6 WORST And 6 BEST Things about The 2024 Lexus IS500

Lexus IS500 or BMW M340i?
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0:00 - Intro
BAD:
1:09 - Adjust Performance Expectations
2:36 - Track Lapping
6:37 - Transmission
8:01 - Age
8:48 - Fuel economy
9:22 - Rear seats
10:12 - Price
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GOOD:
10:57 - The Engine
11:45 - Styling
13:21 - The Drive
14:14 - Interior Quality
15:43 - Tech
17:03 - Trunk
17:43 - DUO DRIVE

[@dwnshft]

Special thanks to our Patreons for their support of the channel! IS500 or M340i?

[@tubedude92]

IS500, looks, performance, comfort, still has modern tech, the unmatched reliability and holds great value…can’t go wrong with the IS500

[@TorontoDrivers416]

The IS500 is such a beautiful car.

[@dwnshft]

100%

[@Midwest..]

What I hate the most about IS500 is I don't have one on my garage yet 😊

[@blu_is500]

You guys are correct, I’m never taking mine on the track. It’s not a track weapon (out of the box) and Lexus is upfront about it. However; on the streets, then it shines. Take it to the mountains and you’ll have a blast. 😎 I’m not a fan of the transmission in auto mode, so I stay in manual, sport s+, and do not shift until I reach 4500rpms at least. My gas mileage is terrible AF, but higher rpms ensure fast shifts up and down. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a really great car for me. 👍🏽

[@dwnshft]

it's a fabulous car, especially if you never take it on a track lol!

[@blu_is500]

@@dwnshft LOL! Right!

[@corollabzr]

the oem bridgestone tires on the 500 is crap, the brakes are the weakest point cuz they don't want to this thing to be an F so they put the shitty brakes on it, the old chassis was updated in 2021 with more strengthening and laser screw weld, it's not an TNGA-L mainly due to the completely new Lexus IS that is coming is supposed to be an EV, transmission is old but it needs to be in specific setting to work other than that just leave it in auto.

[@pyramo3170]

Mine is also blue lmao. I find you on a lot of these vids: I think people go into it with the wrong expectations. I’ve seen these get compared to M3’s before which we both know is a genuine track/performance car. Transmission in eco drove me nuts so it has to be in normal or sport at all times.

[@blu_is500]

@@pyramo3170 WOOT! WOOT! #BlueCrew Yeah I can’t stand the transmission in auto…period. 100% Sport S+ and manual for me! I’m always in the right gear. 😈

[@hamsterbrigade]

If this thing had the LC500 10 speed, I'd probably own it instead of an LC500.

[@good2help]

Exactly!! Car could have been perfect. Lexus just basically added a touch screen 😢

[@ma-scalia8629]

LC500 is the right choice

[@nqobilemahlaba2230]

The LC is just a bad ass looking mechine.

[@bigdlife86]

I’ve owned both and traded an LC for this. The 8 speed is lazy, but much smoother, and this car is so much more refined and enjoyable to drive daily. Valid point, for sure, but my LC 10 speed clunked & banged and was not enjoyable either, so I’d rather have the IS’s better comfort & toss ability.

[@dacuse2009]

With all the dogging the 8 speed transmission gets…it still beats the LC down the track!

[@ARentz07]

You were not flooring it when it upshifted at 5,000. You were just short of the kick-down pedal. Rookie mistake and understandable. But if you're going to floor it, why not floor it for real?

[@jpking0]

Pro tips on going fast from Sanic what a blessing 🙏

[@ARentz07]

@@jpking0 lol I need to start using my other channel for car stuff. But no, seriously. If you push the pedal all the way down until it clicks, it'll hold to about 7,000 RPM in auto. And it's so easy to find other videos on KZbin of acceleration in this car in auto mode.

[@LONGWALDO]

@@ARentz07 Yeah, there is a button under the pedal.

[@scholz222]

I get 27 mpg all day doing 75mph. Agreed - transmission is the Achilles but all in all it’s a great car that’ll prove to be reliable vs German.

