Hey Lexus, What's The Excuse?

Posted by: Rob
Editor-in-Chief

Ok, I’m not in the market for a $35,000 sports sedan. But if I was, I wouldn’t consider the Lexus IS 350. Why? Cause it’s not available with a stick. For some reason Lexus makes the IS 250 available with a manual tranny, but not the IS 350. This is a crime, because otherwise this is an awesome car. I remember when it first came out a guy on Stangnet compared its styling to a melted bar of soap. I agree somewhat, but I still think it’s a great looking car. Heck, I think Lexus is doing a better job at Bangle styling than Bangle himself. But back to the main issue. If a car has a 306 hp 3.5 liter V6, it should be available with a manual. Period.

What do you guys think?

Permalink:

Posted at 10:10 am in Rants

Comments

rollo
Jan 23, 2007 at 7:45 am

I live in the UK and regard Lexus with awe. Over here we have a diesel version of the IS, which I would buy apart from one thing: it is ONLY available with a stick shift, which means that I won’t buy one until it is available as an automatic.

Unlike you, I’m not the slightest bit interested in buying a car with a stick shift and cannot for the life of me understand the American obsession with having stick shifts. What’s that about?

Diesels are a big thing over here, representing about half of the cars sold. But weirdly, none of the Japanese manufacturers do diesel automatics. They all cite lack of demand … which is rubbish, because BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Skoda, Peugeot, Citroen and Volvo all sell large numbers of diesel automatics. I would hazard a guess that Mercedes, BMW and Audi diesel automatics outsell the stick shift versions of the same cars by a large margin.

James
Jan 22, 2007 at 8:05 am

Patrick – you mean Toyota right? lol

I think the only reason they chose not to include the manual is because of the AWD. If they included it, moronic moneybags would be burning up the drivetrain left and right… because you know rich snobs don’t know how to shift, unless its a Ferrari/Porsche or anything of the likes.

Patrick
Jan 22, 2007 at 12:11 am

Ah crap. My mind was thinking about the 350z that I was looking at while I was reading the same post. I hate that. Shame on me for confusing the blog and someone’s car.

Peter
Jan 21, 2007 at 9:39 pm

i agree. it’s too bad lexus continues to hold their punches. i am a huge lexus fan and love to see them kick those german butts! unfortunately, no stick for is350 again! my feeling is if they gonna go all out battle with the germans, they might as well bring their rocket launcher! why hold back? i really don’t understand lexus marketing strategy sometime.

calichevylover
Jan 21, 2007 at 9:33 pm

yeeup. my bro used to work at the local lexus dealer doin detailing and doin an internship w/ one of the mechanics. so hes basically driven every lexus sold in the us. he told me of that too.

and to ‘patrick’ lexus is owned by Toyota…not Nissan. infinity is nissan:)

Patrick
Jan 21, 2007 at 5:03 pm

absolutely agree. if it were sold in Europe, it likely would be at least an option! Com’on Nissan!