Lexus IS250 | Shed of the Week
There have been Lexus Sheds aplenty over the years - not many manual ones, though...
This week we're looking back in time to a car that many folk saw as one of the big flag-bearers for customer satisfaction, the Lexus IS250.
The first IS came out as a rival to the 3 Series and C-Class in late 1998 when Mercedes was very much on a downward spiral in terms of build quality and reliability. Like the gen-one, and indeed the 2013-on gen-three that's still part of the Lexus range today (albeit not in the UK: it was withdrawn from sale here in late 2020, along with the RC coupe and CT hatchback), the 2005-on gen-two IS was built in Japan by Lexus. That phrase was, and probably still is, the nearest thing you could get to a quality guarantee.
Our May '06 registered car is unusual for two reasons. One is that it has the six-speed manual transmission instead of the not very well-loved six-speed auto. The other is that it has a meaty six-cylinder petrol engine instead of the even less well-loved 2.2 four-pot diesel. When it was new, the naturally aspirated, variably valve-timed 4GR-FSE 2.5 petrol V6 would have put out 204hp at 6,400rpm and 185lb ft of torque at 4,800rpm, the limiter sticking its nose in at 6,800rpm.
Timing chain tensioners and oxygen sensors could fail and brake calipers could bind up. Being direct injection, the 4GR offered the potential delights of carbon buildup and you needed to keep an eye on the oil level too. Unless you wanted to lift your IS 250's power to 370hp, drop its 0-60 time from a high seven to an IS-F-threatening mid five and add more zest to the IS's rear-drive, double-wishbone front, multi-link rear chassis by supercharging the 4GR, buying parts won't be your main outgoing. Even without a blower attached, one of the main downsides of the 2.5 was its thirst, to whit an official combined figure of 28mpg and less than that when pressing on. Then there's the tax of £760pa.
Cheer up though, there's a lot of good stuff here. Generally speaking, these ISs are freakishly reliable. The small number of MOT fails on this car's record have all been for consumable items like brakes, tyres and wipers, the only exception coming in 2024 when a major exhaust leak tripped it up, and you could easily count that as a consumable. That was fixed for the retest. It came back as a minor leak in the 2025 test at 133,000 miles and it was still there as an advisory in the most recent MOT a couple of months ago at 141,000 miles. If it was just the twin-tailpipe cat back section at fault and you felt an uncontrollable urge to replace it, you could pick one up for under £300. You'll want to look into this exhaust (not literally) to establish whether a more expensive solution might be required because full systems aren't cheap.
Although you would never describe an IS 250's cabin as roomy, you'll still get a premium feel in there even now. The mishmash of materials and colours you'll see in some IS versions can seem weird and the voice control system might be interesting, but we are talking about a 20-year-old car here. Most folk will be impressed by the solidity. Lexus didn't continue the gen-one's snazzy 'chronograph' instrumentation into the gen-two, but the electro-luminescent replacement gauges were smart and arguably more readable. You should see none of the sticky switchgear problems that routinely plague other premium marques over time.
We can see from the pics that the rear camera is working and there's no reason to suppose that other features like the heated/cooled memory seats won't be. This one doesn't seem to have the Mark Levinson stereo or the sunshine roof, but after owning several cars ruined by colander tops Shed sees that as a positive. There was an aux for MP3, whatever that was, but Shed doesn't think you'll find a USB socket in there. For her part, Mrs Shed loves any vehicle that will simply let her listen to her Bumsnogger CDs. She'd like the comfort too. This car is an SE, so its ride should be more plush than that of the sometimes nobbly Sport.
Japanese cars haven't always offered the greatest rust protection but there have been no MOT criticisms of this IS's body integrity. Like the last IS250 on here in 2024, a lovely blue one, it still looks as sharp as a tack.
Shed thinks that this maroon metallic paint goes by the name of Matador Red Mica. He had an incident with a matador once when on holiday in Spain. Well, he says matador, it wasn't actually a proper bullfight, it was the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona that the Sheds had accidentally driven into after taking a wrong turn out of Santander. Tanked up on Brittany Ferries sangria Shed thought he might as well give it a go even though it ran the risk of him getting the horn in full view of his missis. While he was getting tossed up and down by the local livestock a vaquero with a taste for larger ladies tried to impress Mrs Shed by showing her his puntilla. It all ended happily enough but international relations were on a knife-edge for a while.
The talk about exhaust systems makes me realise just how good they are these days compared to the tin foil ones of my youth. I remember having to replace exhausts on a regular basis in order to get through the MOT.
There was no end of outlets selling cheap exhausts and they did a lot of business. They certainly saw a lot of my money as I struggled to keep the sheds of my youth on the road.
The talk about exhaust systems makes me realise just how good they are these days compared to the tin foil ones of my youth. I remember having to replace exhausts on a regular basis in order to get through the MOT.
There was no end of outlets selling cheap exhausts and they did a lot of business. They certainly saw a lot of my money as I struggled to keep the sheds of my youth on the road.
The talk about exhaust systems makes me realise just how good they are these days compared to the tin foil ones of my youth. I remember having to replace exhausts on a regular basis in order to get through the MOT.
There was no end of outlets selling cheap exhausts and they did a lot of business. They certainly saw a lot of my money as I struggled to keep the sheds of my youth on the road.
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