LEX-SV

It's mainly a matter of inconvience and ride quality, the lower you go, the more careful you have to be about front lip of bumper. From a styling standpoint, the 18's will need the lesser amount of lowering. The guideline is the larger diameter the wheel is, the shorter the sidewall height will be, so lowering to reduce ratio of gap to sidewall height is necessary. What looks bad is when the wheel gap is greater than the sidewall height. For example 20" wheels have short sidewall height, therefore they look terrible at stock height with lots of wheel gap.

Caymen/Boxster 2 seater sports cars in a league of their own IMHO, after owning 2. RC/4 series/new and not released yet C sports coupes, now we have a legit battle in hi perf lux coupes IMO. Yes, I have same concern that the 3.5L is essentially unchanged since model year 2006, and it's used today in heavier and more expensive vehicles, this engine needs to be revised for at least another 10% increase in output. It's plenty quick in older 3600 pound rwd models, but not so much in cars pushing 4000 pounds. Agreed, the number are what they are in that comparison in Motor Trend. and its useful data. But I put little weight on the subjective "rankings" in the end, I reach my own conclusions.

There are only 2 versions of Eibach springs available for gen 2 Lexus ISx50's: Eibach 250 about 1.3" lowering (probably softer spring rates due to lighter car) Eibach 350 about 1.0" lowering (=F Sport Springs) You can use both versions on both rear wheel drive IS cars, based on personal preference. 19's shown in my pics. 18's are fine too.

Yes, mine are Eibach350's for about 1 inch of lowering (same as F-Sport springs). Certainly a dramatic difference visually from stock, with a small improvement in handling as bonus. Pictures dont tell whole story, but they give you some idea. Sure I'd like another 1/2 inch lower like the H&R's, but not sure I want to pay the price in ride quality. Ride quality is still reasonable with Eibachs, speed bumps and driveways usually no prob.

Maybe that's the answer. My 07 IS350 never has this problem. Here's my practices (which might be preventing it): 1. Almost always you outside air mode. Rarely do the use recirculation mode, unless I'm behind some old pos diesel gross polluter 240D. 2. Sometimes I leave car in the garage for up to 2 weeks at a time without driving. I always leave moonroof in vent position when garaged.

About $600 total w/tax (springs/installation/alignment) around here in the high rent Silicon Valley. If springs are $275ish, then that's about $300 for the labor portion including alignment. In OC, you must have some highend tire/wheel shops that do a lot of these. Hopefully somebody can refer you to one.

Good choice, the F-Sport stuff is usually good. Just a matter of shopping to get price you want.

Costco is $2.659 here as of today for regular, don't know how much extra they charge for premium.

Yes, should be mounted on windshield just above hood level for best results across all radar bands/laser. Glad to hear VA police have found something better to do.

I like that one^. Followed by, "I see dead people".

^ Agreed, that law is unconstitutional. And should be circumvented or carefully ignored.

An IS sounds like a great way to enhance life with fun!

I hear what you are saying about Lexus management kind of stretching painfully slow outside of their comfort zone as they take on dominant BMW/MB. Fortunately we are seeing signs of signicant progress, (besides the lip service which is just that). Regarding the Merc C250, it's a previous gen (W204, model year 2013 Sport Pkg PLUS loaded, wife uses it as dd, I drive it more on weekends). And so far I like it very much, I'll give a few highlights for now at 24K mi... . Turbo 4 banger 1.7L is smoothest 4 cylinder engine that I've driven, even in rev range of 5-6K. I'm usually critical of almost all 4 bangers NVH, not in this case. . Turbo lag is the downside, noticable sometimes at low speeds. Tranny learns based on driver inputs which helps some by downshifting earlier. . Gas mileage is better by about 10% than IS250/IS350/C300, not 15% better as EPA numbers suggest. Still pretty good mileage. Easy to average 30mpg on freeway trips at 75-80 mph. . Ride/handling combo is nice w/18's and all seasons. I enjoy driving it more than the C300 Sport w/17's. . Feels solid like a Benz is expected to, super stiff chassis. MB is pretty good at accomplishing that feel across the board. Some of the old school MB traits have been toned down, like large diameter steering wheels, long travel accelerator, don't miss them. . Too early to say if reliability is Lexus-like. The last 08 C300 we had for 128K miles was very close and very good. midwesterner - Give us some feedback on your GS350 when you have a chance. I drove GS350 Fsport on autocross course at a Lexus event, it felt pretty good for mid-sized sedan in that environment.

Yes, save it for the track and/or on private property. In CA we don't want to get "exhibition of speed" ticket, it carries 2 points like "reckless driving". Speaking of little things, another nice little thing is a bit of (just a bit versus previously none) exhaust noise from Lexus in some of it's later sport IS/GS sedans. Again, about time given the competition in sport sedans and the need for some character. Also Lexus offerening F-Sport accessores including F-Sport exhaust is a good trend.

If Lexus delivers on it's latest goals/objectives, I expect to see more sales volume with better products competing with proven top-selling 3's/5's/C's/E's/S's. And Lexus finally recognizing (better late than never) importance of high growth compact SUV/crossover market in US with the lauch of an attractive and competitve NX is a good start. RC is another good recent launch that should complete well against 4/A5 and hopefully the new C-class coupe from Mercedes to be released soon. These are the kind of products that I'm expecting and view as necessary to be tops in US premium car business.

What's your observation on how Valentine unit deals with laser detection?

Nice drop yesterday for Chevron regular to $2.899.

Agreed, I'm very familiar with both. My comments above did not say one was more useful than the other.

RX is still top selling Lexus model, followed by ES, very impressive. And somewhat troubling...

vb - Sounds very nice, post up a pic with new tint and wax job. Great idea on roof tint. What tint brand / % did you go with on side/rear windows? Note: IS350/IS250 fuel economy differences are small in real world and per EPA estimates. For example the worst tank I had in 6 years with a 3.5L is low 19, (immediately after having FSport exhaust installed, lol). Most likely 2.5L will be replaced or supplemented by Lexus with new turbo 4, and EPA ratings will be signicantly different than both V6's.

Ventilated (cooled/heated) seats in Lexus. My friends with common Mercedes and Audii sedans always mention the Lexus seats with that feature for some reason.

And for the Lexus division of Toyota, US is the major market by far. As I mentioned earlier, I expect big things for NX sales in Lexus's predominate US market. And NX styling is better than RX styling too.

Interesting? Maybe, been there, done that. At CL, usually just more crap to sift through before getting to anything useful.

The model numbering will probably end up like Mercedes and BMW with little relationship to horsepower or displacement, more to identify pecking order or position from a performance standpoint. Examples: C300/C400 320/328/335 528/535/550 It will be interesting to see how Lexus produces the horsepower in its highest powered / low volume models. Maybe some new technology (or mix of technologies) to get there as hinted at in article?... Long term I don't see normally aspirated 5.0L V8 fitting into many of their newest plans. I agree that Lexus might be coming out with some bolder engine technologhy, it's been a while.