{"id":270944,"date":"2010-02-03T12:17:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T17:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stoth.com\/2010\/02\/03\/review-2010-lexus-is-350c-f-sport-is-a-mixed-expensive-bag\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T12:17:16","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T17:17:16","slug":"review-2010-lexus-is-350c-f-sport-is-a-mixed-expensive-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/270944","title":{"rendered":"Review: 2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport is a mixed, expensive bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Filed under: Convertible<\/a>, Performance<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Lexus<\/a>, Reviews<\/a>, Luxury<\/a><\/p>\n

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2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport – Click above for high-res image gallery<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

\nWhen Toyota<\/a> launched Lexus<\/a> in 1989, it had one goal in mind: Beat the Germans at the luxury game. And for a while, at least, they did exactly that. The LS400 didn’t change everything, but it manifested a shift in the luxury paradigm. However, the LS400<\/a> was at the top of the heap, competing against the mighty S-Class<\/a> from Mercedes-Benz<\/a> and the 7 Series<\/a> from BMW<\/a> (Audi<\/a> and Cadillac<\/a> were both in their basket case phase and not really competing with anyone). Towards the bottom of the luxury pile sat the Lexus ES 250. Despite being the nicest Camry<\/a> ever built, it was most definitely Glass Joe to the BMW 3 Series<\/a>‘ Mike Tyson in the entry level luxury\/performance punch out.<\/p>\n

After more than a decade, Lexus eventually realized that no matter how refined it made the front-wheel-drive, Camry-based ES lineup, it simply couldn’t compete with the sportiness inherent to the rear-wheel-driven 3 Series. As such, it introduced the sporty IS 300<\/a> in 2001. While the IS featured some killer features – chronograph style gauges, pop-up navigation screen, manual transmission, a wagon body style and sporty dynamics – its rear seat was so tiny it got classified as a subcompact. Despite some fans, it just wasn’t in the same league as the 3 Series, and as you might expect, sales remained lackluster in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Finally, in 2006 Lexus launched the current generation IS. Available with a 2.5-liter (IS 250) or 3.5-liter (IS 350) V6, the second-generation IS became the first Lexus product that could credibly compete with BMW’s dominant 3 Series, as well as the surging Infiniti<\/a> G35. Then came the hopped-up IS-F<\/a>, with a 5.0-liter V8 that cranked out 416 horsepower, two ponies more than the 414-hp V8 motor in the M3<\/a>. Lexus need not make any excuses for the brute IS-F. While Lexus continues to shy away from the full-fledged 3 Series battle royal by not bringing out a two-door or a wagon, it has released a hardtop convertible variant called the IS 350C. We got our hands on a nearly murdered-out variant, the IS 350C F-Sport. Our thoughts and impressions are available after the jump.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Gallery: Review: 2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nPhotos by Drew Phillips<\/a><\/strong><\/em> \/ <\/strong><\/em>Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Continue reading Review: 2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport is a mixed, expensive bag<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Review: 2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport is a mixed, expensive bag<\/a> originally appeared on Autoblog<\/a> on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Japan, Lexus, Reviews, Luxury 2010 Lexus IS 350C F-Sport – Click above for high-res image gallery When Toyota launched Lexus in 1989, it had one goal in mind: Beat the Germans at the luxury game. And for a while, at least, they did exactly that. The LS400 didn’t change everything, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}