On certain road surfaces, such as harsh concrete, the big, standard 17-inch tires convey a lot of road noise. Inside, the IS can come off a bit gimmicky, though I admit I fell for the chronograph look in the center of the instrument cluster. The shiny, silver-colored door sills are a nice touch, too. This made finding and keeping to a 45-mph speed limit a bit tricky. The IS supplies head restraints for all five riders, and they're well-positioned close to the back of the head.
Seats are supportive, too.
But the IS back seat is surprisingly cramped with just 30.2 inches of legroom, compared with 33.4 inches in the A4 and 34.6 inches in the BMW 3-Series. In trunk space, the 10.1 cubic feet in the IS is just under the 10.7 of the BMW 3-Series sedan and less than the 13.7 cubic feet in the A4. Safety features in the IS include standard antilock brakes, side airbags for the front seats, three-point seatbelts for all riders and traction control. Audi and BMW include standard, inflatable head protection systems on their cars. Lexus projects annual IS sales of 25,000.