Tekknikal
10-04-2007, 10:25 AM
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/ecd4808d.jpg" alt="" />
Today at meetings in Hawaii and Japan, Lexus announced power, pricing and production information regarding its new super sedan, the IS-F.
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<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/fd6c5114.jpg" alt="" />
At the Lexus Dealer Network meeting in Maui, Lexus told its dealers that the IS-F will be rated at about 416 horsepower.
That rating may fluctuate by a few horsepower depending on emissions and advertising, but 416hp is the US/SAE standardized rating. Initial reactions are that this was somewhat expected although some may have been looking for significantly more. With recent news of the Neiman Marcus version hitting at $68k, it's likely that the usual models will hit for the mid-$50s, although this isn't confirmed. Overall the rating puts the IS-F in the same segment as the M3 in terms of power at least, as the two are rated the same. Which is faster? Weight aside, while the M3 has a higher revving engine to utilize better gearing and a flatter powerband, the IS-F has two more gears to stay higher in RPMs more of the time. It's going to be close. Although Lexus has officially said that they don't have any particular targets for the car, word from insiders indicates that performance wise, they definitely want to position it against the M3. How it will compare, only time will tell, but it's likely that the comparison will be similar to the IS vs 3 series, albeit with a very narrow difference in performance.
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/290d6578.jpg" alt="" />
Production wise, Lexus held an unveil in Tokyo today at the Fuji Speedway where Lexus announced that they would be producing 7,000 cars globally every year. Of those, 5-6,000 are destined for the US, which amounts to 415-500 per month. To give you a feel for how many that is, since the 350Z came out, Nissan has sold about 2.5-3k/month on average until this year. Lexus sells 4-5k IS's every month. BMW sells 10k 3 series's every month (of which about 600 give or take may be M3s). So their sales target is not too far off from where the M3 has ran, albeit a little more limited. To give you an idea of how Japanese sports cars will line up, it appears as of now that Mitsubishi expects to sell 500 Evos in the US every month, while Nissan expects to sell a little less than 500 GT-Rs in the US every month.
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/870917a6.jpg" alt="" />
While I expect pricing here to be sub $60k, the IS-F's Japanese pricing was announced at JPY7.66mln. That's about $66,250, a little more than most probably expected. To give you something to compare that to, Mitsubishi will be selling their new Evolution X GSR there for JPY3.5mln or $30,300. Lexus's own IS series starts at JPY4.05mln or $35k while the IS350 runs at about $43k. Interestingly though, the pricing puts the IS-F near Nissan's new GT-R, whose base model JDM pricing starts at JPY7.8 million or $67,500. In its own market Lexus hopes to sell just 40 IS-Fs per month. Why has Lexus chosen such pricing? Probably because of differences in how the Japanese look at the brand of Lexus, which is new to them. Perhaps Lexus feels that the Japanese would not view the brand as a true luxury brand without premium pricing? Over here though, it's less likely to cost as much considering that (1) Neiman priced their limited edition version at $68,000 and this includes a driving instruction as well as the usual Neiman premium and (2) the fact that in the US, Lexus tends to offer their new products at a small discount to get Americans to buy it and get accustomed to it.
Lexus has a beautiful Japanese website for the IS-F which you can see <a href="http://lexus.jp/models/isf/index.html">here</a>.
Official Press Release follows.
Today at meetings in Hawaii and Japan, Lexus announced power, pricing and production information regarding its new super sedan, the IS-F.
<!--more-->
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/fd6c5114.jpg" alt="" />
At the Lexus Dealer Network meeting in Maui, Lexus told its dealers that the IS-F will be rated at about 416 horsepower.
That rating may fluctuate by a few horsepower depending on emissions and advertising, but 416hp is the US/SAE standardized rating. Initial reactions are that this was somewhat expected although some may have been looking for significantly more. With recent news of the Neiman Marcus version hitting at $68k, it's likely that the usual models will hit for the mid-$50s, although this isn't confirmed. Overall the rating puts the IS-F in the same segment as the M3 in terms of power at least, as the two are rated the same. Which is faster? Weight aside, while the M3 has a higher revving engine to utilize better gearing and a flatter powerband, the IS-F has two more gears to stay higher in RPMs more of the time. It's going to be close. Although Lexus has officially said that they don't have any particular targets for the car, word from insiders indicates that performance wise, they definitely want to position it against the M3. How it will compare, only time will tell, but it's likely that the comparison will be similar to the IS vs 3 series, albeit with a very narrow difference in performance.
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/290d6578.jpg" alt="" />
Production wise, Lexus held an unveil in Tokyo today at the Fuji Speedway where Lexus announced that they would be producing 7,000 cars globally every year. Of those, 5-6,000 are destined for the US, which amounts to 415-500 per month. To give you a feel for how many that is, since the 350Z came out, Nissan has sold about 2.5-3k/month on average until this year. Lexus sells 4-5k IS's every month. BMW sells 10k 3 series's every month (of which about 600 give or take may be M3s). So their sales target is not too far off from where the M3 has ran, albeit a little more limited. To give you an idea of how Japanese sports cars will line up, it appears as of now that Mitsubishi expects to sell 500 Evos in the US every month, while Nissan expects to sell a little less than 500 GT-Rs in the US every month.
<img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t193/streetseen/Lexus/IS-F/870917a6.jpg" alt="" />
While I expect pricing here to be sub $60k, the IS-F's Japanese pricing was announced at JPY7.66mln. That's about $66,250, a little more than most probably expected. To give you something to compare that to, Mitsubishi will be selling their new Evolution X GSR there for JPY3.5mln or $30,300. Lexus's own IS series starts at JPY4.05mln or $35k while the IS350 runs at about $43k. Interestingly though, the pricing puts the IS-F near Nissan's new GT-R, whose base model JDM pricing starts at JPY7.8 million or $67,500. In its own market Lexus hopes to sell just 40 IS-Fs per month. Why has Lexus chosen such pricing? Probably because of differences in how the Japanese look at the brand of Lexus, which is new to them. Perhaps Lexus feels that the Japanese would not view the brand as a true luxury brand without premium pricing? Over here though, it's less likely to cost as much considering that (1) Neiman priced their limited edition version at $68,000 and this includes a driving instruction as well as the usual Neiman premium and (2) the fact that in the US, Lexus tends to offer their new products at a small discount to get Americans to buy it and get accustomed to it.
Lexus has a beautiful Japanese website for the IS-F which you can see <a href="http://lexus.jp/models/isf/index.html">here</a>.
Official Press Release follows.