13mpg - abysmal by modern standards, but right about what one would expect from a 400hp+ V8 sedan.
Cruising at speed can net efficiency in the mid- to upper-20s, however, so only urban warriors need worry seriously about the fuel-eating tendencies of the car. Long-distance commuters likely won't see more than $500 difference in a yearly fuel bill against an economical 35mpg highway sedan or hatch. Not that IS-F buyers are concerned with price, that is.
Equipment and FeaturesFor the $64,178 sticker price of the car we tested (including a $765 delivery fee), the IS-F's feature list is best described as disappointing. In truth, those IS-series interior bits that seemed so charmingly utilitarian now seem horrifically overpriced, and the woeful lack of hardcore driver's features now takes center stage.
Yes, the car has satellite navigation, leather seating, electric seats with excellent bolsters and memory functions, a six-disc CD changer, a truly brilliant Mark Levinson DVD audio system and all the appropriate power goodies, including a sunroof, but the sum total leaves one feeling like they're driving a hot-rodded entry-level luxury sedan - hey, wait a minute...
For the same price, a person could buy a better-equipped BMW 335i, throw a suspension package on it, modify the exterior however one sees fit and upgrade the ECU to get the most out of the twin-turbo 3.0L six-cylinder, likely pushing past the 400hp (298kW) mark. The result would be a car to equal or beat the IS-F in every performance sense, somewhat nicer inside, available with a manual transmission, and still as much as $5,000 cheaper, not to mention completely personalized.
Even the 451hp (336kW) C63 AMG starts out at a relatively bargain price of $56,300, nearly $2,000 below the base price of the IS-F. Things like the pre-collision system and dynamic radar cruise (a $2,850 option on our car) may be overkill, but even without them, the IS-F isn't the relative steal it needs to be to make up the performance deficit. The M3 sedan starts at an even more affordable $54,500 and offers yet another alternative that's unlikely to disappoint.
Final VerdictFun to drive, but not seriously fun, comfortable and practical, but hard to justify in value terms, the Lexus IS-F shoehorns itself into the high-performance mid-size luxury sedan segment with a host of compromises, but not a lot going for it in any one dimension.
It's a very well-rounded car, however, unlikely to bite unless provoked and still providing an accessible level of performance for the uninitiated. Maybe that makes this car great, a sort of bourgeois homage to the driving-proletariat, a performance-luxe sedan for the people, but in the eyes of a self-described enthusiast, the IS-F pulls up a bit short of the mark.
Still, it's a commendable effort from Lexus, a success in most measures when taken on its own merits, and certainly the most interesting, thought-provoking and downright desirable car in the company's fleet.
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Review: 2008 Lexus IS-F
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