[00:01] Thomas and James isn't here. He's hanging out with family in England. So, I thought I would spend a little bit of time with an old friend, the Lexus IS-500. I mean, it's not that I need other
[00:14] friends when James is in here. He's not my only friend, you know? I mean, like, to be clear, I have lots of friends, right? Like all these guys behind the right? Like all these guys behind the camera, they're my friends, right, guys?
[00:31] Okay, I don't even care.
[01:08] because the Lexus is on which the IS-500 is built is old. Very old, over 10 years old, and it hasn't really changed much. It still has roughly the same interior layout, roughly the same panels and
[01:22] pieces of dashboard. Over the years, they've updated and tweaked things, but fundamentally this is an old car. This has a 5 L V8 making 472 horsepower and has a 5 L V8 making 472 horsepower and 395 lb- feet of torque.
[01:38] It costs about 60 grand US and 76 somethingish grand Canadian. point is is that it undercuts an M3 and no one cares about the C63, so don't worry about that. But it's about the same price as an M2, which is interesting
[02:02] I think I like the IS-500 better because this is a sports sedan in the old school way. just a normal family sedan that they've added a ton of power
[02:14] to better suspension. They just spiced up a normal road car and you really get the sense when you drive it that that's what this is. This feels hot rotted. It feels a bit unsettled. It feels a bit angry like it
[02:28] can't handle its own power. And I really like that about it is it's And I really like that about it is it's silly.
[02:41] silly cars. Things are too serious and boring these days. It seems like every car manufacturer is only concerned with how much screen they can fit on the they're just driving their television. Lexus hasn't bothered with those trends.
[02:56] So, imagine my surprise when just the other week Lexus announces a new is. I was blown away. They finally developed a new generation. Nope. False alarm. Same car, updated interior and styling. Huh, that was close. And for now, no mention
[03:12] of an updated IS-500. So, this is all we've got. So, let's enjoy that we've got. So, let's enjoy that silliness I talked about.
[03:35] But of course, most of all, you've got that sound. Naturally thing that just doesn't exist anywhere else.
[03:54] concerned about making this a full-on race car. If I really really wanted to set lap times, I wouldn't buy a sports sedan. They're supposed to be for fun.
[04:12] It's really soft, even in the sportiest settings. This is a car that you can absolutely live with without making any compromises other than fuel economy cuz it's really, really bad. But other than that, it's just a really loud, fun, fast
[04:28] sports sedan that you can drive every single day. I'd say that I applaud Lexus for making it, but they just haven't they didn't like they don't like set out to make it. They just they just haven't stopped making it basically. That's
[04:41] what's happened here. But to be fair, even though it's an old car, every year they do tweak things. All right. In typical Lexus fashion, they've changed a ton of stuff for 2025. For example, this
[04:57] ton of stuff for 2025. For example, this now has power folding wing mirrors. That's actually it. Moving on. Actually, I saw a comment from a guy on Reddit who bought the previous year version of this car, and he said, "I
[05:10] upgraded from a Supra, and the only two complaints I have are the transmission and the lack of power folding mirrors." Sorry, bud. They changed it for this year. Going to have to upgrade. It's worth it. 100%
[05:23] worth it. All right. Actually, they did change a few other things. There's a new special F-S Sport package or something which gives you these new BBS wheels and this new exclusive paint color um and a
[05:36] tweaks but fundamentally it's completely the same car. The interior is no different as far as I can tell. Still has this awesome gauge cluster button and it looks absolutely fantastic. One of the coolest gauge
[05:49] clusters ever fitted to a car genuinely. And the rest of it is pretty much crap like it's always been. Lexus now has much better upgraded infotainment systems than this. This is old stuff. It still has this little track pad down
[06:01] here, which is it almost feels 90s now for some reason. It's obviously more recent than that, but it's really crap to use. If you can get by that and the fact that the interior looks exactly the same down here to issue,
[06:16] same down here to issue, then uh yeah, you're just getting a naturally aspirated V8. That's what you're buying. you're buying. And that sound,
[06:33] transmission is kind of meh, to be honest. Also, from this view, that gauge cluster is roughly the same as the Lexus LFA.
[06:53] car are huge. And I still loved it, so who cares? But then, look at this. Here I am pulling up to a roundabout. A thing that, by the way, not a single person in Canada knows how to operate. No one signals. No, some people come to a stop
[07:05] in the middle of roundabouts to let people in. And uh it just was for that moment there, it was just a Lexus. It came to a stop smoothly. It set away smoothly. The ride was smooth. It's insulated. I
[07:18] truck to drove by me. I wanted I can turn on the Mark Levenson stereo which turn on the Mark Levenson stereo which is incredibly powerful but weirdly not as good quality as I remember in the highs.
[07:31] Lost the rear a little bit there. And then lo and behold, I'm on a back mode. The gauge cluster changes. Slap it over into manual. And you can sit on the over into manual. And you can sit on the rev limiter like this.
[07:46] [Laughter] like the steering. I like how it moves to be deliberate with the way that you set it into a corner and allow the set it into a corner and allow the weight to transfer. In a modern BMW M
[08:00] car, you cannot know how to drive and make it go around corners quickly. You everything. The suspension just takes a seat. Electronics happen and you go through the corner at Mach 50. But in this, it will move around on its
[08:14] suspension a little bit. So, the way that you operate the steering is going to dictate how comfortable the car is in a corner. a corner. And that's nice because it means that
[08:26] you're relevant. You're important. You're a part of the experience. All right, let's be real for a second here. An actual purchase of an IS-500 new in 2025. Does that make any sense? I think it does. Why not? If you live in a place
[08:43] where fuel is cheap and you don't really care about fuel economy, care about fuel economy, then this is this is a really good car. Like, if I'm sitting there talking about my real money at real dealerships going
[08:57] my real money at real dealerships going out to purchase a new car, I think I would buy this over an M2. You get the advantage of people can sit in the back. That's a thing. It'll still do huge skids just like an
[09:11] M2. I think it's more comfortable and it doesn't look like a dog's