Everyone knows Lexus as being one of the leaders in making reliable cars, but what about making fun cars? That’s something we haven’t seen much of from the premium version of the Toyota giant. Is it possible that the new IS350 F Sport breaks that mold? On this episode, we find out.
As we kind of huck it into this corner like so neutral so balanced bang the revlim they’re really bad there welcome back everyone to another episode of eat sleep drive and in this one we are driving the is 350 f-sport this is lexus’s latest is-350 and it’s interesting these cars are actually all the 350s are now f sports which is new for 2021 and this model
Specifically is the rear wheel drive model and this is the one that i would buy you can get it in all-wheel drive but in my opinion if you want a sports sedan get it in rear wheel drive and if you’re really worried about driving it in the snow and you want the all-wheel drive just get snow tires and it’ll solve all your issues but check out this thing it is
Super aggressive looking huge front mouth a lot of angles going on some blacked out bits very aggressive swoopy headlights which i really like you have the blacked out wheels as well and it really continues to the back kind of big diffuser looking thing i don’t know how functional that is but it certainly looks the part let’s take a look in the trunk and see
How much space we have back here oh hey look there’s a banana in here for scale so now you have an idea how big the trunk is nice wide opening which is something that i really appreciate with this car hopping in the back seat i figured it was worth doing in this car because my lexus isf that i had of the last generation did not have anywhere near this amount of
Leg room in this car so there’s a lot more legroom they’ve made this thing bigger i will say though that the ceiling or the roof if you will is still quite low and i think they do that mostly for a looks perspective but i’m six one and my head is hitting the ceiling so that’s a bit of a bummer let’s pop into the front seat and this is where i’m really impressed
With this car very lovely appointments in here i mean you have a lot of soft touch materials leather on the door card leather on the center armrest these seats are very nice leather you even have leather leather on the center console here it’s a little bit soft touch in most places even up here on these cluster where you would never touch the top of the gauge
Cluster but hey overall i think it’s a nice design a little bit busy in the center but i really like this steering wheel a lot which is something that you certainly interact with a ton soft material leather here and this sort of almost blacked out wood grain which is kind of interesting f sport logo down here similar to my isf actually the f logo was down here
This wheel actually reminds me of a gtr a nissan gt-r believe it or not so that’s a little strange let me fire this thing up so you can see the gauge cluster all digital gauge cluster which is actually kind of cool and what i like about it is that a lot of gauge clusters are very complicated this one is very simple you have the tack in the center and you have
Your miles per hour just listed there it’s a nice clear gauge i’ll give you a couple revs so you can see what it looks like but i like that gauge it’s it and being that this is a sports sedan i want to see the tack front and center your center infotainment here is nothing cutting edge by any means but decent it certainly has android auto or apple carplay if
You’re into that kind of thing it can be controlled by touch so you can touch it here or you can control it with this sort of touch pad here not a big fan of these touch pads but at least you have multiple options for controlling the screen and i think that’s pretty important really easy to use i like that there are tactile buttons here for the hvac and then a
Knob for volume that’s always nice to have heated and cooled seats in this bad boy these started around forty to forty three thousand dollars but this is like fifty five thousand dollars partially because it has the adaptive suspension and which is sort of like a sports option for this car kind of interesting actually you can put it into sport or sport plus by
Going to the right or you can go to normal mode and then once again with a press down you go to custom and custom you can customize your powertrain your chassis or climate so the powertrain you can increase the throttle response and make the shifts a little bit quicker the chassis you can stiffen up the shocks or loosen them i have them in just normal right now
Because we’re on the street and then climate actually you can put it into eco climate mode but what you really want to know is what is this thing like to drive well i’m in sport plus mode i’m in manual mode let’s take it for a spin one of the things that toyota or lexus if you will was very keen to point out in the press materials of this car was that this thing
Was basically developed on one of their new testing facilities and they touted it as being somewhat similar to the nurburgring because it’s got a bunch of elevation gain and loss and it’s only like three miles long so it’s nowhere near the nurburgring but it’s kind of their new ethos that they want cars to be engaging because lexuses or lexi i don’t know what you
Call plural for lexus in the past has really just been a car for old people hasn’t it it’s been kind of like a boring reliable luxury car which there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that but they’re trying to appeal to a younger demographic in a different demographic people that enjoy driving a little bit more so being that this car was tested or developed on a
New test facility what does that mean and can i tell here in the canyons of all places the answer is most definitely yes actually um i’m shocked at how fun this thing is to hustle around these canyon roads because it is so soft and compliant on the regular street driving that i’ve been doing i’ve lived with this car for a week i’ve been driving it around venice
In different areas of la which have horrible roads la has shockingly horrible roads you would think a place that has sunny weather all the time and never snows like would have good roads but it’s just not the case broken pavement no issue in this car with these adaptive dampers you can put it in comfort mode or i should say normal mode a little tumbleweed there or
You could put in sport plus which i have it in out here it makes a little difference it makes the car firm up a little bit and you certainly feel a little more of the bumps in the road when you’re in sport plus mode but it doesn’t necessarily wallow about but even though it is so luxurious and compliant on the street this thing is pretty fun in the canyons and
They do a good job of a sports sedan because some companies bmw have basically taken the whole sporty mentality and said oh it has to be like ridiculously stiff to be sporty and fortunately that’s not what you have here it’s compliant but it’s still fun and what i’m shocked to report is as we kind of hook it into this corner like so neutral so balanced i’m i’m
Shocked by this guys this is a lexus that i can like really push and reminds me a lot of drivers cars because they’re easy to approach the limits in does an understeer oversteer in the corner and i can make corrections mid-corner without it you know washing out in the front end it’s shockingly good actually so like the suspension and the balance and the chassis
