Remember these? Mr. Regular does. The late-2000s model Lexus ISes? Perhaps when you try and recall one in your brain-space, you cannot, for these cars blended so perfectly with their suburban environments that only a blank swatch of pavement at the parking lot of a Whole Foods turns up in your mind’s eye. Ah, but this is where the IS350's power lies.
See, in 2007, I yearned—yearned!—for something to break up the monotonous drone of IS250 after IS250 I’d come across in my adventures. The car of budding white-collar professionals. Sure.
I knew I wouldn’t see an IS F because those were actually pretty rare. So the mid-level performance IS350, with the larger, 300-horsepower V6, would do just fine. Three hundred horsepower is a good amount of horsepower! It’s enough fun for the majority of road-going situations out there. It’s not enough to kill you as long as you aren’t being a complete dumbass.
And hidden in the body of a sedan that nobody looked twice at because of its vanilla IS250 brethren? It’s perfect.
And you can get them for under $15,000 now. What a nice, solid car for not very much money. Let Mr. Regular talk you through the rest.