Lexus IS250 2005 Review

It's baby of the range, the IS250, is a gorgeous looking thing, cast in the current mould towards sedans that look like hatches.

It gives the car a sportier, raked stance and more importantly some personality, which is no doubt part of the plan.

With the release of the IS250, the range has been culled to just the one model with just the one engine, although it is available in three different trim levels.

The engine is a 2.5-litre V6 as opposed to the previous 2.0 and 3.0-litre straight sixes that powered the IS200 and IS300.

In other moves, the Camry-based, front- wheel drive ES300 has been axed.

The changes signal a more aggressive marketing drive by the company and create some points of difference from the market leading BMW 3 Series.

BMW is of course renowned for its straight sixes.

As we have come to expect from Lexus build quality is first rate and the car comes jam packed with the latest technology.

Lexus claims 13 world firsts in this department and reckons it's the best thing since sliced bread, in fact the best car to come out of Japan yet.

Eight SRS airbags as standard equipment, including driver and front passengers knee airbags.

Active safety features include Vehicle Swerve Control (VSC), Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) and Lexus Brake Assist (BA) on all grades, and Adaptive Front Headlamp System (AFS) on IS250 Sports and IS250 Sports Luxury models.

For our money, however, the best bit of gear in the car is the high-end Mark Levinson 5.1 sound system on our sports luxury test car which is one of the best we've heard.

It comes with a grand total of 14-speakers including a subwoofer and has built in MP3/ WMA compatibility.

IS250's V6 delivers 153kW of power at 6400rpm and 252Nm of torque at 4800rpm and is hooked up to either a six-speed manual or six-speed, sequential auto.

That's significantly more power than the 2.0-litre engine but not as much as the 3.0-litre straight six that it replaces.

It's a high revving engine and doesn't start to perform until about 4500rpm and can easily be caught napping.

Our test car was the six-speed manual and we found for best results it is necessary to stick with a lower gear than usual.

We suspect the auto would doing a better job of smoothing out the gaps better.

The car employs a keyless ignition system with a button provided for stopping and starting.

The key can remain in your pocket if you prefer.

Sports suspension as fitted lowers the ride by 13mm and is combined with 18 inch wheels with 225/40R18 front tyres and 255/40R18 rear tyres.

The steering is also more direct in the sports model, with a different ratio.

As a package however the IS250 is more of a tourer than red light special.

Lexus claims the engine is more fuel- efficient than the two engines it replaces.

Fuel economy is a claimed 9.1 litres per 100km for the auto and 9.8 litres per 100km for the manual.

The Lexus IS250 is priced from $53,890 which puts it well under the luxury car tax threshold.

The Sports model with options as tested retails for $74,000.