IS 300h F sport

Stand out from the boring German crowd

I love this car. It’s not perfect, but for me the pro’s far outweigh the cons.

Stand out styling. Don’t be a German driving clone with no personality, drive something different. This car attracts compliments and gets noticed.

Nice to drive. It’s rear wheel drive and feels sure footed. It’s reasonably swift, but it’s not a sports car, so if you want something super quick, this is not for you. 0-60 is around 8 seconds, which suits me just fine. With no turbo lag to worry about, overtaking is also easy.

A random positive, but one that might be familiar if you’ve owned rear wheel drive cars in the past. The extra weight of the hybrid batteries under the boot floor aids traction in the snow (something I got caught out by when I tried to drive up a hill in an original IS).

It’s comfortable on a long run and delivers decent MPG. I average low 50s on motorway journeys (I don’t hang about on the mways) and low 60s on A roads (in the summer months). Expect the mpg to drop to mid to high 40s in the winter months when the hybrid battery is less effective and the petrol engine needs to run more to warm up etc.

Rear passenger space is also fairly decent and comfortable. The boot is surprisingly spacious, even with the lost height due to the hybrid batteries. The rear seats also fold down enabling you to carry larger items when needed.

It’s cheap to tax (£10 per year) and the decent (but not outstanding) fuel economy means you spend less at the pumps. Servicing is not cheap however. Expect to pay just under £300 for a main dealer intermediate service and up to £625 for certain main services. Ouch. You could take it to a trusted independent for less, but servicing with the main dealer extends the warranty on the car up to 10 years/100,000 miles (google Lexus Relax Warranty).

Lexus is known for its build quality and reliability. You can also expect good service from the main dealers.

Now for the not so good. The infotainment system is woeful. It’s clunky and unintuitive. The nav system tried to take me right through central London during rush hour, when I was just a couple of miles from the M25 in Surrey (when no accidents or delays were being reported). No voice control (the older Honda Accord I trading in for the Lexus had this). Lexus used to bundle all the bells and whistles, but not anymore, so choose your trim level carefully. If you opt for standard F Sport trim over the premium, you’ll have parking sensors but no camera, electric and heated seats but no seat memory or cooled seats etc. Go for the premium trim if you can.

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