Emerging classic: Lexus IS200
The Japanese 3-Series which gave the world the phrase ‘Lexus lights’.
Bargain basement luxury motoring.
Like fellow 1990s arrivals Acura and Infiniti, Lexus was launched with the aim of establishing a credible upmarket brand for the US market, to sit in a niche where parent company Toyota’s badge simply wouldn’t have sufficient kudos.
The name was essentially made up, although sources inside Toyota suggest it’s a contraction of the phrase ‘Luxury Executive for the USA’.
The marque debuted in 1989 in the North American market, appearing in the UK the following year and initially offered just one model: the LS400 saloon. Roughly the size of the Jaguar XJ6 and BMW 7-Series, it was intended as something of a showcase for Toyota’s technology and manufacturing prowess. No holds were barred in the pursuit of excellence and one of the aims of the development programme was an ‘anti-ageing’ programme which was intended to ensure that a 50,000-mile example would be indistinguishable from a new car.
This involved five years spent examining the fading characteristics of paints, plastics and rubbers as well as wear and vibration characteristics of rubber and mechanical components. When the competition examined the tight panel gaps and smooth V8 of the production Lexus, even BMW was worried. One can only imagine the sheer panic in Browns Lane...
The new marque was a success in the US market, where 4200 were sold in the first month but in truth, technically excellent as it was, the rather bland LS400 lacked appeal for European and especially British buyers, its very refinement which made it so successful Stateside perceived as a lack of character in the UK market. A slightly smaller GS300 was launched in 1993, but in 1999 a shot was fired in the general direction of Munich with the launch of the IS200.
Based on a shortened version of the GS300 platform and sharing much of its drivetrain, the Lexus IS200 was a compact, rear-driven saloon with a 2-litre straight-six powerplant, a recipe which until then had been synonymous with the BMW 3-Series. The 153 bhp straight six boasted variable cam timing and twin camshafts and drove through a standard six-speed gearbox, while suspension was by double wishbones all round, with the engine set well back in BMW style to achieve a well balanced weight distribution. The set-up was honed on European roads too, with prototypes driven right across Europe as well as around the Nürburgring. The Sport model also came with a Torsen limited-slip differential, while both SE and Sport trims brought a stiffer anti-roll bar to the party.
Initially sold as the Toyota Altezza in Japan, the IS200 was launched in the UK on May 20, 1999 and its smaller size was much more in tune with European tastes, with a growing dealer network now able to service the brand – and the two-month waiting list which had built up following its announcement. The car’s styling was described in the launch press material as being ‘aggressively contemporary’ and included the clear rear light lenses which soon came to be known as ‘Lexus lights’ after the style was copied for everything from BMWs to Vauxhall Novas.
Other bold styling touches appeared inside in the shape of the ‘chronograph’ instrument dials and the machined alloy gearknob on manual cars.
Meanwhile, a four-speed auto may have been a £1,195 option, but everything else you’d have had to fork out extra for at Audi, Saab, Mercedes or BMW was there as standard, even on the entry-level S model: six- CD autochanger, climate control air
conditioning, electric windows and alloy wheels – 17-inchers on the SE and Sport models.
Having sampled an original LS400 recently (Toyota GB’s own heritage example, no less) I can report that the IS200 is a very different animal. Clearly still produced to the same exacting quality standards, it feels so much more European in its flavour and was really the model which set Lexus up as a mainstream alternative to the German brands over here.
Road testers of the time moaned that the 2-litre was light on torque, needing to be revved hard to give up its 153 bhp, but there was no doubting the refinement of the 1G-FE powerplant, nor the agility of the chassis which was begging for more power.
That duly arrived in October 2001 with the launch of the IS300, as the name suggested packing the 3-litre version of the same engine, as used in the GS300. With 217 bhp, it gave the IS the pace to match its chassis and was a tempting alternative to the BMW 330i.
The IS300 retained the high spec of the smaller-engined car, with Lexus’s own PR material of the time pointing out that in order to spec up a Jaguar X-Type 3.0 to the same level would mean a 19.6% addition to the list price, while the Mercedes C320 required an additional £6077 on top of the already £4000 higher list price.
The IS was also offered from 2001 as the awkward-looking SportCross, a hatchback/SUV crossover which predated the fashion for this particular niche. meanwhile, the Lexus brand was fast attracting converts in the UK market, with the brand picking up the number one spot in the coveted JD Power customer satisfaction awards in April 2001.
Rather tellingly, Lexus was the only ‘premium’ brand in the top 10 of each separate area of evaluation, from reliability to dealership service
In March 2005, a secondgeneration IS was unveiled at the Geneva motor show, going on sale in November of that year. Perhaps surprisingly, this was the first car to be badged as a Lexus in the Japanese market, the name not having been used on the home market until 2006.
The original IS200 had done its job of establishing the brand in the UK and as a result the second-generation didn’t need to try quite so hard, offering generic premium saloon styling both inside and outside. Technically it was hard to criticise of course, but had lost some of the original’s character.
In some ways the IS200 seems almost too modern to be even an emerging classic and it’s fair to say that those development engineers did do their job: step into a 50,000mile example and it won’t feel much different from a brandnew IS200... and you wouldn’t always be able to say that about an E46-generation BMW 3-Series. Despite that though, it’s a significant car, representing as it does the success with which the upstart Lexus brand fought off the sneers of the dominant prestige manufacturers and forced the Europeans to up their game.