Topic: 2006 Lexus IS350: One Year Ownership Update

[rrocket]

Last year, I bought my 2006 Lexus IS350 for my birthday.  It's been a year and some 30,000+ kms later, so I thought I'd post an update.  The car has been utterly reliable and has needed nothing but fluids.  All interior parts look as new.  The leather is wearing excellently.  There are no squeaks or rattles.  Nothing has failed or stopped working.  I did have one recall done, which was the valve springs replacement.  Even those looked fine to me, but I couldn't keep them as they had to be sent back to Lexus for a technical inspection.  All in all, the car continues to be a very solidly made car. GiantDwarf tried to guess the mileage of the IS based on the condition of the car, and he said "less than 50,000kms?".  He was only off by 110,000+kms!     The car now has ~ 162,000kms on it.  Fuel mileage has been great.  I've averaged 9.2L/100km.  My best tank was 7.4L/100km and my worst 10.5L/100km.

Part of the reason I bought the car was there wasn't a lot of mods that could be done, so this would preserve as much as my bankroll as possible when it came time to buy my next car.   But I did manage to do a few mods through the course of the year though. I run Amsoil 0W20 in the car and swapped out the rear diff fluid for Royal Purple.  I put in some Autolite XP Iridium plugs.  Performance-wise, I also added a K&N Typhoon intake, and a Magnaflow cat back exhaust along with a SprintBooster throttle controller.  These mild tweaks made for pretty robust dyno numbers: 280 RWHP (approx. 330HP at the crank) and 250 TQ.  On the appearance front, I added a rare Aceltion Felicia carbon fiber front lip and some V-LED.com LED puddle bulbs and wedge bulbs for the front lights.


Best of all (IMO) were some of the fun things I got to do with the IS for/with some CanadianDriver members.

-Julie got to drag race the IS350 at St. Thomas Dragway.  It was her first time at a track.  It was a blast and she whooped a bolt-on modded 2005 Mustang GT!

-Vmango got to do the Playstation type disabling of the traction control system and do smokey burnouts in the IS.  I also picked up a cat back exhaust for his WRX and delivered it to him in London (any excuse for a roadtrip!)

-Delivered a set of winter tires for TurboBob's Genesis Coupe.

-Picked up an Apple I-TV thing for Wing.

-Picked up GiantDwarf and TurboBob in Detroit for stogies, drinks and car talk.

-Tried to set an interesting pace and stay ahead of a crazed group of CTC regulars at the awesome Canadian Driver K-W Drive & Meet in September.  Stogies and great car talk afterward were the icing on the cake of that fantastic day!

So not only has the IS been a trouble-free pleasure to own, it has also allowed me to connect with many of the great people from this site.  All in all...I really couldn't ask for a better year with this car.

[Railton]

Dude!
Railton

[Careener]

Sounds like a good set of memories.
Cheers

[Mike]

Awesome man!  nothing like using your car for it was inteded to do! 

Now about a future London meet up.....

-Vmango got to do the Playstation type disabling of the traction control system and do smokey burnouts in the IS.  I also picked up a cat back exhaust for his WRX and delivered it to him in London (any excuse for a roadtrip!)

[Vmango]

I've posted about this before but I'll mention it again. I was quite impressed with my drive in RR's 350 - especially with the mods he's done as they gave it the right amount of 'character.'

We met in London as it's more or less a half-way point between Windsor and Waterloo and RR was heading there to pick up some car parts anyway.

We had been talking and the next CTC meet/cruise should be through wine country in RR land - we should plan beginning in spring!

Lastly, happy birthday, Putz 

[Giant Dwarf]

Yeah, but Rrocket, there is that parking issue with it.  Stop the car, everyone gets out and not only was the car hideously crooked, but starts rolling away too.  Oh wait, I guess that wasn't the car's fault.   

True enough though, unbelievable condition for the year and mileage -- waaaay better than mine with 70k less on it!

[rrocket]

Yeah, but Rrocket, there is that parking issue with it.  Stop the car, everyone gets out and not only was the car hideously crooked, but starts rolling away too.  Oh wait, I guess that wasn't the car's fault.   

True enough though, unbelievable condition for the year and mileage -- waaaay better than mine with 70k less on it!

