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I own two IS300’s so I should be biased, but even I know at some level Toyota failed to meet the bar set by BMW driving dynamics wise. Magainze reviews at the time in the early 2000's also reached this same conclusion. Almost........ but not quite. At stock height the handling can be a bit of an adventure on the IS around bends particularly if the pavement has a warp or bump to unsettle the car… I found a subtle drop (1”) ironed that out completely.
The shifter on the manual is truck like and the BMW is obviously better in this regard too. The Altezza with the Beams engine and the 6spd manual has a much better shift action, but then you're dealing with RHD and a very peaky engine.
That said, BMW’s come with BMW problems… and the Lexus basically has none. There are some common fail points on these cars in the suspension and some random interior bits that I won’t get into, but certainly drivetrain wise there are basically none and you can expect 500,000kms+ with basic maintenance.
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