The party piece of the dash, a sliding digital instrument cluster that moves to the right when the sub-menus are accessed, is brilliant. I’m not sure I’d ever get tired of the way it whirrs like you just unlocked some secret mode. Putting the drive-select into Sport also changes the colour of the tachometer ring, and the whole thing pulses red once the revs climb up above four thousand or so.
If you’ve been driving along in Eco-mode, as I have been, this behaviour is rather hilarious. A gently increasing pressure on the throttle while going uphill suddenly startles the six-speed automatic into a downshift and the instrument cluster gleams with instant malevolence, as if we’ve just attracted Sauron’s baleful attention. “Calm down, car,” I admonish, as the kid’s sleeping.
  2014 Lexus IS 350 AWD. Click image to enlarge |
Mind you, once the route-clogging RVs pull over into a visitor’s centre, the wriggling last section of the road to Tofino is freed up, and we’re able to stretch the car’s legs a little – put it in Sport mode. Even if the little Lexus has carryover displacement and horsepower (a 3.5L V6 making 306 hp), what a smooth and fantastic-sounding engine it is.
Optioning the IS with AWD is a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, grip is improved, and for Canadian climates at least, a measure of winter capability is added.
   2014 Lexus IS 350 AWD. Click image to enlarge |
But Lexus giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. Go for all-wheel drive and you don’t get the eight-speed automatic with its clever g-force locking torque-converter, you don’t get the variable-ratio steering, and the F-Sport trim becomes a bit more of an appearance package rather than performance trim: F for façade?
But it’s only briefly annoying. The six-speed is competent enough, and quick-shifting (it can be manually paddle-shifted as well). Fewer gears means the driver simply exploits the revs a bit more, and while the engine doesn’t have the torque-flexibility of forced-induction rivals, it is a jewel of a V6 and sounds fantastic. It’s also very quick – the AWD version is just as quick as the eight-speed rear-driver. Obligatory moment of silence for the now-dropped manual transmission option that hardly anyone bought.
What’s more, you get all the benefit of Lexus’s next-generation chassis, which is wonderfully capable. It’s actually a little less lively than the previous car, but in the all-pervading dampness of a West-Coast fall, the planted and tractable IS resists all the efforts of the writhing road to flick it off. Come a bit hot over a crest to find an unmarked low-speed bend and a deflated, undercut section of pavement, and the car simply settles into the curve – although it does crash a bit over the rough stuff with the suspension in full stiff.
The steering is, as expected with any electric-assist system, just a little bit on the dull side. However, unlike many others in the segment, it’s not artificially heavy. The highest praise I can award the driving feel is that it’s not unlike the Cayman, where the excellence of the chassis shines through despite the toning-down of wheel-transmitted road-feel.
When we pull into Tofino, the mutant aggression of the Lexus’s slashed and grilled face makes the car stand out like a sore thumb. It’s a surfer’s paradise here, and the year-rounders – bearded, tattooed men and wind-blown, tanned and athletic women – all drive older cars. The JDM Mitsubishi Delica is king here, along with the VW Westfalia and pretty much the only surviving colony of Mazda MPVs left in the wild. If you want to blend in, you need to strap a surfboard to your roof.
We do not blend in. The bruised red paint and wild styling make this car as incongruous as if it was painted with a sign reading, “GET A JOB, HIPPIES.”
However, over a weekend of sudden downpours, rain-slicked pavement and winding forest boardwalks, the Lexus did actually feel adapted to its environment. The all-wheel drive never put a foot wrong, and the car was composed, and comfortable, and complacent – and, in the end, a little bit compromised.