[@Kimchiguy79]

Great video! Managing expectations and focusing on the star of the show - NA V8 - is what this car is all about. Now just approaching 2.5 years with a Launch Edition and have gone through a full set of brake rotors (thankfully covered by warranty). But build quality is perfect - not one rattle or squeak and that Mark Levinson audio... Best in any sport sedan!

[@dwnshft]

Enjoy your machine!

[@muddyducker3336]

"JUST REAR WHEEL DRIVE". Hey man that's cool....I don't judge. Rainbows for everyone!

[@user-gp1ht6my5x]

Enjoyed the Presentation.

[@jasonhayman9521]

RCF front Brembos bolt right up. Youre welcome.

[@mez6256]

You can get a exhaust and RCF brake With trans tune from loi or rdflash Know you have a close to complete car

[@YankeeMav]

glad you specified ventilated seat availability 👍

[@dwnshft]

awesome feature

[@timw2083]

Awesone review as always! I'm the dude that has no plans to taking it to the track. It's a fun street car. I would get an older BMW or Camaro if i wanted to track something.

[@yamafanboy]

18:01 In case you still haven't figured out why it shifted up at 5K RPM it's because you were spinning the rear wheels so it short shifted up to the next gear in an effort to maximize acceleration by better utilizing the excess available torque while at the same time also eliminating wheel spin. I can't believe you didn't figure that out the first time it happened since you could clearly see the traction light flashing in the video footage.

[@dgutes]

Is there any way to swap the LC transmission into the IS?

[@prashantkhopkar]

Own it since 2022, best car for value. interior works great, just added a $20 wireless carplay and it works. 26 MPG on the highway. This will outgrow the cost of maintaining and buying 2 BmWs. In 10 years the value of this will be easily double or more.

[@xochilquetzal18]

Upgrading to better tires and breaks will make this car amazing. I love my IS500

[@pyramo3170]

I get 20 MPG on mine but I very much have fun with it. Agreed on rear seats, I’m the biggest person that can fit in the back (a lean 5’ 9”) and all of my friends are taller and bigger than myself. I did get used to the gearbox, but it took a bit. And yeah it’s not getting tracked lmao. It’s for doing burnouts when no one is looking, and making loud noises in tunnels.

[@user-zw3kp7uo6n]

Good looking style and the roar of a V8 sound! However, the back seat is narrow, but is it bearable?

[@ARentz07]

Idk how you guys only managed 19.9 MPG on the highway on a 200-mile trip. I got 25.5 MPG on a trip that involved driving up and through the North Georgia mountains and then down to South Georgia on the highway - about 500 miles altogether. And there was some spirited mountain-road driving in there.

[@LONGWALDO]

I get about 28 MPG on a long trip

[@dwnshft]

Paolos foot is very heavy

[@ARentz07]

@@dwnshft That is fair; when I am not in the twisties, I leave it in Normal mode and just cruise for the most part. Too many State Troopers out on the highway to have much fun I guess.

[@bonusyes]

Good review and thank you. It is ready for an update, maybe in 2025? I went with the IS 500 over the M340. You are correct when you need a nice place to be after a hard day this is it. Keep up your awesome reviews.

[@dwnshft]

thanks!

[@netrixz4170]

can u 0-60 vs the m340i race? theres hardly any on YT

[@dwnshft]

That’ll be in next weeks video

[@efsooff-duty4539]

Great review. Hoping for a blue vector but the incognito is growing on me

[@dwnshft]

Either way you’ll enjoy it 😏😎

[@DrHistoryV]

I love the is500 on paper and the sound, on paper its THE perfect blend for a daily driver, but then you test drive it and it just hard to translate into words but - dare I say its just too subdued for a v8 performance sedan, Its very reluctant to break traction, has a good pull in the top end but can't really open her up all too often without making a scene..... This is where the m340i /g70 3.3T / TLX-type S all outshine this car, they have low end grunt and dare I say are easier to drive fast. I know its not fair to compare, but when the price is so close - it's only natural. I don't know but I think if lexus did a little more tuning on it it would be perfect... 1. Put a lower end gear Differential in it (give it more low end punch) 2. Put a new transmission TUNE in it( the unit is fine, just needs a tune imo) 3. Add a valved exhaust for sport mode to open it up, THAT IT. No those chances won't make it a full F car, it will just make it more competitive with the market. I would 10000% trade my g70 for one if it had those changes.