Of this car lexus actually did a lot of uh improving the rigidity for this updated model and it’s showing through here for sure they have lighter suspension components as well lighter a arms reducing the unsprung weight it’s it’s really good and i would say the biggest letdown with the whole chassis and dynamics is actually the steering it is accurate but numb
Basically completely numb i have next to no idea what the tires are doing in the front other than just like listening audibly to what they’re doing so that’s a bummer in an otherwise amazing chassis because not only is suspension and all those things really good the brakes the brakes are fantastic and the pedal feel is great so whatever lexus is doing at this
New testing facility i am a fan of because this is a proper sports sedan like front engine rear wheel drive great dynamics and let’s talk then about what also makes a good sport sedan in the engine category a nice linear power band build and build a build to build a build not a lot of power going on here so that’s a bit of a bummer and what you’re trading of
Course for that power is lexus and toyota reliability this is a tried and true v6 311 horsepower and it will do that from now until probably 40 years from now when this car finally like is in the scrap bin right like these things are just going to last for you so you’re not picking out right speed with this car a b58 in the new bmw 340 it’s like a second quicker
To zero to 60 than this thing and you know where you notice it most up here in the canyons when you get a little more elevation these naturally aspirated engines seem to oh well they don’t seem to they have less power you know the air is a little thinner and it feels a little slower out here but going back to the sports sedan thing what’s nice about it is you
Can modulate the throttle in corners very easily sometimes with turbocharged cars you just breathe on the throttle mid corner and because they have so much torque it really upsets the balance of the car and you kind of have to over correct or maybe you get some oversteer i could just plant my foot down on this thing most of the time which is also fun and uh it
Just makes for a really nice driving experience i am i’m shocked that this dynamically is so impressive uh for alexis and their new testing facility as i mentioned whatever they’re doing keep doing it so the engine is down a little bit on power and i think what i’m ultimately getting at is that they should put a faster engine in this car because the chassis can
Handle it so many times we talk about the maybe the chassis is at its end of his life because there’s such a powerful engine in the car i kind of feel like that in the supra a little bit especially the latest model with the more horsepower there’s so much power going through that thing but this car can accept more power and i feel like it wouldn’t be overburdened
By any means so so that’s something that i think is a good problem to have because i’m sure lexus and toyota is eventually going to go with a turbocharged engine and this thing is going to be a serious serious contender when that happens it’s already a really fun car to drive in the canyons from a kind of momentum car point of view but once they put a more powerful
Engine in this thing it’s gonna be a monster bang the revlimid are really bad there one thing i kind of demonstrated a little bit back there is that they’ve also added a limited slip differential unlimited slip differential in this car which also shows you that lexus is taking the sport sedan seriously a limited slip of course is going to make the cornering limit
Cornering especially when you’re on throttle a little more predictable because it’s gonna rotate and spin both wheels and not just one wheel peel your way out of a corner which can be pretty unpredictable especially when you get into more powerful cars my m235i was like that it would just one wheel peel and kind of be unpredictable in the corner so a mechanical
Limited slip differential in this car which is what you get in the rear wheel drive version which is what we’re driving here is awesome man and once again lex is doing the right things here how about this transmission though because of course they don’t offer an automatic or they don’t offer a manual they only offer an automatic and it’s okay it’s an eight-speed
Gearbox made by toyota and it’s definitely more comfort oriented than it is performance oriented i say that because the shifts are kind of even in sport plus the most aggressive oh we’re gonna do a tunnel run of course huh put the window down here not the best sounding car ever actually reminds me a lot of a 350z or a 370z it’s kind of got that trumpety note to it
But this transmission it just rounds off shifts and it doesn’t make them like snappy when i had my isf eight speed i was wondering like hey maybe this is the same eight speed it’s not at all um in my isf the torque converter could lack sometimes it would give you these like really brisk shifts and kind of like abrupt kind of kicking in the pants a little bit but
In a good way this doesn’t do that even in its sportiest setting it never upsets the car it always is smoothing things out great for daily driving of course so by no means a bad transmission but it is not as dynamic or as exciting as i would like it to be in in a sport plus setting i think they could probably do a little more with the tuning of this suspension
Sorry the tuning of the transmission the suspension is great so what do you have here this is a very one car vehicle and when i say that i mean many people are looking for just one car kind of to do it all and if you’re into cars you want something sporty enough while still being livable on a daily basis and this strikes a balance really well because i am having
A great time honestly out here in these canyons which is something to be said for a car that is so luxurious and so comfortable in everyday settings i mean this interior is fantastic nicely appointed the suspension is awesome like so good over bumps so good around town in little undulations so it strikes this amazing balance and sort of the classic sports sedan
You know mentality where it’s nice and livable on a daily basis but fun to drive when you want it to be and i am genuinely impressed with this car the engine being i think the biggest shortcoming that everyone knows but as i mentioned even though it’s a little down on power you are exchanging that for reliability so if you want a car that’s comfortable around town
Fun to drive but isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg to maintain or you know is you need it to constantly be there and not break down for you this is it uh this is lexus has done a bang-up job here and i’m really excited to see what they continue to do with these f-sport models because uh it’s it’s a lovely equation and uh for forty two thousand dollars as
The base price for the is-350 f-sport rear wheel drive without any options i mean it’s it’s actually pretty good value too so let me know what you guys think in the comments below eat sleep drive tv on instagram i’m doing this new pov thing going forward now i’m gonna give it a shot and i think you guys are going to enjoy it hit that like and subscribe button
If you enjoyed the content and uh because you don’t want to miss out on any future ones we’re gonna continue whipping see you guys
Transcribed from video
There Is More to the Lexus IS350 Than Just Reliability – 2021 Lexus IS350 F Sport Review By EatSleepDrive