Yea..both my fault.  When I knew stogies were 2 minutes away, I was bailing out of the car..whether parked, in neutral or drive!!   

[tortoise]

Thanks for the update... Has the power been enough for you or do you keep staring at old photos of the Supra with teary eyes?

[rrocket]

Thanks for the update... Has the power been enough for you or do you keep staring at old photos of the Supra with teary eyes?

Not nearly enough power.

I think of the Supra almost daily.....(still an active member at SupraForums)

[Giant Dwarf]

Thanks for the update... Has the power been enough for you or do you keep staring at old photos of the Supra with teary eyes?

Not nearly enough power.

I think of the Supra almost daily.....(still an active member at SupraForums)

So you're  like Al Bundy amongst pro footballers...  "I was great once... 4 touchdowns in a single game..."  Or in your case "650 hp in a single turbo!"   

[rrocket]

Thanks for the update... Has the power been enough for you or do you keep staring at old photos of the Supra with teary eyes?

Not nearly enough power.

I think of the Supra almost daily.....(still an active member at SupraForums)

So you're  like Al Bundy amongst pro footballers...  "I was great once... 4 touchdowns in a single game..."  Or in your case "650 hp in a single turbo!"   

I think the bare minimum for me...is in the area of 400WHP or so.  Or a power to weight combo of similar potency...

[Weexy]

Nice -- certainly food for thought for picking up a CPO 350 in the next couple of months

[Vmango]

Thanks for the update... Has the power been enough for you or do you keep staring at old photos of the Supra with teary eyes?

Not nearly enough power.

I think of the Supra almost daily.....(still an active member at SupraForums)

So you're  like Al Bundy amongst pro footballers...  "I was great once... 4 touchdowns in a single game..."  Or in your case "650 hp in a single turbo!"   

HAHAHAH! So true! ;-)

[Turbo Bob]

All good stuff, I'd get a Lexus if I could get a decent manual.

I'll be posting my annual update too in March.

[dr_spock]

Nice update, Ron.   

Parking brakes?

[aquadorhj]

sounds like you had a fun year with your car, rr.

wish i had neighbor like you!. 

I've averaged 9.2L/100km.  My best tank was 7.4L/100km and my worst 10.5L/100km.

the lexi gets better mileage than my jetta!!!!  i beat your best going 90 on highway, but my worst is way way worse than 10.5.

[Flinter]

Thanks for the update. I'm a big fan of the IS350 and the great reputation for reliability makes it a wise choice if you are buying Pre-owned. Hope it continues to treat you well.

[Julie]

Not sure how I missed this thread, but better late than never.   

Being able to test out the IS350 made me like the car more than I thought I would.  I was also very impressed by the condition of the car and my guesstimate of the mileage was also about 100,000 km off!

Throttle response was also quicker than in my 335 at the time (although I think my 335 has almost caught up now, if not completely caught up, as the engine has really opened up)

Thanks for leading us for the CTC meet Ron - we really did pick you because we thought you'd be the best one to lead us!  Not because we wanted you to get the speeding ticket!

[rrocket]

Not sure how I missed this thread, but better late than never.   

Being able to test out the IS350 made me like the car more than I thought I would.  I was also very impressed by the condition of the car and my guesstimate of the mileage was also about 100,000 km off!

Throttle response was also quicker than in my 335 at the time (although I think my 335 has almost caught up now, if not completely caught up, as the engine has really opened up)

Thanks for leading us for the CTC meet Ron - we really did pick you because we thought you'd be the best one to lead us!  Not because we wanted you to get the speeding ticket!

I'm still not sure about that one....

[Turbo Bob]

Not sure how I missed this thread, but better late than never.   

Being able to test out the IS350 made me like the car more than I thought I would.  I was also very impressed by the condition of the car and my guesstimate of the mileage was also about 100,000 km off!

Throttle response was also quicker than in my 335 at the time (although I think my 335 has almost caught up now, if not completely caught up, as the engine has really opened up)

Thanks for leading us for the CTC meet Ron - we really did pick you because we thought you'd be the best one to lead us!  Not because we wanted you to get the speeding ticket!

I'm still not sure about that one....

I picked him because he goes faster than me!