2004 Lexus IS 300 Review (continued)
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Walkaround

The Lexus IS 300 looks like a sports sedan with short front and rear overhangs. Its wheels are pushed out toward the corners of the car. Smoked gray surrounds for the headlamps, fog lights, and tail lights distinguish 2004 models.

The IS 300's wedge-shaped form features a low prow with a bulge down the center of the hood that suggests power, especially from the driver's seat. Creased lines on the hood flow down steeply from raked A-pillars to a familial trapezoidal grille, ringed with chrome and bordered by jewel-like HID headlamp clusters. Round halogen foglights are shielded within the air dam behind trapezoidal composite lenses. In the rear, round red taillights peer out of contoured bezels behind aerodynamic clear covers.

The SportCross looks like a sporty wagon. When creating it, Lexus emphasized sporty design over maximum utility. It's more practical than a sedan but less practical than a full wagon. There is no roof rack available nor any rain gutters to attach an aftermarket rack. The three rear windows on each side of the SportCross look a bit odd, the back two crowded. Behind the rear door window there's a non-opening triangular pane that looks like an old-style vent window, and behind that there's another one shaped like a triangle/trapezoid outlined by a thick black band inside the glass where it fits against the car's interior.

Interior Features

The Lexus IS 300 interior is oriented around the driver and is designed to suggest a cockpit. Graphite-tinged plastics and machined metallic finishes set the theme. Drilled aluminum pedals, a polished metal shift ball, a notched shift gate rimmed by chrome, and doorsills covered with stainless steel scuff plates studded with rubber cleats add a racy, high-tech image. A graphite plate on the driver-side door panel surrounds rocker toggles that power the windows, door locks and both exterior mirrors.

The instrument panel includes a round analog speedometer inset with three smaller gauges for temperature, volts and instant fuel mileage. The whole cluster is designed to resemble a sports chronograph wristwatch, and in its attempt to be cute, cool, clever, unique, whatever, it barely passes the no-nonsense test: The instant fuel gauge is too small to be useful, as a tiny needle flips in a tiny semicircle between 0 and 80 mpg. The watch-face cluster stands between a half-moon tachometer on the left, whose clarity is compromised by the clutter of the faux chronograph, and quarter-circle fuel gauge to the right, above a digital display for gear selection and trip odometer. Bright silver accents replace last year's dark silver accents.

The power bucket seats felt a bit hard and wide at first, but we found adequate lateral support when we drove a SportCross hard through the curves. Two-position seat memory for the driver’s seat is included with the optional power seats. We were less than impressed by last year's optional Alcantara interior trim (it felt too much like cloth), but some of that has been replaced with synthetic leather for 2004. In any case, the full leather package seems like a better choice for the additional $400 it costs.

A very attractive, stitched leather three-spoke steering wheel (spokes at 3, 9 and 6 o'clock) tilts manually. Pairs of buttons on both the left and right spokes enable the driver to shift up or down one gear at a time without removing his or her hands from the wheel (on automatic models). The front button downshifts with the thumb and the back button upshifts with the middle finger. The steering wheel trim has been changed for 2004.

The vents and pods for audio and climate controls drop down from the center of the dash to the console. Some of the trim has been revised for 2004: Bright silver replaces last year's dark silver trim around the climate and audio controls. Black replaces dark silver on the audio plate surround and the transmission housing plate surround.

Minor revisions make the IS 300's interior more convenient for 2004. The center dash now has a storage compartment with a lid. Also, the doors lock automatically when underway.

The sedan's firm rear bench will accommodate three in a pinch, and has a fold-down armrest that conceals a small pass-through portal to the trunk.

With its 60/40 split rear seat backs folded, the SportCross offers 21.8 cubic feet of cargo space, more than twice as much as the trunk of the sedan. The wheel wells intrude quite a bit into the SportCross cargo area, making the space hourglass-shaped, which reduces its practical carrying capacity. Lexus has indicated the SportCross will appeal to mountain bikers, but fitting one into the back isn't easy and there's no available roof rack to mount a bike on top.