I'll chime in here since I have a 2018 IS300 F-Sport RWD (with the 8AR-FTS 2.0L turbo). Gf and I are huge Lexus fans, and we're on the side of loving their styling, as it pertains to the polarizing two extremes of people who either love or hate Lexus styling these days.
Some notes from my ~2yrs of ownership thus far (plus observations with/without JB4 and CAI)
Pros:
- Excellent chassis, car feels planted and lively through the corners
- Communicative steering that isn't overly light
- Really great interior fit and finish/materials
- Decent power and torque to get around, doesn't feel slow (JB4 makes a HUGE difference in low-mid range torque and CAI make motor pull much harder to redline)
- Very refined engine especially for a 4cyl
- Subjective but nothing else looks like it on the road, really stands out
Cons:
- Front alignment settings make front tires wear out super quickly (known issue on F-Sport cars). I've installed RCF front LCA bushings which supposedly help alleviate the overly pliable standard LCA bushings/dynamic toe issues, but at that point my tires were already worn out (only around 30k and front tires are almost bare, rear tires have plenty of life left)
- Gas mileage with/without tune is pretty terrible under boost, avg around 12-13L/100km mixed highway/city without any spirited driving, throwing it in eco and keeping it mostly out of boost nets around 10L/100km under the same driving conditions
- 8AR-FTS motor has a known/well-documented weak boost vacuum regulator issue (TSB but no recall) that will cause severe boost fluctuations and make the car rock back and forth when accelerating (I'm currently experiencing this issue). Some people on Lexus forums report having that part replaced 3-4 times as even the improved part plus revised hose routing causes the same issue
- Rear trunk opening is kind of small/not tall enough
- The 8spd auto trans has the most horrific shift logic I've ever experiencing in any car of any sort, gear changes can be super jerky and it constantly hunts for gears all the time in an attempt to keep revs low/save gas. Throttle response can also be dangerously slow, sometimes up to a 1.5 second delay from when your foot mashes the gas to when it changes gears and start accelerating. This is particularly concerning when making left turns where there's ample space to make the turn, but because the throttle is so slow to respond sometimes that the safe space disappears once your car starts to move
- The fake engine noise sounds horrible, but if you turn it off, the motor is almost silent, however you are able to adjust the volume through a knob
- Will be a con to some, but audio controls/software are pretty archaic and I still have the tiny old screen and there's a ton of lag in the software, not a big deal to me cause I hate massive touchscreens in cars and wish everything still came with a cool 1DIN radio
For those that are saying boohoo another refresh of the same shit from 2013 lame blah blah etc. - YES it's the same "New N" chassis, now with that being said, it still drives very nicely, and I have no doubt that with the significant chassis and suspension revisions that Lexus made with this 2021 model, it will drive spectacularly. I read in the press release that they did in fact make some shift logic changes to the 8spd, so hopefully that will fix some of the deal breaking issues of that transmission. Also, for anyone who's sat inside an IS, the interior works really well, and same as the 4Runner/Taco, it's the same "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality, and for once I must agree with Toyota/Lexus. It's a godsend to me that I can still get a car without a disgusting supersized iPad in the centre console.
I'm still undecided if I want to get the 2021 model, since the F-Sport is now only offered on the IS350 (which in Canada only comes with AWD with the antique 6spd auto), which means the price will most likely be south of $60k, which means it's getting into M-Sport territory...