Japanese 3-series

With its IS300, Lexus has cooked up a performance seder to eat BMW`s breadwinner - and attract a younger buyer to the brand.

When Lexus first landed in the United States in 1989, it made its mark with luxury sedans that drew a bead on Mercedes-Benz in style, quietness and quality, but undercut the German maker on price. It was an unqualified success.

Now, as Toyota's luxury division embarks on its second decade, it's poised to follow the same recipe - only this time the target is performance-oriented BMW.

Fueled by seven years of a robust economy in the U.S., the entry-level luxury segment has become one of the hottest and most coveted for automakers, helping to propel the fortunes of BMW and a reinvigorated Audi Last year BMW sold 70,500 units of the 3-Series, which accounted for 45.5 percent of its U.S. sales. Audi A4 sales topped 32,100 units.

Lexus' ES300 sedan holds its own in the segment, accounting for 25 percent of the division's sales volume last year. But Lexus officials readily admit that the ES300 is no autobahn-burner.

"Our current lineup doesn't bring in many customers under 40 years old," notes Bryan Bergsteinsson, Lexus general manager.

Lexus aims to begin reversing that this summer with the IS300. Following the pattern set by the original LS400, this new Lexus draws a bead on the BMW 3Series sedan - the industry's benchmark performance sedan - with comparable performance and quality, at a lower price.

The IS, which has been sold in Europe and Japan for the last year under the Toyota Altezza and Lexus IS nameplates, but with a 2.0L 4-cylinder engine, truly mirrors the 3-Series. Both are front-engine, rearwheel-drive sedans. The Lexus' wheelbase, at 105.1 inches, is two inches shorter than the BMW, but its overall length is a mere half inch shorter. The same holds true for other critical dimensions such as width, height and interior room, where the Lexus comes to within an inch or two of the BMW's measurements.

The one area where the IS300 tops the BMW 328i, and the Audi A4 2.8 for that matter, is in the engine bay (see p.83). "Our number-one priority was performance," says chief engineer Nobuaki Katayama. "It was also important for the car to have the right appearance to attract young people."

Katayama is no stranger to working on Toyota's performance vehicles. Prior to the IS 300 program, he was part of the development team for the Lexus SC300/400 coupes. Before that he worked on the last generation of the Toyota Supra to make it to U.S. shores. In the early 1990s Katayama was involved with Toyota's World Rally Championship and LeMans racing projects.

Sportiness and high performance have historically not been the first attributes connect ed to Lexus, more attuned to softness and cabin noise isolation. But Lexus made a first step toward changing that image with the launch of the 1998 GS300/400 sedans, its fast bid at challenging the European sport sedans. Critics hailed the GS's capabilities, but the sedan carries an entry price of $38,000.

"We wanted to introduce a performance Lexus that the younger crowd could afford without resigning themselves to eating 99cent chalupas at Taco Bell every day," says Bergsteinsson. As such, Lexus has set the base price of the IS300 at just under $31,000. The meter on a BMW 328i starts running at nearly $34,000.

"To attract a new generation of buyers to Lexus, it has to offer more benefits in a product that comes close to the 3 Series," notes analyst Chris Cedergren of Nextrend in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Cedergren says the new Lexus is aimed at a tough target. "For the target buyers, if the price were the same they would choose the 3&Series, because of the BMW mystique. The performance of the two may be equivalent, but the BMW has a certain feel. It's dif ficult to quantify, but very unique and one thing that has made the 3-Series special."

Chassis Design Details

Katayama admires the 3-Series, but didn't want to copy it exactly. "The BMW has very smooth steering, and a good engine sound," Katayama says. "And while the ride is very good on smooth roads, on a bumpy road the suspension becomes very harsh." The suspension choice for the IS was designed to eliminate some of that harshness, he says.

Katayama tapped into the GS's gene pool for the IS, taking the double-wishbone independent front and rear suspensions to do battle with the 3-Series' front strut suspension and multi-link rear suspension. A high mounting location for the upper control arms on the front suspension helps limit nose dive under hard braking, while a long steering knuckle provides negative camber for extra stability in cornering. Four-wheel disc brakes -ventilated rotors in front, solid in the rear- are standard, along with ABS.

A key element of BMW's handling prowess is the near 50/50 weight distribution of its vehicles. The IS300 team also focused on weight balance. Its strategies include locating the engine center two inch es behind the centerline of the front aide, shifting the battery to the rear of the engine compartment (a la BMW) and locating the fuel tank under the rear seat. As a result, 54 percent of the 18300's 3,270 pounds rests on the front wheels.

To meet with Lexus' luxury positioning in the U.S., the IS300 is powered by the same 3.0L inline six-cylinder engine with Toyota's WT r variable valve timing system used in the GS300, but tuned for a sportier sound. A slightly more restrictive exhaust system knocks 5 hp off the engine's 220 hp output in the GS.

The exterior design of the all-steel unibody follows a wedge format that has been timed to a low 0.26 Cd, compared to the 0.31 Cd BMW claims for the 3-Series. The body's overall form is less sporty than the original styling per, reveals Katayama.

Katayama says a stiff body structure was a high priority for the IS300 to meet its ride and handling targets. But Toyota engineers declined to specify rigidity measurements, nor say how the IS300 compares to BMW's claims of 29 Hertz torsional rigidity and 26 Hertz bending rigidity for the Series.

Enhancing the performance look outside are standard high-intensity discharge headlamps and 17 inch wheels with sticky 215/45 R17 Bridgestone or Goodyear performance tires. Sixteen-inch wheels and Bridgestone allen tires are a no-cost option.

The program took 21 months from design freeze to start of production, Katayama claims. The car is built at Toyota's Iwate plant in Japan.

Courting A Younger Buyer

The interior is where the 10 makes its big pitch to a younger generation, beginning with a gauge cluster that emulates a chronometer-type sport watch. It groups the speedometer, water temperature, voltage and fuel economy gauges in a center circle, flanked by tachometer and fuel gauges.

Katayama had the IS300 fitted with drilled aluminum throttle, brake and dead pedals, an idea he says he borrowed from his teenage son, who put a drilled aluminum gas pedal in his cat: The chief engi_ neer also left plenty of room for the IS to grow, noting that his personal Altezza in Japan is fitted with a supercharger, stiffer suspension and lowered ride height.

But the IS300 makes one significant deviation from the 3-Series recipe there's no manual transmission available, at least for the first year. Early buyers will have to be content with a five-speed automatic with Formula One-style sequential shift buttons on the steering wheel, also borrowed from the GS.

Lexus officials in the U.S. say they argued long and hard with their Japanese colleagues about the need for a manual transmission for the U.S. market IS, in order to compete on equal footing with BMW and Audi. And statistics bear them out. Last year, 42% of the 3-Series cars sold in the U.S. had a manual transmission, a BMW spokesman says, while more than 2096 of Audi A4s when out the door with a clutch pedal in them. Toyota offers a manual on the 2.0L versions of the IS/Alta marketed in Japan and Europe.

A manual will be added to the IS300 for its second year. Lexus was faced with a choice of delaying the IS for a year while waiting for the engine/manual transmission package to be certified for U.S. emissions, or go without the manual, Bergsteinsson explains.

Nonetheless, Lexus doesn't expect to have any problems selling out the 25,000 copies of the IS300 it gets for the 2001 model year, which is just a bit more than one-third the number of 3-Series that BMW sold last year. And the successful Lexus recipe always starts small, but rises rapidly.