I adore the 2025 Lexus IS 500. Adore. In this line of work, I’m blessed with being able to sample and live with lots of excellent transportation products that I generally like, but it’s becoming a rare occasion where one of these products is a proper car that pierces the veil of professional cynicism and takes hold of me. My colleagues at the office took notice of this like I had gone insane.
The IS 500 has always been a topic of contention around our office, mostly because they are all wrong and I’m obviously right. One of them even ordered a Launch Edition model and promptly sold it, citing it being disappointing. The only disappointing thing about that car was the blegh primer grey paint; this one’s yellow! Surely they’ll come around and finally see what I see!
They did indeed see the stunning new Flare Yellow metallic paint on this tester. It’s also fitted with the limited production Special Appearance package, which also includes new-for-2025 forged BBS wheels. I already thought the IS looked terrific; the addition of my favorite colour [Banana! —Ed.] with a serious dose of metal flake, plus the contrasting black accents, trim pieces, and wheels really makes it pop even more than it already did. Everything is better with BBS rims, every time.
They took turns driving it, and all came back with more or less the same feedback. They expected more. More of what, I cannot possibly imagine; this little Lexus is an incredible machine. They were unified in their unspecificity, saying things like they wanted “more sound” and “more space” and “more tech” and “more performance.” Oh, and it’s super dated, allegedly.
Space, I’d almost grant. The IS 500’s back seat is snug, but for whatever it’s worth, I can still fit behind my lanky frame fairly comfortably. Who cares? Pain has always been part-and-parcel with the pursuit of pretty. More tech? Get lost. The screen is large enough and easy to read, Lexus’ trackpad has been a familiar interface for decades, and the screen is now a touch display if you insist on pawing at it like a damned rube. Dated? You’re losing me; I see a volume knob, a tuning knob, and buttons. You know, like a radio. Like a nice simple, deck in every celebrated classic car ever. They’re confusing dated with timeless; classless goons.
And then what, performance?! I’m sorry, since when is nearly 500 horsepower in a compact car not enough? Most of its contemporaries can’t do a burnout, but the IS 500 happily roasts its rear tires on command. It doesn’t rely on all-wheel-drive to mask its dynamic deficiencies and deliver an artificially hard LAUNCH MODE LAUNCH, BRO. The IS 500 fires off the line in a serious hurry, and it doesn’t have turbos to get heat soaked, so it’ll do so consistently.
The chassis is beautifully dialed to make use of what it’s got. The IS 500 dances around your hands and feet, playing with you rather than opting to sail-on-rails for you. Can your big-screen Bavarian bullet even lay down some long elevens? I didn’t think so. Get lost and take your e-diff with you. You wouldn’t know a proper burnout if it bit you in the ass.
But the last point. More sound? Excuse me? Of all things, sound!?
On what planet is a free-breathing V8 motor built by the Yamaha that makes motorcycles and acoustically tuned by the Yamaha that makes grand pianos not enough for you? What more could you possibly need in what is, at the end of the day, still a luxury sedan? It sounds delicious. It is the most masterful blend of chest-pounding, classic V8 whump at low speeds, manic mechanical roar at high speeds, and it’s set such that its volume is ever present. It commands attention at all times, without obnoxiously demanding your attention with needless noise or worse: fully artificial cacophony. Like a beautifully crafted musical instrument, the IS 500’s soundtrack is a refined, carefully curated tone that is almost magically always the right volume. It’s simultaneously able to fill a cafe or an auditorium with music. If you can’t like this, you’re lost. Louder does not equal better.
It’s not just my immediate colleagues who are lost, either. A couple of weeks ago, I was scrolling through r/cars on Reddit. It’s usually very upsetting, but perusing these posts can sometimes give insight into what people who don’t constantly rotate through cars think. It’s sometimes interesting, but I usually just wonder why the hell I bother writing this stuff when so many so-called enthusiasts just don’t get it. The topic in question was a sensationalist headline about Lexus’ image, and this particularly lost soul stuck out:
“Lexus was very disappointing when I drove one. The LC has a V8 but 0 to 60 is 4.6 seconds. At well over 100k. 4.6 isn’t terrible, but it’s closer to the Rav 4 5.5 seconds than it is to a M3 which is 3.4 seconds. At nearly twice the cost. Plus it doesn’t even feel as fast as it is.”
