Have you noticed that used stick-shift compact sports sedans are starting to age out of the used car sweet spot? Between attrition, wear, and vehicular neglect, we’re losing good options for used row-your-own rear-wheel-drive sedans that can do just about everything a Civic can. BMWs are nice but can be needy, and most stick-shift Infiniti G35s and G37s are now thoroughly clapped out. So, what else is out there? Well, how about a Lexus IS 250?
The 2006 to 2012 Lexus IS 250 wasn’t just a BMW 3 Series competitor, it was also the last Lexus offered with a manual transmission in America. How’s that for an end-of-the-line milestone? As you can probably expect from that previous statement, Lexus didn’t sell many of these things, but if you look hard, a handful are out there.
Under the hood of the Lexus IS 250 sat a 2.5-liter direct-injected 4GR-FSE V6 engine making 204 horsepower and 184 lb.-ft. of torque. Crazy how less than 20 years ago, we could buy V6s with the displacement of today’s four-cylinder engines. Admittedly, this isn’t a hugely powerful unit, and that does translate to middling acceleration times. When the 2006 IS 250 with the six-speed manual transmission was new, Car And Driver clocked a 7.1-second zero-to-60 mph run. That’s not considered quick by today’s standards, and it couldn’t keep up with a 2006 BMW 325i, but it was quicker than any 2JZ-GE-powered Lexus IS 300 Car And Driver tested.
Sure, the use of direct injection may necessitate periodic carbon cleaning, but the 4GR-FSE V6 engine is extremely reliable overall, and its relatively modest output didn’t just make the use of a six-speed manual transmission possible, it also opens up another possibility further down the drivetrain.
Over the past few years, IS 250 owners have found that the entire Torsen limited-slip differential assembly from a Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ, or Toyota 86 is a proper bolt-in replacement for the factory open differential. By going this route, three-pedal IS 250 drivers can step up from a 3.72:1 axle ratio to either a 4.10:1 or 4.30:1 axle ratio, trading top speed and some efficiency for a substantial increase in torque multiplication, all while gaining the confident predictability of a limited-slip diff.
It’s an upgrade you might want to make, as the IS 250 acquits itself in the bends quite nicely. It’s not quite as precise as an E90 BMW 3 Series, but it’s closer than you might imagine. Even Car And Driver, which had the E90 3 Series on its annual 10 Best list through that car’s entire production run, took a shining to the cornering feel of the IS 250, writing:
Straight-line performance aside, the IS250 is a pleasure to drive, even more than its big brother. The IS350 weighs 135 more pounds than the 3465-pound IS250, and with extra weight carried over its handsome nose, the 350 understeers more than we’d like. Also, the more powerful car’s suspension feels a bit overdamped and overzealous, whereas the 250’s feels composed and tight. There’s predictable understeer on corner entry, but a midcorner squeeze on the throttle is enough to tighten your line for a precise and pleasant blast to the next corner. For better balance, we’d take the IS250 over the IS350.
Oh, and speaking of cornering, there’s a weird trick you have to do on early models if you find yourself on an autocross course and want to deep-six stability control: Start the car with the handbrake on, depress the brake pedal twice and hold it, then cycle handbrake engagement twice and hold it up, then depress the brake pedal twice more and hold it. You might have to do it a few times, but get it right, and an icon in the gauge cluster will illuminate, letting you know it’s time to play.
That’s the sporty side taken care of to a reasonable extent, but what about luxury? Unsurprisingly, the manual IS 250 cleaned up here. Every single example came standard with a true proximity push-to-start system, a 13-speaker stereo with an auxiliary input, dual-zone climate control, and rock-solid build quality. Plus, it could be optioned up with a 14-speaker 300-watt Mark Levinson surround sound system, 10-way power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats, auto-dimming exterior mirrors, and bi-xenon headlights that swiveled when you turned the steering wheel.
If there’s one downside to the stick-shift IS 250, it’s strong resale value making average examples cost the same as a nice E90 3 Series. For instance, this 2008 model with 129,000 miles on the clock is listed for sale in Illinois for a strong $10,495. Granted, the red paint does look nice, but those headlights could do with a polish and the beige leather looks a bit dirty. Add in three hits on the Carfax and this would have to be a real heart-over-head purchase.
This black 2006 IS 250 looks like a better deal. Sure, it has a minor hit on its Carfax from 2010, but it’s up for sale in California for $9,999, and with 120,959 miles on the clock, it seems about half-run-in for a Lexus. Give the interior a bit of leather dye to touch up wear on the black upholstery, and chances are this thing will bring driving enjoyment for a long time.
These cars in six-speed manual trim are incredibly rare, but if you can find one in decent shape, you could score a gem of a sports sedan with Lexus durability that many people simply aren’t aware of. Sure, you might pay more for it upfront than you would for a BMW 3 Series, but you’ll most likely make that up on the back end.
