Originally Posted by VTEC_Junkie,Sep 25 2006, 02:07 AM

1) no. the car did not have the sport suspension. from what i understood, the sport suspension, on the 06, can be had only by purchasing this every expensive option package that costs $6K-$8K, i forget exactly. this is the reason i believe, many of the 06 IS350s on the road do not have the sport suspensions. the same is true for xenon headlamps on the 06. since your car has the sport suspension, that's why you probably can't relate. nonetheless, the OP testdrove an IS without the sport suspension as well and i was merely relating to that. yes, the OP also stated that the IS he drove with no sport suspension cornered extremely flat. maybe his tolerance for level of body roll is different from mine, or maybe lexus has made some suspension improvements on the non sport suspension for the 07. who knows...

2) yes, i have lowered the seat all the way down, and have double checked each and every single time for the 20 or more times i've driven the car. unless there is a defect in his driver seat, then i personally feel the head room is inadequate. i'm 6'2", and i have to bend my neck forward when i drive the car which gets uncomfortable after a little while. my bro is only 5'11", and with the seat all the way down his head rubs against the headliner. my bro has a 350z and neither of us have headroom issues in his car, which was a huge surprise to us since we expected and anticipated a sports sedan to have more headroom than a sportscar. nevertheless, i really hope that it is just a defect in his seat, cuz the headroom issue from what i was able to experience is really unacceptable for me.

3) well, i've never driven an STI so i can't compare the two. maybe the fact that you own an IS350 and have spent more hours behind the wheels made you feel more accustomed and comfortable with its driving characteristics. i remember in high school i had a toyota corolla whose driving characteristics i knew like the back of my hands and felt extremely comfortable pushing that car to its limits in the corners even though the corolla was nowhere near a great handling car. nonetheless, my impression is based on my limited driving experience with the IS350 and 335i, and any comments i've made are relative to the 2 cars.

4) the only thing i liked about the tranny was the fact that it had a paddle shift. the tranny i had in mind and was comparing to when i made the comment was the auto tranny in the 350z and g35. compared with those trannys, the IS350 tranny lags noticeably and feels vague. the IS tranny also doesn't rev match when downshifting like the 350z auto tranny does as well as a handful of other contemporary manumatics. nonetheless, maybe the fact that you own the car allowed you to grow accustom to the shift timing of the car and that you intuitively tap the paddles a few ticks of a seconds before you actually want the tranny to shift gear. again, my impressions are based on limited seat time in the IS350, and those impressions are in comparison to my impressions of similar cars in that class that i've also had limited seat time in.

all in all, the IS350 is not a bad car. it's just, imo, more luxury than sport, which is the reverse of my priorities when it comes to luxury sports sedans. yes, the IS350 is fast and handles fine, but it does so so effortlessly and smoothly that it doesn't, imo, provide enough feedback to me, the driver, which makes it difficult for me to feel connected to the car. i'm sure if i owned the car i can and will get accustomed to its driving characteristics just like in any other car i've ever owned, but whatever confidence i develop for the car will be more or less a product of familiarity, and not because it is inherrently a superb sports sedan. again, the IS350 is not a bad sports sedan. it's just that compared with a 335i, the IS350 is a little difficient on the sports end...which is the criteria that matters to me most in luxury sports sedans.

Originally Posted by r26372,Sep 25 2006, 03:48 PM

I can't believe the IS350 is $43,000, seems about $10k overpriced for what you get. Haven't driven in the 335i, but several 330's and the BMW's have a much tighter feel and finish to them. Not sure how someone could hate BMWs but still love the IS350, they look similar to me, but the the BMW performs better. Lexus is still a semi-luxury brand, an upscale Toyota, while BMW is a luxury stand alone company.

Originally Posted by Penforhire,Sep 25 2006, 05:46 PM

I thought the major differences in the IS350 Sport package were tire choice and spring rate? Or was it damping instead of spring? I just couldn't believe they issued a Sport package that didn't adjust both spring rate and damping.

Test driving is the last measure of how most of us choose our cars when it comes to performance vehicles. If you can't tell the difference in a test drive then the fault lies with you, not because of some imagined parity in the cars.