2001 Lexus IS200 SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Front brakes had to be replaced at 20,000 miles.

All four tyres needed replacement at 20,000 miles.

This car is a fantastic motorway cruiser, very smooth and quiet and after adjusting to the seats, can be quite comfortable.

There's a little extra bit of luxury with the baby Lexus which just isn't present with BMW 3 series or Audi A4s. Hard to define, but highly noticeable.

On board equipment is superb, although the climate control is a bit unpredictable. Personally I prefer manual control, as it either gets too hot or too cold, and the fans seem to settle on too high a setting.

Economy wise, for a 6 cylinder engine its quite good, with around 32mpg on a run, and 27 around town.

I'm surprised that the tyres and brakes have needed doing so quickly though, as 60 % of my journeys are on decent motorways, although the 40% spent in traffic in London probably explains the brakes wearing so soon. The front tyres have worn quicker than the rears, but even so, for the cost of replacements I'd have expected at least another 5,000 out of them.

Apart from that, I would highly recommend the IS200 to anyone thinking of buying a compact exec car.

I've had a manual SE model now for 2 years, covering approx 28K miles in that time and I am finding a problem with tyre wear also, although admittedly my route to work takes me over some 'interesting' A roads across the Peak District in the UK. I am finding that front tyre wear is extremely excessive (on my 3rd set already) particularly on the inner edges. 2 Lexus dealers have stated that there is not a problem with the car, but other independent tyre fitters contradict this, saying that they see this pattern all the time. Apart from this, the car is excellent and everything I expected it to be.

Could anyone tell me if there is an harder compound tyre for my Lexus IS200, Than the Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tyres that are fitted as stndard.

I am experiencing excessive tyre wear mainly on the inner edges of the front tyres, having only done 32k miles I am into my third set of tyes.

To make matters worse when being serviced the Lexus dealership swap the wheels around (front to back and visa-versa) so that all the tyres wear evenly and require replacment at the same time.

A.Hazelden

Lancashire.

I have had my IS200 for over three years now, from new. I've done nearly 50,000 miles in it so far, and nothing has gone wrong with it at all. I've done a lot of town and motorway driving and find it to be a lovely car. I've also had a problem with tyre wear though, again mainly on the inside of the front tyres. My current set now need replaced after less than 8000 miles. I've read on Lexus websites that this is indeed a problem with the car that is becoming more widely known. Pays to shop around for tyres though as I have had an on-line quote from the AA for tyres which I subsequently found 100 pounds cheaper, per tyre, elsewhere for the exact same tyre. Amazing.

Front tire wear is a problem. Solution is to have a tire shop swap the left with the right - that means dismounting and remounting the tires!

Suspect there is a lot of camber in the front wheels to give high speed stability. Handling is very good. Like others who have complained about the engine lacking power I have to agree for the automatic transmission. Fun to drive car, but totally impractical for loading large items. Had the fuel gage read zero with a full tank many times - dealer had no way to fix it. Replaced front struts at about 20k miles. Headrests restrict rear view when reversing. CD changer jammed. Replaced tiny battery 4 times. Have really no sentiments for this overpriced Toyota - just sold it.

An IS200 is classier than an A4 or a 3 series - no way! I think the interior is cramped and dated with poor quality, tacky plastics. It is also very dated. A good try by Toyota, but not good enough. The new IS200 is in another league, but I suspect the interior with date much more quickly than the timeless, simple design of an A4 or 3series.