Hi, I'm Mike Perkins from CarGurus, and this is the 2016 IS 200t, Lexus's newest
offering in the primarily German-dominated luxury sports sedan field.
It's a helluva fun car to drive, but the real question is can it stand up to
competitors like the A4, the C-Class, and the legendary 3 Series.
Let's hit the road and find out.
This particular model is equipped with the F Sport package, which gets you a full mesh
grille, unique front bumper with functional brake ducts, some staggered-width
18-inch wheels with summer tires,
and some interior treatments as well. You'll get aluminum pedals, these heated and ventilated
sport seats, and a trick instrument cluster that moves back and forth.
Now I drove the RC 350 earlier this year,
and the F Sport package with that model came with an adaptive suspension, which easily matched the
offerings from Audi and BMW, but
here the ride is very stiff. On smooth pavement, it's great, especially when you match it with
this really nicely weighted steering, but for commuting or city driving, that's just going to be
much too rough. There's a lot of bumping and crashing in here.
It would be very very tiring.
One advantage it does have is the direct-shift 8-speed transmission here is a big
improvement over the 6-speed that's offered in the all-wheel-drive RC 350. This one was developed for the RC F,
and it's quick, and it's smooth...
The only issue is when you're taking off from a stop. There's a big big delay even with the Sport
mode and putting your foot all the way to the floor, there's a good couple of
seconds before you hit peak torque.
That's frustrating in a supposedly sporty car, and you don't get that from the
turbo fours from BMW and Audi.
At speed it's totally competent, especially with these paddle shifters, but takeoff's just aren't that exciting.
There's a lot to love - this stylish
analog clock,
the contrast stitching everywhere, even the fake carbon fiber trim isn't bad, but there's still a lot of hard plastic around, and it's the contrast
that gets me. The mode select dial has this nice brushed metal finish, but it's surrounded
by hard plastics that are painted to look like metal, and so it just ends up looking
even worse by comparison. This car is totally livable.
The back seat is usable for actual adults, the turning radius is impressively
tight at just over 34 feet. The trunk capacity is nearly 14 cubic feet. Really my only other
complaint
is this touchscreen interface here. It's really imprecise, and when I try to use it, the
cursor is just all over the screen, and there's no hard Back button to
correct mistakes, so it just ends up being really dangerous to use while driving, and the voice
command system isn't that much better.
Given that you have to pay like $2,600 for the privilege, I say just pass for now.
So with all that, the IS 200t isn't fully ready to stand up to its competitors. That said, it's a hell
of an improvement over the IS 250, and as much as I love the wheels, and the
grille, and the sports seats, I would stay away from the F Sport package, especially
if you're planning on doing any commuting - it's just too unrefined for
daily use.
Hey, thanks for watching. There's a lot more to say about this little Lexus, so hit the link
in the description to go over to CarGurus.com.