[@Toyota4Life]

The lexus IS is beautiful

[@jennyfromjapan]

for me personally, i think the more interesting comparison for the is500f is the old e38 7-series

[@Midwest..]

IS500 is still faster than 95% of the car on the street 😊

[@jesseseymour4011]

It is the best looking sedan I've ever seen.

[@wetfuego6331]

Great job describing what the car is (luxury sedan that can do sporty things). That's how I describe it to people when they ask why I went with my IS500 over some of the competitors. It's a small luxury sedan first, sports sedan second. Some people don't like that, but others do. It's my daily and I'm never going to track it, so I enjoy the comfort. Also, from my experience the transmission will short shift in auto mode if the traction control is being activated (you see the light flashing in your video). If you're getting on it you're pretty much forced to used manual mode (not a ZF but it's okay), but the shift logic in auto is retarded (doesn't know how many gears to downshift, will short shift around 6900 rpm).

[@sk8t3lad]

It plays DVD’s

[@johnphom1136]

I want one.

[@jesseseymour4011]

Looks better and lasts decades longer than the competition.

[@isimonsez]

V8 and all that HP and the 0-60 is only half a second quicker than an A4 45 TFSI 😒

[@ARentz07]

I also don't understand the "more expensive" take either. An M340i, fully-loaded, would be almost $70k. Sure, you could get a base-model M340i without Harmon Kardon or the 360 camera, etc., but this car is more on par with a loaded M340i, not a base one. And then comparing the exhaust sound to a car with an aftermarket exhaust. lol. Come on, what is this video? It almost feels like you are just trying to justify your M340i purchase rather than actually reviewing the car. Having said that, I do appreciate that you guys still took time to highlight the strengths of this car. But the first half of the video, other than the track driving, felt like a bash-fest, which is especially baffling given it seemed like you had a good experience on the track in the footage.

[@dwnshft]

that's the format of our content - it's a list of the best and worst major categories, objectively as the car relates to segment rivals, and then at the end we talk about our favorite and least favorite things and give our take overall. The goal is to remain as objective and fact-based as realistically possible for most of the video and then come in with our opinions at the end. This reduces bias claims and allows the viewer to get a sense of where the current market is relative to the car in question (The exhaust thing was a plug for AWE who hooked me up with the exhaust - will be relevant in future videos)

[@ARentz07]

@@dwnshft Thank you for the explanation. Sorry if that sounded really sour on my part, I just feel like, on paper, this car will probably never make sense - but then, what sport sedan does? So to be overly objective about it is always going to end up M340i. Having said that, I personally didn't go for the M340i because I just didn't like the steering nor the ride quality. The steering is just really unnatural; that's the best way I can describe it. The IS's steering is not amazing, but it at least feels intuitive to place the car on the road and isn't over-boosted. On top of that, before I even drove either car, I had already sort of made up my mind that the actual acceleration would be a wash between the two because, well, the V-8 is cool to have in a car in this segment. On the other hand, the low-down torque of the BMW engine is pretty great and makes the car feel even faster than it is. Handling-wise, I know the M340i is, at least, out of the box, better than the IS 500, but if I can't feel confident in the steering, I feel a bit unsafe chucking it into a turn, you know? And honestly, if all I am doing is errands and occasionally hitting the mountain twisty roads, I don't care that much about how many G's I can pull - I am just looking for a car that I can enjoy without worrying about any incidents. So far, the IS 500 has done that for me perfectly, and while I do genuinely like modern BMWs - I mean, the other car in my garage is an X3, so I am not fibbing about my genuine appreciation of their products - I see them more as daily drivers than anything else. The IS 500 can be a daily, but I feel just using it for that would be to miss out on how much fun it is to wring out that amazing engine. Like it or not, the B58, while amazing, is not like the 2UR-GSE, which is a purpose-built performance-car engine that somehow found its way into a non-F version of the IS. I dunno, the cool factor really just outweighs all the little nitpicks for me. And I have had bouts of looking at the M340i in the BMW configurator from time to time, but then I find time to go drive my IS 500 and realize how stupid it would be to get rid of it. Yeah, the M340i is a better all around car, but... sometimes, being better is not as good as being fun. /rant

[@EvaSlash]

How the hell is Lexus charging $67k for this? Should be $55k tops!

