A lot can change in a year. People and things you love come and go, you visit new places, and you experience new things. Sometimes, those new experiences lend context that can help you develop a new perspective and learn and grow as a person. Sometimes, that context is a blessing. Other times, it’s a curse. Here, in the case of revisiting the 2024 Lexus IS 500, it’s a curse.
We were smitten with the IS 500 ever since it came out. In the never-ending doom-and-gloom surrounding the future of enthusiast cars, it was a revelation. How could we not fall for a rear-drive sedan with a compact-ish footprint, packing a furious, free-breathing V8 under the hood? Adi, our founding editor, owned one for a short while. Then Nathan went goo-goo-bananas for it—and I did, too, when I stole it from him for a night.
But then, context happened. Adi replaced his IS 500 with a damn LC, Nathan fell even harder for the Chrysler 300C, and me? God, I don’t know. It was all a blur. I think there was an LC 500 cab in there. I spent a good amount of time running errands with Adi’s LC, too. I also bought a car: a quarter-century-old, rear-wheel-drive sport sedan with a compact-ish footprint and a furious V8 under the hood. A 2000 BMW M5.
Technically, I bought the M5 in 2023, but it wasn’t until this year where I really started to jive with it. For the longest time, I had an itch for something V8 and rear-wheel-drive. The gravitas these cars carry goes without saying, and I’ve always had a soft spot for these cars, having logged countless hours in Need for Speed: High Stakes with a silver M5 being my go-to. So when this particular car popped up at a great price, I bit—though it needed a good bit of work.
My M5 most definitely scratches the itch. Most people see an unassuming 25-year-old car-shaped car, but one twist of the key reveals what all the fuss is about. Despite the 300,000-plus-kilometres on the odometer, the 4.9-litre V8—or five-oh, depending on who you ask—still pulls hard, still sounds ferocious, and drinks as much as Meredith Palmer at a Christmas party. It roasts its tires one second, and settles down like nothing ever happened the next. You feel things through its communicative steering and chassis, yet it’s demure and mindful enough to also melts away your thoughts on rainy nighttime drives.
I’d be lying if I said the Lexus LC 500 didn’t contribute to this burden of context. Just as Nathan fell in love with the IS 500 last year, I fell in love with the LC 500 convertible. Removing the roof had a profound effect on amplifying what makes that car incredible—the thunderous war cry as you rev out the 5.0-litre V8, culminating with a whip-crack at every shift, before doing it all over again. We revisited the LC cab again this summer and it was every bit delicious as I remembered.
Armed with all that context, hopping into the IS 500 a year later has dulled some of its lustre. There’s still plenty to like—obviously the free-breathing V8 putting out 472 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque is a very good thing, as is the fact that its rear-drive-only. The limited-slip diff out back is a cherry on top of the tire-shredding sundae. But the IS 500 is a touch more muted than I remember and lacks the LC’s sheer theatre, though it’s still properly thunderous when you rev it out. I also don’t recall the eight-speed automatic stumbling over itself as much, or maybe I just turned a blind eye to it. Either way, it doesn’t kick down as fast as you’d expect a modern automatic would, and the paddle shifters are more snappy and satisfying in the LC. Flipping the IS 500 into Sport+ mode hastens it up, but unfortunately, it defaults to Normal every time you wake it up.
The curse of context continues inside. This is where my reacquaintance with the LC really dulled the IS 500 for me. I love buttons and knobs as much as the next car curmudgeon, but there’s a lot going on with the IS 500’s centre stack—and it still uses Lexus’ infuriating touchpad-based infotainment. I can see why some people might knock more points for the seats being too cushy for a sport sedan, but I found them comfortable. One of Adi’s knocks against his IS 500 was that it lacked a sunroof, but I prefer the slicktop.
The worst part is, I don’t blame the 2024 Lexus IS 500 for any of this. I have nobody to blame but myself. I bought that stupid, glorious M5. I let the LC 500 convertible sweep me off my feet. The IS 500 did, still does, and will continue to do many good things when we inevitably revisit it again next year, the year after that, and every year until it inevitably cruises off into the sunset. Who knows, maybe if I bought a Lexus IS F like I originally planned, this newfound context wouldn’t be as burdensome.
But I’ll deal with those voices inside my head eventually.
