The Lexus IS has long been an anomaly—a mainstream Lexus that would rather wake you up than lull you to sleep. That was perhaps even more impressive in light of the detriments of its wonky bumper rubber and chunky monkey wheels. It was albeit the 3 series rather than the 5 that the IS held in its sights. The model offered a Bimmer-esque DOHC inline six, compact dimensions wrapped in crisp, aggressive bodywork, and, unique for the upscale marque in this size class, a rear-wheel drive platform. The IS was positioned more for the sushi and sake crowd. Here we have a Lexus IS SportCross , the latter part of that name indicating that it is one of the even more desirable five-door models.

Ann Arbor - Being radical is supposed to be all about throwing off the shackles of conformity, but it seems to have a hegemony all its own. Fearful of alienating the multipierced hipsters the company wooed to its first lively-driving car, the IS, Lexus dared not add a hatchback deemed too economy car or a station wagon thought not edgy enough, although the Audi A4 , the BMW 3-series, and the Mercedes-Benz C-class all have one. Thus emerged the shape you see here, not as square as a wagon, not as sloped as a hatchback.

Click image to enlarge by Greg Wilson. It offers a refined horsepower inline 3. A performance wagon for the street, not the outback. Based on the rear-wheel-drive Lexus IS sedan, the IS SportCross is about the same length and width as the sedan, but about 30 mm 1. It offers up to litres