[@ARentz07]

Why? The M340i, S4, C43 are all in the same price range, and this is basically an alternative to those. Also, a loaded IS 350 is in the mid-50's, so offering this at the same price would make no sense.

[@isimonsez]

@@ARentz07this rebranded Toyota is not in the same lane as the 🇩🇪 cars

[@b58forever]

@@ARentz07yea cause the is500 and is350 are overprice as hell 😂

[@joeyatwaini]

I would love to see ambient lighting in this. For the price, they could have included it.

[@TheLastRide88]

Nice car but the transmission is the weak point. With that said it’s a reliable car and it will last a while.

[@ricdynasty]

Needs AWD and the 10-Speed transmission to make it worth owning.

[@dwnshft]

that would make it a lot more competitive with other hings in the market for sure

[@hooareya6261]

and you're still driving it 10 years after the BM was scrapped.

[@corollabzr]

IMO, for people that are getting this category of cars, go for a test drive with the IS500 before saying yes to the M340i, S4, C43 or TLX Type S. It's not as bad as many reviews had said, other than the brakes lol...

[@ARentz07]

To be fair, unless you are tracking the car, the brakes are great. I've been on several mountain runs in mine and have not experienced any brake fade yet.

[@ajamesc]

Reviewers taking non track cars on the track never made any sense to me. Numbers mean nothing. Just drive the car and tell me how it feels.

[@TheLastRide88]

I had a 2020 M340ix and it was a beast. The bmw tech is light years better and the rear has much more room and better head room. I leased it. I now moved on to the X3M and it’s the best car ever because I needed more room. I was considering the is500 but not having much head room it was a no go. Also no AWD it was bad since I live somewhere where it slows a fair amount.

[@l2fresh4u2]

Lexus had all this time to give us an official F car and never did... don't expect one either... maybe when the company goes full EV, all hope will be lost... 👎🏾

[@laurenzthenu2894]

Good job there Lexus. A sports sedan that won't go beyond 5000 rpm because reasons. Wtheck. lame.

[@jasonhayman9521]

Redline is 7300...what?

[@hollowtian6148]

At this point, this car had been talked about over and over again. It’s almost a cliche that we have to love this car just because of the V8, while the transmission, handling and tech sucks so much that nobody wants to buy this car. I really don’t know what new content can be milked from the is500 anymore. If Lexus truly cared about enthusiasts they would improve this car already. Or at least come up with a special edition.

[@LONGWALDO]

You are very wrong as it’s a great package for the right person. They always sell really quickly. Don’t like it, don’t buy one.

[@hollowtian6148]

@@LONGWALDO "the great package for the right person" this sentence works for every single car my friend.

[@criancrna1487]

Lmao. I bought the Vector Blue IS500 over all the new choices with “new” tech and more power.

[@Toyota4Life]

What the hell are you talking about ? 😂

[@hollowtian6148]

@@Toyota4Life judging by your username, whatever you say must be very unbiased. ☺️

[@kenichi9103]

torque converter locks up higher in the rev range, biggest limitation oddly is the tires, the oem bridgestones are terrible.

[@tubedude92]

interesting comment..just a kind question can you clarify by what you mean torque converter locks up higher in the rev range? not trying to be rude or anything, honestly really want to know what that means...does that also mean that the transmission holds the gear while in the higher rev range?

[@ARentz07]

@@tubedude92 In second gear or above, at speeds of above about 23 MPH, when in manual mode or high throttle, the torque converter literally locks up - that is, there is a clutch that causes the torque converter to lock itself to the transmission input shaft. All the "slush" from the torque converter is eliminated when this happens. Basically all modern automatic transmissions do this.

[@tubedude92]

@@ARentz07 got it, thanks for explaining!