The “Relentless Pursuit of Perfection” that Lexus uses for a slogan should be adopted by road repair crews all over Canada. I found one rather large and deep pothole that, when I hit it, destroyed the tire on the car. As for being a hero and changing the tire yourself, just call the toll-free line for roadside service and save yourself a few hours of aggravation.
Trust me, I know. I didn’t have the piece of spaghetti referred to as a jack on a perfectly flat and clean piece of asphalt and the car moved slightly while taking the rim off the axle; the jack folded over, dropping the car onto the ground. That is when the fun began.
All-wheel drive handling
Destroyed tire aside, the new-for-2011 IS 350 AWD is the IS that they should have come out with at the start. The all-wheel drive system works seamlessly so that you do not even realize that it is working. I did have occasion to drive a two-wheel drive version and found out exactly how slippery it really is on our streets.
The net effect on the driving experience provided handling that is nearly as good as the acceleration. I could come up to corners, making sure to brake early so that I didn’t slide into the intersection, get stopped and then accelerate into a pretty narrow gap in traffic. While all this was going on, the IS didn’t wiggle or move about in the lane. Best of all, the traction control didn’t cut in and have the throttle back off just as I started to try and get moving.
Once in a while, the road was slippery enough that I did start to slide around the speed curve. At this point in time, all I did was go with the skid and use a combination of throttle and steering to keep it pointed in the right direction and off the curb. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I did try hitting the brakes to see what would happen and as long as I remembered to steer, I never had a problem.
Suspension
Through all these activities, the suspension behaved beautifully. The calibration of shocks and springs is excellent. It was almost as if I had a suspension engineer sitting in the car with me making adjustments as we went.
I could feel the roughness of the pavement, but the ride was never harsh. Cornering on the highway at road speeds showed how well the suspension controlled body movement because the corners felt as if they were taken flat.
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| The IS 350 AWD starts at $44,950. (Photo: Charles Renny/Auto123.com) |
Trust me, I know. I didn’t have the piece of spaghetti referred to as a jack on a perfectly flat and clean piece of asphalt and the car moved slightly while taking the rim off the axle; the jack folded over, dropping the car onto the ground. That is when the fun began.
All-wheel drive handling
Destroyed tire aside, the new-for-2011 IS 350 AWD is the IS that they should have come out with at the start. The all-wheel drive system works seamlessly so that you do not even realize that it is working. I did have occasion to drive a two-wheel drive version and found out exactly how slippery it really is on our streets.
The net effect on the driving experience provided handling that is nearly as good as the acceleration. I could come up to corners, making sure to brake early so that I didn’t slide into the intersection, get stopped and then accelerate into a pretty narrow gap in traffic. While all this was going on, the IS didn’t wiggle or move about in the lane. Best of all, the traction control didn’t cut in and have the throttle back off just as I started to try and get moving.
Once in a while, the road was slippery enough that I did start to slide around the speed curve. At this point in time, all I did was go with the skid and use a combination of throttle and steering to keep it pointed in the right direction and off the curb. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I did try hitting the brakes to see what would happen and as long as I remembered to steer, I never had a problem.
Suspension
Through all these activities, the suspension behaved beautifully. The calibration of shocks and springs is excellent. It was almost as if I had a suspension engineer sitting in the car with me making adjustments as we went.
I could feel the roughness of the pavement, but the ride was never harsh. Cornering on the highway at road speeds showed how well the suspension controlled body movement because the corners felt as if they were taken flat.
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| The IS is a bit smaller than the more-common ES, and as such, it does give up a bit of trunk space. (Photo: Charles Renny/Auto123.com) |