My wife & I own an 06 IS 250 MT. We special ordered this car to get the MT with the sports suspension AND the heated/vented seat & the power "goodies".
We currently have 41K on the clock. At about 30K we brought the car into the dealer and complained about a shudder/judder in 1st when releasing the clutch. It felt as if the car was studdering.
Now, both my wife & I have been driving MT since we first got our license(s) which is bout 20+ yrs ago.
My wife's 98 SATURN lasted over 80K before the clutch needed to be repalced (we can thank our now 21YO daughter for prematurely wearing it out) and my 99 E36 Bimmer lasted to 116K before I traded it in (BTW clutch was on it's way out)
I got the call from Lexus service - the clutch has "hot spots" or blue marks on it. The explanation was due " to the manner in which the car is driven" Unfortunately, since the clutch is a wear & tear item (think brakes & tires) there is/was NO warranty on a wear & tear item.
We had 2 options:
1) Deal with it
2) LEXUS will offer a one time goodwill gesture and pay for the parts and the client (US) needs to pay for the labor. The cost of the parts was approx $2,500+ (Flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, rear main seal) and the labor would be about $1K +/-
We chose option #2.
HOWEVER, now at 41K intermitentantly, we get the "judder". And both my wife & I are thinking NO F*ing way!! You MUST be kidding.
Well, only time will tell. If it gives out at another 30K +/- We will probably sell it, trade it and get a Benz, Bimmer or any other REAL MT car.
FWIW, I personally think that Bimmer and Honda have the nicest gear boxes (just my .02)
Hope this helps!