2026 Lexus IS350

If you miss the V6 Camry – which Toyota stopped making after the end of the 2024 model year, in favor of a hybrid/four-cylinder-only Camry beginning in 2025 – you might be interested in the 2026 Lexus IS350.

It comes standard with basically the same 3.5 V6 – ten horsepower stronger – in a rear-wheel-drive (rather than FWD) configuration. It’s also a Lexus, so it’s got more in the way of amenities than were even available in the Camry, such as a standard 10 speaker stereo and an available 17 speaker ultra-premium Mark Levinson stereo.

Of course, it’s a Lexus – and priced accordingly.

What It Is

The IS350 is a compact-sized luxury-sport sedan and one of the few remaining V6-powered sedans available, period. It’s available with rear-drive or all-wheel-drive and comes in two trims:

The $45,500 F Sport Design comes with 19 inch light-alloy whees with summer tires, LED headlights, synthetic leather upholstery, heated seats, GPS navigation and the 10 speaker stereo mentioned above.

The $47,950 F Sport gets staggered summer tires, upgraded brakes with red powder coated calipers, more aggressive suspension tuning, sport buckets and aluminum pedals. You can add a Handling Package ($1,090) that bundles adaptive dampers, additional sport drive modes for the transmission and a Torsen limited slip rear axle.  A lower restriction Performance Exhaust system ($1,975) can also be added.

Both trims come standard with the 3.5 V6, rear drive and an eight speed automatic. AWD (with a six speed automatic) is available optionally with either trim and adds $2,000 to the MSRP.

What’s New for 2026

The previously standard 2.0 liter turbocharged four – and the IS300 trim – have been discontinued. Also no longer available is the V8-powered IS500. The sole drivetrain is now the 3.5 liter V6 that was previously the “in-between” option. The IS also gets an exterior and interior makeover an a new/larger LCD touchscreen.

What’s Good

Standard V6 sounds great – and has the status of a V8 now that most luxury sport sedans in this class come standard with fours.

Cobra-quick steering and rides-on-rails handling – without a ride that’s as harsh as rival sport sedans’ rides.

AWD is available – if you want it – but RWD is standard, if you prefer it.

What’s Not So Good

Cabin is a tight fit for larger/taller people.

Tiny (10.8 cubic foot) trunk.

V8 is no longer available.

Under The Hood

Lexus has winnowed down the available engines in the IS to one. It’s a hotted-up version of the superb 3.5 liter V6 that not-rich people used to be able to get in mass-market sedans like the Toyota Camry and Avalon. It’s an engine that’s earned a reputation for being powerful, smooth an extremely long-term reliable. In this application, it touts 311 horsepower (a bit more rated power than you got when this engine was available in the Camry and Avalon; the Camry is now four cylinder hybrid-only and the Avalon has been retired) and when paired with the standard eight speed automatic and RWD, can get the IS to 60 in 5.6 seconds.

This isn’t as quick as some of the IS350’s rivals, including the BMW M235i sedan – which can get to 60 about a second sooner – but the BMW is four cylinder powered, smaller, AWD-only and considerably more expensive (base price, $50,000). Another AWD-only/four-cylinder-only rival, the Audi S3 sedan, is even smaller – has an even smaller trunk – and an even higher base price ($52,000).

So, the IS350 is the bargain of the bunch – but you’re also getting more than you would with that bunch. A bigger car (more about that follows below) as well as a bigger, more prestigious engine as well as the rear-drive layout, which is something that definitively establishes the IS350’s bona fides as a luxury-sport sedan because only luxury-sport sedans offer rear-drive layouts. Both the BMW M235i and the Audi S3 are based on FWD layouts, like mass-market cars. That they perform well by the numbers is not the point. The point is they have much in common with mass market cars that perform well.

Sadly, Lexus has retired the IS500 – which was defined by its standard 5.0 liter V8, which made 472 horsepower and delivered supercar performance but even more important – if intangible – the V8 experience. The problem is this is hard to convey, unlike mere stats – e.g., how quickly does it get to 60? – and that’s why stats have overtaken the intangibles in marketing. High-performance EVs, for instance, have impressive stats but they lack the intangibles that are an important part of the experience, that make it more than a one-dimensional and by-the-numbers experience. Something like your first kiss, which for most of us is more than just that.

You can still get that V8, by the way – in the LC coupe. But only if you have about $110k jangling in your pocket.

You can also go AWD – in the IS350 – if you want to. But you don’t have to and that is another big part of the appeal of this Lexus. If you do go with AWD, you’ll get a six speed automatic; rear-drive models get an eight speed automatic.

On The Road

Many reviews criticize the IS350 for not being as quick as its rivals. This is true – it isn’t. The BMW M235 and the Audi S3 are both significantly quicker. But when you’re not blasting to 60, you’ll be listening to the unmistakable sound of a four cylinder engine. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just as there’s nothing wrong with any other ordinary thing. On the other hand, there is something ordinary about four cylinder engines – and FWD/AWD layouts. You can get that in a Mazda – or a Honda.

