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 IS 350.
It comes standard with basically the same 3.5-liter V6 — 10 horsepower stronger — in a rear-wheel-drive (rather than front-wheel-drive) 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 IS 350 is a compact luxury-sport sedan and one of the few remaining V6-powered sedans available, period. It's available with RWD or all-wheel drive and comes in two trims.
The $45,500 F Sport Design comes with 19-inch light-alloy wheels 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-liter V6, RWD 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 IS 300 trim — have been discontinued. Also no longer available is the V8-powered IS 500. The sole drivetrain is now the 3.5-liter V6 that was previously the "in-between" option. The 2026 IS 350 also gets an exterior and interior makeover and a new/larger LCD touch screen.
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 and 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 mph in 5.6 seconds.
This isn't as quick as some of the IS 350's rivals, including the BMW M235i sedan — which can get to 60 mph about a second sooner — but the BMW is four-cylinder powered, smaller, AWD-only and considerably more expensive (with a base price of $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 IS 350 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 RWD layout, which is something that definitively establishes the IS 350's bona fides as a luxury-sport sedan because only luxury-sport sedans offer RWD 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 IS 500 — 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.
You can still get that V8, by the way — in the LC coupe. But only if you have about $110,000 jangling in your pocket.
You can also go AWD — in the IS 350 — 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; RWD models get an eight-speed automatic.
On the Road
Many reviews criticize the IS 350 for not being as quick as its rivals. This is true — it isn't. The BMW M235i and the Audi S3 are both significantly quicker. But when you're not blasting to 60 mph, 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 un-tattoo'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 RWD 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 skid pad. 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 mph, 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 IS 350'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 RWD IS 350, which will begin to rear-slide (oversteer) as you reach its limits. To let the rear out a little and keep on the gas takes some skill, but that's the source of the satisfaction. It is easier to drive an M235i or S3 fast in the curves.
But you're missing out on some fun.
At the Curb
Though the IS 350 is a compact sedan, it is a larger sedan than its two main price-comparable rivals. The IS 350 is 185.8 inches long and so not that far off the midsize mark. The BMW M235i, 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 $17,000 pricier.
Same goes for the Caddy CT4 Blackwing. It is RWD 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 IS 350 dates 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 new cars (because the government is requiring them to) — this Lexus is pleasantly primitive in that it mostly leaves you alone while you're driving.
The new touch screen is intended to modernize the IS 350 — which it does, in the sense that a new car without a touch screen 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 are also redundant plus and minus pushbuttons 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 feet) and also inside the cabin, if you're over 6 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 IS 350, 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 IS 350 is the pick of the litter in that it's the only almost-midsize luxury-sport sedan you can still get for well under $50,000 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.
Eric's latest book, "Doomed: Good Cars Gone Wrong!" will be available soon. To find out more about Eric and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
View the Lexus IS 350 this week.
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