I had an exhilarating and breathtaking experience spending a week with the Lexus IS 500 F performance. It is a V8 compact luxury sports sedan that makes 472 horsepower and 395-pound feet of torque. I spent a lot of time driving on I-270 West and on I-70 through the beautiful hills in Western Maryland. I drove on I-81 in Appalachia in West Virginia.
Seeing the beautiful scenery and hearing the rich throaty exhaust note was healing. The IS-500F performance goes from 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds according to Lexus.
The paddle shifter was great. With the eight-speed automatic, I was able to downshift and upshift going through the mountains.
The pleasure was mine. The model I drove was red. There are a lot of safety features. It also had paddle shifters and was mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. I loved the 10.3-inch high-resolution touchscreen. I was able to listen to the music I made with the music department at Carnegie Mellon University.
I listened to my song Paradise on the 17-speaker Mark Levinson system with 7.1 surround sound. The sound system was heavenly. It also has Apple CarPlay integration. The Lexus IS 500 F performance gets an EPA-rated 25 miles per gallon on the highway.
Though my concern was not on fuel economy as I spent my week also driving around the Washington metropolitan area on I-495. I was really into the handling.
It just felt tight, taught, and very responsive. It was exhilarating to drive. Overall the Lexus IS 500 Performance is one of the best compact performance sedans on the market.
The base price on The Lexus IS 500 F performance is $57,575. Visit www.Lexus.com for more information.