technology training: Lexus IS350 is a shot of energy for Toyota

By Dan Neil

The Lexus IS350 has an overarching newness about it, a sense of something reformed and redeemed, says Dan Neil.

The scene: twilight, in a deep shade of summer, on a winding and empty country road, hyper-green trees, headlamps blazing. The car: the 2014 Lexus IS350 with all-wheel drive, the fully swank F Sport edition ($49,737). The dynamic driving mode: Sport +. The satellite radio station: Bluegrass Junction. Yee haw.

I am holding the six-speed automatic transmission in manually shifted third and fourth gears?sequential-shift paddles behind the steering wheel, you know?so as to keep the 306-hp V6 on the boil. I am trying, without much success, to get the sedan?s all-season radials to chirp and squeal, but they are reluctant to give up grip.

Lexus IS350: A Shot in the Arm

The Lexus IS350 is nimble and genuinely athletic, Dan Neil says. Photo: Lexus

Lexus, Toyota?s /quotes/zigman/199376/quotes/nls/tm TM -0.36% global luxury division, really needs this car to be great. Introduced in 2006 and perennially uninteresting, the IS has been thoroughly overhauled for 2014, gaining 3.4 inches in overall length and 2.7 inches of wheelbase, much of which is devoted to improving the rear legroom. The IS now shares suspension parts with the midsize GS model, with double wishbones in front and, in the rear, a uniquely compact multi-link rear suspension to preserve trunk space. It also shares the GS?s 3.5-liter V6.

Meanwhile, IS?s steel body has been laser-welded and epoxy bonded to a fare-thee-well. This thing is built like a little tank.

It is, after all, going to war. The IS (IS250 and IS350, with either a 2.5- or 3.5-liter V6, and no hybrid version in the U.S.) competes in the entry luxury sports-sedan segment, up against the BMW 3-series (about 100,000 U.S. sales last year) and Mercedes-Benz C-class (82,000). Also out for blood is Cadillac?s ATS, Infiniti?s G Sedan and Audi?s A4. In this all-in, must-win market, where car companies find their lifetime buyers, Lexus sells one car to BMW?s four.

Now, the truth is, as electromechanical beings, these cars are fairly close in performance, efficiency, specification and price. Here, the brand experience is everything, and the IS sells the whole Lexus thing really hard. The cabin materials are first-rate: glove-soft leathers, burnished metals and futuristic switchgear, including electro-capacitive switches for the climate system that look like chromed hair pins. The interior sculpting is dignified, contemporary, by grown-ups, for grown-ups.

The test car had the F Sport spec ($3,180), including sport-tuned suspension, LED headlamps and tire-and-wheel package. Overachieving refinement is a common virtue.

But to win, the IS also has to pump up the brand?s emotional volume. And you know what? It is a pretty fun car: strong, composed and quite stable, with a nicely keen and level edge at mid-speeds and mid-rpm. It is around this register that Lexus? acoustical engineers tuned the engine ?intake-sound generator? to create a brighter, more thrilling performance note.

I wouldn?t call myself thrilled, exactly, but the IS definitely has some sporting bandwidth. And bandwidth is the word. Consider the car?s algorithm-rich electronic steering, which varies initial responsiveness, effort and even steering rate based on a welter of instantaneous data coming from all over the car?but not before it is pumped like so much digital goose liver through the vehicle?s five-mode dynamics system (including Snow mode, to help AWD-equipped cars cope with inclement weather).

This thing isn?t a car; it is a mood ring

Ditto the powertrain?s adaptive behavior (throttle response, transmission shift points, gear holding and automatic rev-matching on downshifts). The new eight-speed automatic transmission (rear-drive cars only) features something Lexus calls the G-Force Artificial Intelligence (G-AI) system, which ?automatically selects the optimum gear and downshift pattern in response to G force.? In other words, the car loops in data from accelerometers to improve transmission behavior going into corners, and to prevent a destabilizing downshift.

Double-ditto for the adaptive suspension, available only in the 350 F Sport, that gets increasingly starchy as you turn up the dial. Ditto the brakes and the stability control (yaw-rate thresholds). Even the sound enhancer is variable. This thing isn?t a car; it is a mood ring.

And yet it all adds up to the intended effect: With the right switches thrown, the IS350 is a genuinely athletic and potent little Lexus, with some urgency and a little orneriness here and there. Huh! That?s new.

The notable holdovers in the new car are the pair of naturally aspirated V6 engines, for which output is unchanged (204 hp/184 pound-feet; and 306 hp/277 pound-feet). Conventional wisdom in this segment would call for using smaller, high-pressure turbo four-cylinders, like those in BMW and Cadillac. But the 3.5-liter V6 is no slouch. The rear-drive IS350 surges serenely to 60 mph in about 5.6 seconds, while the AWD model takes another two tenths, by my estimate.

In any event, the vibe of the IS is that of a car whose chassis feels overdeveloped while it waits for a more perfect powerplant to come down the line.

As Lexus has framed the narrative, the IS is an example of the division?s drive to be younger, bolder, more aggressive. There is nothing shy or retiring about the car?s grille, an intricately warped metal mesh in the shape of an hourglass, though Lexus prefers the term ?spindle.?

To declare myself, I really like the IS?s grille. I like the way the hood and headlamp contours are pulled together so coherently at the front of the car?a visual metaphor of focus?and I like the grille?s outsize presence, which as a graphical element is as recognizable as Audi?s large, single-frame grille design. And besides, it is a beautifully wrought piece. How did they even make that thing?

So after 50 or so miles, here is my big thought: You can?t keep this company down. Toyota has had an absolutely miserable four or so years. Currency, recalls, tsunami, Fukushima. On top of which hovered a mood of hollow malaise caused by, as President Akio Toyoda himself has suggested, a period of reckless hyper-growth.

But Toyota is nothing if not a learning animal. The IS has an overarching newness about it, a sense of something reformed and redeemed. The IS makes me optimistic that better days and better Lexuses lie ahead.

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