Test drive Lexus IS 1998 - 2005 sedan

The art of bluff

To win poker, it is not necessary to have in hand the most powerful combination of cards. Life is also a game, and in it Lexus is200 is a real master.

How good! As if a drop of liquid metal stretched in a rapid flight! Classical proportions of the best sportsmen, modern design in the highest category, excellent family optics (on cars of other brands, this is considered tuning).

Having experienced a sufficient psychological effect of the appearance of the car, we look into the salon with food.

He did not disappoint: a three -spoke leather steering wheel, a chrome knob of a manual gearbox, a white dial of a single round scale ...

A car dealership employee impressively taxi from the parking lot. We, so far passengers, feel like a crew of a sportsman. I just want to warn: more carefully with gas, you will not have time to look around, as you will be at the next intersection. And the girl will not be picked up: yes, you have to drive on such a car! What power, what comfort! Indeed, IS200 is perfect: turns like rails, the suspension is dense, but does not shake.

There is a better time to consider the interior. Seats with developed lateral support are upholstered with fabric. Well, well, also a reason: the skin looks more spectacular, but the fabric better fixes the body.

The range of longitudinal adjustment of the chairs is as possible. The climatic installation is simple and functional, with comfortable handles and a verified expensive nature of efforts on them.

Everything that is not touched is done very high quality and enjoys. Noise insulation, traditionally for Lexus, at a height, which creates ideal conditions for demonstrating a good sound of a standard speaker system.

It's time for us. A convenient pedal node and tight clutch is tuned for a serious ride. The fixation of the gearbox lever is clear. The feeling of the road on the steering wheel is first -class. Gently add the gas and gradually reach the floor. Is something lingering ... a limiter? Here you have! The most ordinary dynamics.

After the test, we get the technical characteristics: nine and a half seconds to accelerate to hundreds, 155 horsepower with a equipped mass of about one and a half tons. Quite calm numbers.

So what, a complete discrepancy between form and content? In general, yes. But let's think about how many truly sports cars at least occasionally reach the boundaries of their capabilities? At the same time, the most popular area of \u200b\u200btuning is styling (appearance design). Is it worth overpaying for a powerful motor and appropriate gasoline consumption if you do not like to walk on the verge, but do you like the image of sports cars? However, when driving along the highway, you feel and really fast enough, because even in German autobahns there are very few cars about 200 kilometers

Excellent suspension, comfort, high quality performance, roomy trunk, pleasure even from a simple presence in this machine, dignity is obvious. At the same time, the appearance of the Lexus IS200 is such that it would never occur to anyone to provoke you to a low start.

And if this happened, you can deliberately move smoothly, hiding a contemptuous mine. Anyone will believe that, you want, you would easily dissolve in space, leaving two features on the asphalt. Just today there is no mood.

And yet you will not squeeze the full gas, you yourself remain in the power of this illusion. That's right: as the same Philip Bang said the hero of the film, who owns the phrase from the epigraph to the material so that the bluff turns out, you need to believe it yourself.

Technical characteristics Lexus IS200 Sportcross

Body station wagon
Equipped mass, kg 14301485
Complete mass, kg 1870
Dimensions (length/width/height), mm 4505/1725/1430
Base, mm 2670
Maximum speed, km/h 215
Acceleration time to 100 km/h, from 9.5
Control consumption of fuel, l/100 km:
- City cycle 13.6
- Zagorod 7.8
- Mixed 9.8
Engine:
-type of gasoline, in-line, 6-cylinder, 24-valve
- working volume, cm3 1988
- Power, L.S. at MIN-1 155/6200
- Torque, NM at min-1 195/4600
- The rear drive
Transmission Mean., 6-speed
Tire size 205/55R16
Wheel suspension on double transverse levers
Brakes:
- front disk, ventilated
- rear disc

Text: Dmitry Sokolov per hour. And IS200 is quite on the shoulder.
 

Source: Magazine 5 wheel [08/2003]