(Photo credits: Lexus, Autotrader seller, Cars.com seller)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
The Acura MDX Sport Hybrid Brought NSX Supercar Tech To The School Run
-
BMW Once Shoved A Turbocharged Straight-Six Into Its Smallest Crossover And It’s Now Dirt Cheap Speed
-
You Can Buy A 365-Horsepower Kia Stinger GT For Less Than A Base Corolla
-
The Toyota RAV4 V6 Was A Practical Family Crossover That Could Outrun A Volkswagen GTI
-
For A Few Short Years, You Could Get A 215-Horsepower Manual Nissan Juke With Recaro Seats
Please send tips about cool car things to tips@theautopian.com. You could even win a prize!
“Car And Driver clocked a 7.1-second zero-to-60 mph run. That’s not considered quick by today’s standards”
It wasn’t quick by 2006 standards either. This car was kind of a lame duck when it came out. It followed the IS300 that wasn’t particularly quick either. As far as “sports sedans” go, they were both pretty weak. I didnt think it was a looker either. Maybe it handles, I don’t know.
I didi lust for one of these after seeing one at my work parking lot. Highly underrated car.
I have a cousin who was into these for a while and had several. Don’t bother, just get the BMW. These really aren’t particularly cheaper to run than a 328i, slower, and not as sharp handlers. Parts prices for them are stupid, they DO break, and they rust. And the manuals might as well be unicorns.
On BMWs you get a button to enable “play mode” not some weird Japanese seated dance routine – and they play just fine even with the stability control ON.
I believe their biggest pro and con (depending on which side you’re on) is it’s not a BMW.
It shows clearer with 1st gen IS: it’s supposed to compete with E46 yet BMWs are better in almost every single aspect: space inside, handling, engine options, you name it.
Man I always loved these. But yeah no joke they are dang near impossible to find. Whenever I’ve looked over the years most of the listings turn out to be mislabeled automatics.
Funny how you could get the V6 petrol with a manual in the US. Here in Europe, the 2.2 diesel was the only pairing with a manual transmission, AFAIK.
I have a is250 manual mate and I’m in Cardiff, UK ????
Huh. Funny, just this weekend, an IS250 manual popped up as a used car sold new here in Norway as well. Seems I was wrong – must’ve been the fact that they sold in very limited numbers up here.
And shout-out to Cardiff, my former home.
The manual in these was a revision of the RA trans used in various trims of the Tacoma. From what I remember they also had throw-out bearing and clutch issues as well as being downright noisy. They also came in convertible flavor as well with the manual.
The second gen IS was pretty awful, a stick doesn’t really help that. Literally buy any other compact 6 speed sport sedan from that era please.
Why is it awful?
extremely small inside, mushy suspension, light, imprecise steering, no power. etc.
These were really good on paper but small and fat on the road, and cramped to boot.
A IS trade in from this generation remains the second most unpleasant car I’ve ever needed to cram myself into the driver’s seat. (First is tied between a first gen mazda protege and an S2000 but at least the S2000 didn’t have a roof.)
Seriously though if you’re even a smidge over 5’8″ you’ll be wedged unpleasantly between every part of the well-made interior.
181cm, no problems…
Same I’m 5’10 and don’t find my is250 crammed at all it’s so comfy too
I drove one of these back when they were new. The shifter felt clunky. When you daily an s2000 all shifters feel clunky though.
I did some research on these last year, I thought it could be a cheap, fun commuter. The consensus was that the 2.5 is a turd due to the early Direct Injection, the 3.5 is the one to get. I then realized why so many of them listed for sale were around the 140-150K mile mark, that was the point where issues from the DI would pop up.
Even the Car Care Nut (a Toyota master tech on Youtube) advises to stay away from these, it’s one of the few Toyota/Lexus vehicles he doesn’t recommend. He noted that you won’t find this engine in any Toyota’s because Toyota wanted nothing to do with it at the time and left it to Lexus to experiment with.
The Car Care Nut has the best Toyota reviews out there IMO and I love his style of review for the other brands he is getting now as well. I watch a ton of his and Sarah-n-Tuned’s reviews.
He has a lot of good insider info on maintaining ‘Yotas since he used to be a dealer mechanic and now has his own (immaculate) shop. Any of his repair videos are a must-watch if you are doing something similar to your car, he is incredibly thorough and he shows you what is really going to happen when you dive in.
Definitely! I don’t watch every one of his videos, but they’re a good resource if one is interested in a specific vehicle or procedure. He LOVES the 5th gen 4Runner, which has probably helped to drive the resale up so high, haha.
Sarah is very entertaining as well, lately I’ve been watching pretty much every video, whether I’m interested in the car or not. I really appreciate how she puts them all up on the lift and explains the mechanical bits. Only other channel I follow that regularly does that is Savagegeese.
Yup, yup! I also watch some savagegeese but admittedly not nearly as much as the other two. Good choices man!
Their channel probably isn’t for everyone, but if you have some time for longer vids, check out “Stay Tuned” with Tony Angelo. https://youtube.com/@staytunedta?si=-2bHZPiSeQOvhVIj
The Dodge D100 Slant6 with ebay turbo build series is fun, as is the Corvette where he replaces a blown LS with a box truck variant that he gets very cheaply.
