chincha

Since most of the dealers here in TX will not have a decent inventory for 3 months or so they seem to all be charging list price which comes out to 33,900 for an auto IS250 with no options added and before tax, title and license. Anyone know of a dealer that has cars in stock and is willing to sell it for under the list price? I'm looking for a silver IS250, auto, with no option packages. I am willing to drive to get it or have it shipped too.

I know and that sucks. :( A gallon of diesel is taxed significantly more than a gallon of gasoline (essentially an anti-competitive tariff). I think the oil companies back in the day lobbied to raise taxes on diesel fuel significantly so Americans would standardize on petrol engines. That way the American oil companies could make much more money because the whole US is consuming 20-30% more fuel than they would otherwise. Unfortunately, we ended up making all the Terrorists countries rich too and now we are stuck making them richer because we are completely dependent on their oil. Everytime we fill up the tank on that SUV, we sponsor another suicide bomber or help fund a future Al-Queda plot. That's another reason why I think car manufacturers should bring all their diesel cars and trucks to America. To fight the Terrorists. Actually Diesel engines have significantly less emissions and would qualify as LEV (Low Emission Vehicles, same as Prius) if it wasn't for the poor quality of diesel fuel (high sulfur) produced in the US. Even with the poor grade fuel, Diesel cars pollute less than gasoline cars and they get 45-50MPG to boot. Mercedes' E320 cdi get's like 47mpg!! and you can get it in the US. Oh, well. Hopefully someday we'll get some more options to get these types of cars.

OK, so no touchscreen, but an lcd screen to see the AC settings. Do you know if this screen is the same size as the NAV screen? Or is it real small like 4-5'' diagonal? Just having a screen is still pretty cool. EDIT: Oh, I just zoomed in on the photo and it looks like it is a doublesized radio with a very small lcd screen in it. Hard to tell.

It get's 45mpg, but of course they only sell it in Europe. WTF!!!!!? http://www.lexus.co.uk/lexus_cars/is_new/is220d/index.asp (It's called the 220d) If anyone has anyway to contact the Lexus executives who are in charge of bringing cars to the US market, please post their emails and contact info. I would very much like to speak to them to try to pressure them to release the Diesel version of the IS250 here in America. Let's get Lexus to release the 220D in the US too. I know it would be a raging success. Or if anyone has any advice on how to buy a car in another country and then get it into the US to use, I would be open to that info as well.

So if you choose to not get the navigation system, what will come in the place of the double din NAV LCD screen? Someone told me that you still get a touchscreen screen and that's how you operate the radio. Can anyone clear this up or post a photo of the non-nav'd IS250/350?