It started with a primer grey Lexus IS 500, and now, it ends with a primer grey IS 500.
The 2025 Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition marks the culmination of a car that didn’t really have a reason to exist in the first place. It’s as though Lexus’ top brass looked at an IS parked in one corner, a lovely but aging sport sedan that’s hardly a strong seller by virtue of being simply a car, then at their prized 5.0-litre normally aspirated V8 sitting on a pallet in the other corner. Then, after much careful consideration, someone breaks the silence: “Who else is thinking what I’m thinking?”
OK, they probably actually made that decision in a board meeting. Far less glamorous, but we nevertheless have Toyota’s former CEO Akio Toyoda to thank. Were it not for his admission many moons ago that Toyotas are too boring for their own good, and his promise to build more exciting cars in the nearly two decades that followed, cars like this IS 500, the original LFA, the mind-boggling GR Corolla and Yaris, and even the Prius’ glow-up probably wouldn’t have happened without Morizo-san.
Lexus set the automotive world alight in 2021 when it announced its intention to stuff not just any V8 engine, but its venerable 2UR-GSE into its smallest sedan. Maybe we were all still feeling a little stir-crazy from lockdown after lockdown, but obviously we all went nuts — this was the same variant of their free-breathing five-oh appearing in heavy hitters like the original IS F, the RC F and GS F, and of course the delicious LC 500. Like many others, it was love at first sight for us; a revelation in the dense fog surrounding the fate of enthusiast cars. How could we, as a collective whole, not fall for a smallish, rear-drive sport sedan with a furious V8?
Yet the IS 500 was misunderstood. Many expected a follow-up to the IS F. Could you really blame them? It’s (basically) the same engine, transmission, big-brake upgrade, rear-wheel-drive and Torsen limited-slip diff combo — hell, even stacked exhaust tips and F badges on the fenders. It didn’t help that the current-gen BMW M3 and Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing were still very fresh on everyone’s minds at the time; the former is never not a big deal, and the latter a bigger deal because it puts up the best fight against the establishment.
But this time around, the execution leaned more towards a fast and loud cruiser that rips sweet burnouts and takes a corner. It’s hard to fault the IS 500’s 5.0L V8; Lexus’ 2UR-GSE is a gem, putting out 472 ponies and 395 pound-feet of twist. It’s demure and mindful around town, maintaining good relationships with your neighbours and sparing your ear drums when you’re sitting in traffic. It’s also a thunderous riot when your lane opens up and you wring it out, click into the next gear, and do it all over again. Being normally aspirated also means not waiting for a turbocharger or two to spool up and turn down the music. It’s just you, the skinny pedal, and a 7K redline. Oh baby.
Perhaps more contentious was the IS 500’s eight-speed automatic. Lexus has been using this transmission pretty much since 2008, and sometimes, it shows. Though mostly well-behaved — it’s happy to shift smoothly and early to maintain the IS’ otherwise excellent road manners — it’s not as eager to kick down as, say, the ZF8 in an M340i. The paddles also take a beat to respond, so you’d need to shift a split-second sooner. But there’s an easy workaround: just keep the damn car in Sport+ mode. Or push the skinny pedal down further, and then giggle.
The IS 500 wasn’t exactly a track weapon. So what? It wasn’t meant to be. People said it was heavy. So what? Literally everything else it competes with pushes 4,000 pounds. People said the steering was numb and lifeless. So what? The only modern car with remotely good electric power steering is the Miata. People said it needed a manual transmission. So what? I’m not even touching that argument with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole; we’re lucky Lexus even bothered shoving a V8 into an IS again and keeping it rear-drive.
Now, as the 2025 Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition lights ’em up for the last time and rips a burnout into automotive Valhalla, try celebrating it instead of dissing it. That a rear-wheel-drive sport sedan with one of the best V8s on the market was even allowed to exist in the modern era is a feat. The IS 500 was here for a good time, not a long time; if you turned your nose up at this never-gonna-happen-again gem because it wasn’t the track weapon it never wanted to be, that’s on you. And if you’re among the few who clued in that a gem like this was never gonna happen again, we’ll point and laugh at everyone else who didn’t realize how great they had it until it’s too late.
And guess what? Now it’s too late.
