one swell foop

If you go with shiny wheels, get polished ones. If you go with polished ones get something like J-Line or I-forged custom made for your car. Both these brands produce extremely high quality wheels(think Kinesis) and can customize colors, sizes, and finishes to your preference for a fraction of the price of wheels like Kinesis or HRE. Whatever you do, even were you inclined to spend the money, do not buy HRE. They're extremely soft and bend on deep potholes. While 3 piece and two piece rims can be repaired for a fraction of the price a new wheel would cost, purchasing HRE's is inviting multiple occurances of this. Were I you, I'd go for something with a polished lip and a powder coated center in anthracite metallic to contrast with the car.

Go watch a GT race in the rain and see how badly the BMW and Porsche cars get owned by Audi's in the turns.... They weigh more and don't have the straight line performance of a tuned BMW or turbo Porsche, but if you drive like an enthusiast at all then you'll appreciate it....but you probably don't drive like that. I wish Lexus made a more sporting car, I've decided to stick with the Germans on my next purchase.

the larger the wheel, the more difficult it is for it to track straight.

OK, recently I've driven some of the redone '07 G35's and in terms of the interior, especially at night, it's a different car. Leaps and bounds better. It actually seems to have an interior befitting a car of it's price range, before it did not. I'd still have to say go with the lexus though. Part of it is personal preference in style, but each time I drive a new IS I can't help but sit in the car a bit longer and admire the lines of the interior, the look and feel of the surfaces of the doors and dash. It's all so much more exceptionally well executed in the IS than in any of the others. Headrests on the TL are very wide, to the point of very much interfering with the view when trying to look back over the left shoulder(necessary sometimes when I'm parking close and can't see something in the mirror).

i'm tellin' you, infinity's don't age well, in terms of the interior...it'll look cheap and be having quality issues in 4-6 years.

I am working as a valet right now and drive all these cars on a daily basis and this is, in part, what leads me to my desire for an IS250. At this point, in terms of exterior design, the IS blows the TL away. The TL had an update recently but the design is still quite similar to the initial one from the early 2000's. The G35 looks great, but all those smooth body panels sure do show off dings in the doors mighty nicely. As far as the interior goes....every new model lexus i have driven, no matter what series, is leaps and bounds above anything lexus has put out in previous generations(and i drive older models of each brand on a daily basis as well). The TL guage cluster is pretty, but looks gimmiky pretty quickly and in the dark, the G35 guage cluster looks cheap at night, the lexus oozes quality.... I'm a design junkie and have a degree from the savannah college of art and design, one of the best art schools in the coutry. Now that we know i'm qualified to pass ULTIMATE JUDGEMENT on the cars, really, the lexus seems to be better designed and better built than the other two. Keep in mind people have gotten them at $500-$1000 below invoice as well.

depending on the specific tire, i hear that potenzas make more road noise than a lot of tires in the competing segments

I'd try finding an IS250/350 owner locally that wanted the 18in wheels but did not get the sport package. See if they will trade you their stock 17" wheels + cash for your 18's

Buy yakima stuff, good quality. Also, use the yakima website to configure the rack you want, and write down the part numbers. Then go on eBay and buy everything for half what you'd pay in a store....slightly used parts don't affect the ability to hold stuff on the roof and come cheaper...

yeah man...the salesperson outright lied...which is something the honda and VW dealers I talked to never did, I know my stuff about them, especially VW, and if they didn't know something for sure then they'd go find out for me rather than risk giving a wrong answer... I'm guessing the reason they don't offer a stick in the lagacy GT as subaru promotes their real "enthusiast car" as the STI, so they want you to spend the extra money for it.

If you're a housewife and have taste the props to you! you are the exception rather than the rule and help steer car makers and others in the right direction!

I guess you told me!

While there I asked another sales person whether or not he, or the dealership, could communicate my displeasure with lexus at the supposed removal of the six speed manual as an option. He said that they'd take it more seriously if I contacted them via the web site or by phone and then went on to explain the following: Upon the release of the IS250/350 there weren't a lot of cars around, and the two manual tranny behicles they got sold rather quickly as they were the only ones left on the lot. The next time they ordered a manual tranny IS the cars were more abundant and the car sat on the lot for five months before it sold, all the while that autos were selling like hot-cakes. It's pathetic, but most of the market in the US are housewives and businessmen that were never taught to drive stick, and just want something to get them from point A to point B as easily as possible. I truly wish that there were more auto enthusiasts in the population, but no such luck...the mediocre masses dictate what cars we can and cannot buy and what options are available due to their often uninspired and uninformed preferences.

good to know this is incorrect, cause that 3 series would be a lot more expensive. Didn't have time to check the lexus site before I went to work. I'll definitely check lexus of huntsville, but will travel a few hours for the right deal if i have to.

Visited my local Lexus dealer(Tom Williams Lexus in Birmingham, Al) today to look at and potentially test drive an 07 IS250 w/ manual tranny. They didn't have any on the lot, and upon asking I was told that they had stopped producing the car with a manual transmission...... Is this true? If so it sucks, I'll wind up buying a 328i with a 6 speed(which will be awesome, but cost a few K more)