250 SE-L 4dr Auto Saloon

The most refined car I've ever driven

In January 2016 I lost my company car (BMW 125d Msport) and wanted to buy something used that was reliable, had a high specification and was suited to long motorway journeys (I do frequent trips from Yorkshire to Essex / London and drive to the South of France for holidays). I liked the way the BMW drove but it had a hard ride, wasn't quite as quiet as I wanted and I'd had a few problems with it, so with a circa £10k budget I decided a used BMW was not for me.
Having read HJ's review "IS250 probably the most reliable car you can buy" I went to test drive one and loved it. I bought from a Lexus franchise a 1 owner car with 50k miles, FSH and it came with a 1 year "new" manufacturers warranty which I extended for a further 2 years which also gave me 3 years full AA cover including full European assistance.
I've now covered over 10k miles in the car and use it for an 18 mile round trip commute to work and the aforementioned long motorway journeys.
Best points:
Refinement - Both engine, road and wind noise are incredibly well suppressed and a recent run in a colleagues brand new 3 series BMW reinforced this view (the BMW had much more wind and road noise at speed and as it was a diesel was nowhere near as refined when at lower speeds either). I run my car on Dunlop Sportmaxx RT 2's which have the quietest noise rating and this seems to make a difference. The auto box is incredibly smooth and in normal driving you hardly hear the engine at all.
Comfort - The level of specification (heated and cooled electric leather seats as an example) make this the most comfortable car I've owned. I do 800 miles in a day on my trips to the South of France and the car is as comfortable and quiet at 100mph as it is at 80mph making it a very accomplished mile eater.
Quality / Reliability - the car feels like brand new. Solid, no squeaks or rattles, seems to be completely unaffected by high winds / cross winds etc and it has been 100% reliable (hasn't even needed a lightbulb)
Fuel economy - a pleasant surprise: knocking on the door of 30mpg on my relatively short conjested commute to work and back and if I stick to my usual 75mph UK cruising speed on the motorway I'm actually getting 43 - 44 mpg consistently. Even increasing the speed to 80 - 85mph still delivers 40mpg. Worth noting I do use Shell Vpower religiously (another HJ recommendation) so expect 3 - 4 mpg less if using lesser fuels.
Worst Points:
The car doesn't feel as finely balanced as the BMW did and although ultimate grip is actually quite impressive it doesn't encourage you to chuck it around, and in addition I do feel aware that this is actually quite a heavy car. Better to "waft" around and enjoy the refinement......
The seats don't have the separate "squab" at the front of the seat that the BMW did which you can extend out underneath your thighs which I found very comfortable on the BMW. Ultimately though there is much more adjustment (electric) on the Lexus vs BMW as the BMW was manually adjustable.
The fuel economy although better than I expected (and very good for a 2.5 V6 petrol auto) is obviously worse than 4cyl diesels (I was getting an easy 55mpg on the motorway in the BMW). In addition road tax is a slightly eye watering £290pa due to higher CO2 emmisions.

Overall though I'd recommend as a used buy and will certainly consider one of the newer hybrid IS / GS versions when I come to change in 2 / 3 years time. It would take a lot to convince me to go back to a BMW.

Report as offensive