Living with the 2021 Lexus IS300 Luxury

• Welcome: Slide Ways
• Update 1: Rattle, Minus the Hum
• Update 2: An Unwelcome Intrusion

Welcome: Slide Ways

Price as tested: $63,000
This month: 974km @ 8.8L/100km

5

Could you sum up the reason for buying your car in seven words? It’s like the ultimate car-enthusiast elevator pitch, but here’s the kicker. In order to make it truly compelling, it has to move beyond the purely personal. ‘The best solution for my needs’? Get out. I’m not interested in your needs. Sell me the benefits in a way that gets my attention.

With the Lexus IS300 Luxury, that pitch is really easily made. The best quality sedan for the money. That’s it. If you want to argue that one, you’re likely to lose. Lexus has the warranty claim data to back that one up. So why don’t you see thousands of these cars clogging Australia’s arterials in the same way that you do, say, Merc C-Classes, BMW 3 Series or Audi A4s? Are we a nation that doesn’t put a premium on build quality and reliability? That’s a damning accusation, and one that doesn’t really bear much in the way of scrutiny. We’ve long valued rugged dependability but somewhere along the way we’ve become a nation of automotive bowerbirds, attracted to all things new and shiny.

While the Lexus IS300 has enjoyed a very sleek makeover, jump inside and it’s not the last word in state of the art modernity. There’s no wireless phone charger or head up display. You’ll search in vain for USB-C slots, a voice-activated assistant, launch control, idle stop or matrix headlights.

Fortunately, the latest refresh of the IS has seen the foot-operated parking brake ditched and a slick 10.3-inch touch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto introduced, which means that you’ll have to use the infernal touchpad less frequently.

New standard safety kit includes a pre-collision system with day and night pedestrian detection and daytime cyclist detection, along with all-speed adaptive cruise control, lane-tracing assist, road sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring, parking support brake and rear cross-traffic alert (with braking).
Given that this is the entry-level car in the IS range and does without any of the fancy Enhancement Packs that many buyers choose, it’s good to see features like smart entry and start, heated and eight-way power adjustable front seats, dual-zone climate control, 10-speaker audio, digital radio, satellite navigation with live traffic alerts, voice control, and LED headlights with automatic high-beam making the standard equipment sheet.

5

None of that really helped me during my first jaunt in the IS300. What I needed was all-wheel drive and/or winter tyres after an ill-advised evening trip to enjoy an unseasonably early snowfall at Mt Baw Baw. The Bridgestone Turanza rubber waved the white flag two thirds of the way up the hill and I then effected a very pedestrian 1km reverse back to flatter ground, passing a BMW 7 Series which had managed to slide down the camber of the road into a ditch. I would have probably got a few metres further up the hill by disengaging the Snow mode traction control at the very end, but the beckoning lights of the village cafe were still a long way distant.

First impressions after a few hundred kilometres? It’s supremely comfortable, utterly devoid of rattles and squeaks and, subjectively at least, I think it’s the most elegant-looking car in its class.
It’s not all perfect though. The charmless-sounding 2.0-litre turbocharged engine still has a long way to go to worm its way into my affections and some of the interior ergonomics are a little idiosyncratic to say the least. But the best quality sedan for the money is off to a solid start, even if it didn’t make it all the way to its first destination.

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Update 1: Rattle, Minus the Hum

This month: 1295km @ 8.2L/100km
Total: 2271km @ 8.4L/100km

5

Here's some advice for you. Never enter a jet-wash bay after a van that looked as if it had acted as an emergency rescue vehicle in a bog-snorkelling competition. I made that mistake this week and will never do so again, firing mud and more organic looking stuff all over the Lexus I was trying to clean. It went all over me as well, and as a result the IS300 has smelt a bit ‘earthy’ of late. You know that whiff when you drive past a massive cattle yard? That.

It also did something very un-Lexus on the drive home, perhaps in response to being subjected to the forcible re-infusion of heifer into the upholstery. It developed a noisy vibe. It sounded like it was somewhere just below the dash roll top, making the sort of catarrhy death rattle that Darth Vader made when Luke Skywalker pulled his helmet off, shortly before setting fire to him on a stack of Euro pallets.

A Lexus with a rattle is like a VT Commo with a fuel filler flap. It doesn’t happen and it had undermined my automotive worldview so comprehensively that I pulled into a servo and ate two bags of Allen’s Party Mix while I came to terms with the consequences. Fuelled with so much palm oil that I may have rendered 0.2 orangutans homeless, I gave the dash top a solid larruping and, presto, the rattle ceased.

Other observations? I’m not really missing the monster Mark Levinson stereos that some Lexus models come fitted with, as the standard 10-speaker unit is good enough for my needs. The automatic high-beam headlamp set-up is one of the better examples of its ilk and the heated seats are fierce enough to turn that faint heifer hum into something more like parking behind the grease trap at your local Hungry Jack’s.

Despite the odd hiccup, life with the IS300 is good, but I have become rather paranoid about lapsing into an accidental Partridge; Norfolk’s favourite graveyard-shift radio presenter being a renowned Lexus lover. Still, if that’s the most significant of my worries, I’d probably call that a win.

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Update 2: An Unwelcome Intrusion

This month: 562km @ 8.9 L/100km
Total: 2833km @ 8.5L/100km

5

Vehicle standard ADR 85/00 – Pole Side Impact Performance – doesn’t sound anything out of the ordinary, but for the Lexus IS300 it’s the Grim Reaper. Drafted into legislation in December 2015, it started a countdown clock which, when it hits zero on November 1st this year, means the non-compliant IS, along with the sexy RC coupe and the unsexy CT hybrid potato, can no longer be sold without a modification that the local importers reckon is cost-prohibitive. Factory orders ceased on June 30, which means that if you want an IS 300 Luxury, you’ll need to start scouring dealer stock.

Here’s my advice to you. Don’t buy one. As much as I’ve enjoyed running this car, it’s my job to offer you solid consumer advice and there is a better option available. It’s called the IS350 F Sport, packs a 221kW atmo V6 instead of a 180kW turbo four and injects an element of mechanical charisma that this car so badly yearns for. Trim-for-trim, it’s also only $5K more expensive, which seems like a reasonable deal if only for the additional kilowatts. Who knows, you might also be able to snag a run-out deal if you’re a demon negotiator.

The rest of the IS300 package is quietly excellent, however. Rather than flit straight to the next long termer with nary a backwards glance, I felt a genuine wrench when the time came to hand the Lexus back. There are certain things that you acquire in life that form a bond and enjoy an extended welcome, and I could see a Lexus IS purchase easing into that role. It’s a slow burner, with qualities that are far from overt. There’s little about it that’s alpha or thrusting and I must admit I admire the quiet confidence it has in its own skin.

The day before the IS was due to be returned, I woke late, got into the Lexus, loaded a long playlist and drove with no particular destination in mind. The delightful thing about the IS300 is that it’s always there for you but rarely imposes its personality into the conversation. If it was a person, it’d be a great listener. I still think there’s room in the market for cars like this. Poles clearly have an alternate opinion.

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