Again, not that there is anything wrong with Mazdas or Toyotas.

There is something special about a V6, though – especially nowadays, when a V6 in a car is almost as rare as an untattoo’d woman and just as appealing, if you’re not into fours (or tattoo’d women). Even more so when the V6 is installed the right way (front to back rather than side-to-side) and they let you have it in a rear-drive configuration.

Again, intangibles. By the numbers, AWD is grippier; there’s no tire slip when you floor it from a standstill and that improves the stats, in terms of quickness and also around a skidpad. It misses the point. There is joy in tire slip; turn off the traction control, hold the brake and push down on the gas. Feel the engine overcome the clamping force of the brakes and the tires – both of them, because you’ve got that Torsen limited slip axle) begin to slip and the rear of the car begin to slide. Now off the brake and hard on the gas as you fishtail off the line. It’s not the quickest way to get to 60, of course. But it’s a helluva lot of fun! The kind of fun that is impossible to have in the AWD-only BMW M235i and Audi A3.

The IS350’s handling is another intangible. The M235i and S3 have extremely high cornering limits – i.e., how fast you can take a curve before they begin to slide. Higher limits than the rear-drive IS350, which will begin to rear-slide (oversteer) as you reach its limits. But that is big fun. To let the rear out a little and keep on the gas, which takes some skill but that’s the source of the satisfaction as well as the fun. It is easier to drive an M235 or S3 fast in the curves.

But you’re missing out on some fun.

The only not fun thing about this car is that it does not go very far on a tankful – if you have fun with it. The tank holds about 17 gallons and if you drive it like you might a Camry, you might get 330 miles down the road in city driving and 469 miles on the highway. But if you drive it like it was meant to be driven, you’ll probably get about 250 miles down the road in city driving – which is about what I got – and similarly less far on the highway.

However, it’s only a minor inconvenience to stop for another tankful – as opposed to the time it takes to recover even a partial charge if you’re driving an EV.

At The Curb

Though the IS350 is a compact-sized sedan, it is a larger sedan than its two main price-comparable rivals. The IS350 is 185.8 inches long and so not that far off the mid-sized mark. The BMW M235 – which is 179.2 inches long – and the even smaller Audi S3, which is just 177.4 inches long – are subcompacts. You could move up to BMW’s 3 series sedan, but that one lists for $62,300 (if you want it with a six) and it’s AWD-only. It’s also about the same size (185.9 inches). Yes, it’s a nice car and a formidable performer.

But it’s also about $17k pricier.

Same goes for the Caddy CT4 Blackwing. It is rear drive and comes with a V6 (as well a standard manual transmission) but it’s also $63,600 to start.

The refreshed styling is attractive, but arguably, the real attraction is this car’s age. The current IS350 dates back to the 2014 model year, which means it’s old in a good way. Though it does have some of the new “tech” that is making new cars less-rather-than-more appealing than old cars – such as the creepy eye-movement monitor the car companies are installing in all their news cars because they have to (because the government is requiring them to) this Lexus is pleasantly primitive in that it mostly leaves you alone while you’re driving.

Even the eye movement monitor’s correcting chime is muted rather than the more typical prod in the ribs you get in most other cars. You can get ride of that, too, via a piece of black electrical tape over the electronic eyes. There are fewer “assistance” systems and these are more background than in other, newer models and can mostly be turned entirely off. So also the traction control, if you prefer not to be controlled.

The new touchscreen is intended to modernize the IS350 – which it does, in the sense that a new car without a touchscreen certainly looks like it’s not new – but it’s also not bad, in that Lexus kept vital button/switch interfaces such as the volume/mute wheel on the center console (there’s also a redundant push-button + and – button for the volume on the steering column) and also for the climate controls and seat heaters/heated steering wheel and even for the traction control. You do not have to fish through menus on the screen to find the control for most of the necessary things and make adjustments.

There is, however, not very much space in the trunk (10.8 cubic) foot and also inside the cabin, if you’re over six feet tall and more than 200 pounds. The fit is tight, but it does fit like a glove, which is good for the kind of driving this car was made to do.

The Rest

Given that Lexus refreshed the looks of the IS350, it’s probably going to be around for at least another year or two. On the other hand, cars of its type are becoming less and less common as the market moves toward crossovers and SUVs, chiefly because fewer and fewer people can afford more than one car – and small sport sedans are not very practical vehicles.

That said, the IS350 is the pick of the litter in that it’s the only almost-midsized luxury sport sedan you can still get for well under $50k that still comes standard with a V6 and RWD.

The Bottom Line

The Camry and Avalon are gone – but you can get what they used to have in this Lexus – and for a lot more than anything comparable the same money would get you in a BMW, Audi or Cadillac.

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