Overview writeup here if you want to dip your toe first. https://ls1tech.com/articles/isuzu-truck-engine-seems-to-be-a-hidden-ls-gem/
I had forgotten about that Toyota/Lexus e-brake rigmarole to disable the traction control. I thought the internet was joking with me on that brake/e-brake dance until it worked. I would do that on snowy days in my AWD Rav4 V6. Boy was that fun.
As I understand it the Mazda Speed6 goes from AWD to RWD with e-brake tomfoolery
And it has the upside of being a really really good design. I’ve always thought they looked great, and they really continue to – it’s a design that is so tight and well executed it continues to just look good (and considering many of the current offerings on the market, actually begins to look better).
I was looking at these guys but I can’t justify 2 RWD manuals in a place this snowy 🙁
The true Holy Grail of Lexus manuals is the first-gen ES250. And it had cloth seats!
Better yet the second gen: manual available only for 92-93 and more properly separated from the Camry.
It’s a good car.
I think the ORIGINAL IS300 is better in every single way though.
but can you find one with an MT that doesn’t make a 3rd owner WRX look like a solid purchase?
Used to own one, my 0.02 is to buy the cleanest automatic you can find, and use the price delta to manual swap it yourself.
The W55 that came in the first gen doesn’t handle increased power and isn’t particularly nice to drive. Many other manuals will shift better and hold more power (T56, CD009, R154, etc)
If you’re going to keep it stock the W55 is fine, but then why buy a car with a 200hp, 500lb iron block 2JZ in the engine bay?
Final note, the steering in the original IS300 is sublime, miles ahead of the IS250
My coworker whom I carpool with had a mint MT with something like 250K on it. He IMO foolishly traded it on to Tesla, he probably could have gotten 2X on the private market.
These are really cool cars, I always wanted one, but they are tiny. I’m 6’3″ and barely fit in one. It felt Miata-small.
I own a Miata and feel like its more spacious than these.
Touché
I liked the idea of these and not opposed to a small displacement V6, but rarely saw anyone say they were really that fun to drive in practice, at least for the price/relative to other cars on the market.
If you weren’t going for a German brand for reasons of reliability or brand-consciousness, Infiniti had the manual G sedan. If you didn’t care about driven wheels, a manual TSX put up about the same numbers. Or a manual TL was quicker too – a good bit bigger, but all roomier than the IS anyway. And now on the used market probably easier to find a decent manual example.
truth. low mileage is hard to find regardless, but a TSX or TL is way more likely to find at this point. just based on used listings,there’s usually anywhere from 3-5x the number of 6MT TSX or TLs vs IS300s out there.
Show the dashboard! It’s awesome!!
He did, this gen ditched the weird-ass instrument panel of the first gen.
This is high on my “ones that got away” list. there was a 45K mile example local to me in 2019 before used car price insanity for I want to say like $14 or 15K. I didn’t pull the trigger and have regretted it ever since.
I always liked these cars but the backseat could only accommodate people without legs.
Agreed, had to ride in the back of one once, and I’ve hated them since.
A friend bought a lightly used 2007 IS250 6-speed back in late 2007. His job in finance meant he needed to “fit in” with a sensible luxury car that could be used to shuttle around potential clients, but he wanted something he could at least enjoy driving. It wasn’t very quick in a straight line, but it was an absolute hoot in the twisties. It also got surprisingly good fuel economy for a V6.
A 17 year old car with 129,000 miles costing $11,000 is really hard to wrap my head around
It’s just a $3,000 car with $8,000 in Toyota Tax. Simple.
This is one of those “if only they made it in a wagon” cars for me. There are SOOOO many of those. Unfortunatley, CUVs have proven they can do wagon things even better, with only a little loss in dynamics (and a higher price, no manual transmission, worse fuel economy, etc).
If either this or the TSX wagon came in 6MT, I’d like have one or both (or multiples of either). *so* close to perfection.
Just get an e91 3-series wagon and call it a day, though RWD with a stick are *expensive* because less than 500 were ever sold in the US. But AWD with a stick is pretty reasonable – there are more than 10X as many of those. I have owned my ’11 from new and it has been an absolute anvil. Literally just a battery in the past decade. BMW makes some ridiculously expensive to run cars, but an e9x 325i/328i is not one of them. Plenty of people put intergalactic mileages on them with minimal problems.
good tip. I don’t know if I have the stomach for a German car, but good to know this one seems to be OK.
They are 2 or 3 grand in the UK.
It really helps when 90% of the general public has never heard of the brand 🙂
Yes, I’m exaggerating. It’s 88%.
IS200s, which I prefer, are getting expensive tho. You used to be able to pick them up for peanuts, but they’re in 5K+ territory now, which is a shame.
Every used car is cheaper in the UK, because y’all pay out the nose for insurance instead.
Used cars in the UK are *massively* cheaper than used cars in the US (while new cars are quite a bit more expensive). I assume due to the cost of keeping them MOT’d and these days taxed?
As a scarily long-time reader of various British car magazines (I’ve had a subscription to CAR for decades), that has always made me super jealous of you guys. So many neat cars can be had for next to nothing.
Especially such a generally “meh” car. If this was an ’08 GX470 or V8 4Runner with those miles, 11k would be a damn good deal.