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Future Classic: 1999-2005 Lexus IS 300

Japanese automakers often reserve their best stuff for the home market. The number of incredibly cool, quick and exciting cars that were never sold in the United States is enormous. Fortunately, we occasionally get a peek into that world when a special Japanese car lands on our shores. In the late 1990s, we a version of the athletic Toyota Altezza. Known as the Lexus IS 300 here, the car came to America with the legendary 2JZ-GE inline-six (the non-turbo cousin of the fourth-generation Supra engine), rear-wheel drive and an available manual transmission – the perfect formula for an enthusiastÂ’s sedan. Why is the Lexus IS a future classic? Simply put: There are no other modern Japanese sedans that offer the same formula as the early IS. The Lexus IS is still around today, but other than a brief flirtation with V8s in the mid-2000s IS F and the most recent IS 500, the carÂ’s performance potential has gone untapped. After the first two generations, the IS got clunkier and heavier and struggled to compete against the heavy artillery from Germany and elsewhere. First-generation IS models are highly desirable for this reason. The 2JZ engine is famously easy to massage into an absolute powerhouse, and the nimble rear-wheel drive setup makes the car a joy to drive. Lexus didnÂ’t start adding tech like a backup camera and Bluetooth until later in the second generation, so all first-gen cars are as simple as it comes with the IS. Interestingly, that 2JZ engine was specific to the U.S.-market IS. In Japan, the Altezza was also available with a four-cylinder. It was a version of the 3S-GE that made 207 horsepower at a seriously high 7,600 rpm, just shy of the 215 horsepower of the American-market 2JZ. For more intrepid engine swappers, this is another popular choice. Additionally, the car is clean, but muscular with its styling. It was instrumental in popularizing clear tail lights, too, which you may have heard referred to as "Altezza" lights, like its Japanese twin. The interior was particularly sporty-looking in a new-millennium way with its gauge faces styled like high-end chronograph watches and the gleaming spherical chrome shift knob. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There are safer, quicker and certainly more advanced cars, but the tech and safety equipment can get in the way of the driver-car connection.

Tesla says Model 3 is best-selling midsize premium sedan in America

Auto sales figures are sort of fuzzy numbers, no matter how you slice them and no matter which manufacturer you're talking about. Unless you're specifically tracking vehicle registrations, automakers generally self-report the figures. So, you have to trust that they aren't doing anything too tricky. Plus, not every sale is equal, as some are logged as dealership loaners or demo models, some go to fleets (like to a rental car agency), and still others are, of course, bought by traditional customers looking for a new daily driver. With that preamble out of the way, when we saw a tweet from Tesla claiming that the all-electric Model 3 is the best-selling midsize premium sedan in America, our interest was piqued. According to Tesla, market share of the Model 3 has just surpassed the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which had up until now led the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Lexus IS as the best-selling sedan in its class. Note that the graph from Tesla below is, we think, specific to four-door models. So, is it true? Judging by the numbers we can find, including some from Bloomberg, which has a running chart to track Model 3 registrations, the answer is... probably. We don't know exactly how many Model 3 sedans Tesla is currently cranking out, but Bloomberg estimates production at about 2,560 units per week, and total sales for 2018 at 34,414. We know the number is increasing regularly, though, and Elon Musk has said most recently production sits around 500 units per day, which, on a seven-day cycle, would be 3,500 per week. We looked up Mercedes' sales figures for the month of May, 2018, and found that the German brand sold 5,419 C-Class models last month, for a total of 23,917 for the year (incidentally, that's down more than 30 percent from the year prior). While the bulk of those sales would surely be made up of sedans, it would also include a small percentage of coupes. Either way, it's likely that Tesla is currently producing and selling more Model 3s than Mercedes is C-Classes. Now, it's also worth considering if the C-Class is the only vehicle from Mercedes that directly competes with the Model 3. We'd guess customers may also cross-shop the CLA sedan with the Tesla, and if that's the case, you might decide it's worth adding in Mercedes' 2,527 CLA-Class sales last month and 9,622 so far for the year. The same argument could be made for certain versions of the BMW 2 and 4 Series.

Lexus LF-LC Concept goes blue, remains happy

Until the day when we can see a production version of the Lexus LF-LC Concept, we'll just make do with seeing the sleek two-door in different colors for now. After first showing us the car in a Candy Apple Red color at the Detroit Auto Show, Lexus has brought its LF-LC Blue (in a deep ocean blue) from Down Under to LA.
Aside from the new color, there's nothing new for us to see here. That means we were still ogling over its flowing body lines, impressed by its 500-horsepower hybrid drive system and looking forward to possibly seeing the car go into production.