- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 34 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The best in its class"
Pros: Power, styling, refinement, touch screen nav
Cons: Back seat, pricey, voice control, no AWD option
Summary: I shopped BMW330, BMW530, G35 (2006) and the IS350 to replace my '04 G35. Why the Lexus won.
1. Interior (where you spend the most time) is beautiful, by far the best of the bunch. It is the smallest in the back, but I don't use the back seat. Infiniti is the largest, but least refined. BMW is in the middle but loses a lot of points for lack of storage (cupholders for example are a joke) and the overall setup of controls / buttons.
2. Peformance - Lexus was the fastest of the bunch by far and handled well. The car mags will tell you that the BMW will go through a set of cones quicker, but I don't drive through cones.
3. Quality - 1 = Lexus, 2 = Infinti, 3 = BMW.
4. Technology - 306 HP from twin injection 3.5 liter with 23+ EPA... wow. Touch screen NAV and stereo are fantatic (the voice recognition is not). BMW needs to give up on idrive and go to a touch screen. The car mags rightfully criticize this feature. BMW also gets hit for not having a true keyless system and still having the CD changer in the glove box.
5. Style (I liked them all except for the 530).
6. Price - I paid $44k for a loaded IS350, Infinti was signficanlty less, BMW330 about the same but with less features and the problems described above. 530 was about $55 and more than I wanted to spend.
I have had the car for 7,000 miles now with no problems at all and still enjoy it tremendously. You can disable VSC during the start up sequence for a wild ride, but be careful, there is a lot of power.
The 2007 G35 looks pretty nice and the price is $5k less than the Lexus. Maybe my next car.