The fool. Quantifying cars over tenths of seconds. Like my colleagues, he’s been brainwashed by TikTok reels showcasing mechanical masturbation masquerading as the legitimate tenets of a proper car. In an arms race of artificiality among spreadsheet warriors, where engines are augmented with disgustingly fake overrun snaps; where all steering has been so numb for so long that frenetically-fast, nervous steering has mistakenly been accepted as a substitute for deliberate communication; active AWD is always there to save you from how scary your car feels, what with its psychotically over-caffeinated steering and threatening exhaust flatulence. Heaven forbid you actually learn some car control and maybe, by God, feel something.
No one understands. No one gets it. In the same breath where everyone harps on and on how cars don’t drive like they used to, virtue-signalling in pessimism amongst each other for imaginary clout, they miss the point of the IS 500. This new car does drive like how they used to. It feels in every way like it was benchmarked against the all-time greats from the hallowed halls of Mercedes and BMW. The IS 500 chases a sensation, a cohesive experience, a profound rightness, with performance following organically.
Yes, the steering is relaxed. It’s slower and more deliberate, and by extension much easier to place the IS 500’s nose in traffic — or the tail in a powerslide. My colleagues all mentioned the Aisin-built eight-speed automatic being a weak point. I’ve conceded this as well, but on this 2025 model, it’s a lot better than I remember. I’m not sure what exactly Lexus tweaked, if anything, but it seems more eager to kick down. It’s still not on the same level as the impeccable ZF eight-speed employed by BMW and Audi, but it responds dutifully and is miles better than Genesis [Genesii? —Ed.] and some Benzes. It never felt like it hindered clowning around or commuting with the IS 500, and that’s all I ask of a slushbox.
Driven hard, the IS 500 sounds glorious, is fast, and feels playful. It wants to engage and involve you, like dancing. It’s a dance that you’re leading for sure, but the car isn’t just trying to appease you with a formulaic (if technically sound) routine. It improvises with you. How do you want to get around this corner? Trail braking and a pitch of the steering wheel? Using the skinny pedal to gently yaw on its axis into a four wheel drift? A big, showboaty, powerslide? Your prompt is always met with a “yes.”
But more than that is how the IS 500 feels when driven like a normal car. Most people — my colleagues, internet commentators, and other philistines alike — get so hung up on what a car can do, or pretend like it can do, when you’re giving it the full send. The trouble is, the full send is rarely the case; most of its contemporaries are either characterless appliances or annoying miscreants when asked to just get off their own high horse and be a car for going places.
The IS 500 shines just as much here as it does when you’re dancing, and shines so much brighter than almost anything else. That same relaxed steering is glass-smooth and a treat to wield. It’s quiet, save for the muted, deep-throated warble of the incredibly refined and characterful V8. The ride is gentle. The seats are lovely. Every single thing you touch, hear, see, and interact with feels finely honed. Even the act of getting in, closing the door with a solid hwonk, firing the characterful V8 and sliding the slick, chunkily detented shifter into go is gratifying. In all situations, at all speeds, the IS 500 oozes character and feels right.
Clearly, I am the only sane man in an insane world that doesn’t understand the 2025 Lexus IS 500. At $80,410 as-tested, even with the gorgeous, limited-run Special Appearance package, it sharply undercuts its German rivals. Even with its alleged deficiencies, it represents compelling value in the segment. With so much character radiating from its sinuous body lines and seductive Yamaha V8, it offers an experience nothing else on the new market does. That may sound like an overly bold claim, and you and all my colleagues may think I’m wrong. But in time, you too shall see what I already know: I’m right.
