Driver's Seat: Lexus IS350 offers unexpected excitement

Three-way luxury battle:

2015 Cadillac CTS 2.0T Performance Collection vs. Lexus IS350 F-Sport AWD vs. 2015 Infiniti Q50S 3.7 AWD

This week: Lexus IS350

Price: $50,525 as tested. The IS350 AWD starts at $42,300; the F-Sport package adds $3,450. (Other options explained below.) An IS250 with a 2.5-liter four starts at $36,550.

Marketer's pitch: "Some follow. Others change lanes. It's your move."

Conventional wisdom: Edmunds.com liked the "powerful and refined V6; attractive interior with top-quality materials; comfortable seats; precise steering" but not that it is "less capable than rivals in spirited driving" or that its "navigation system's mouselike remote-touch interface is distracting to use."

Reality: I never thought Lexus had it in them.

Up to speed: Last week, we toured in the Cadillac CTS, a competent and luxurious machine, but still nothing that knocked Mr. Driver Seat's socks off.

Knocks your socks off: The Lexus, on the other hand, surprises with how quickly you will be separated from your hosiery. The 3.5-liter V-6 makes 306-horsepower, enough to rocket the little sedan up to illegal numbers in just a few seconds.

Surprising, mainly because my few other experiences with Lexus have been luxurious but sedate, and parent company Toyota is known for reliability but not so much for fun.

Sophomore year: The IS carries over from the 2014 model with a few improvements, the third generation of the small sport sedan from Toyota's premium brand.

On the road: The IS350 F-Sport takes the Japanese tuner car approach to fun and squeezes equal amounts of pleasure from country roads and hard city corners. Only a bit of lean can be felt just before the vehicle is ready to completely lose its composure; i.e., kids, don't try this at home.

Mr. Hyde and Mr. Hyde: The IS350 didn't have a split personality from Eco to Sport modes. A subtle change was evident from one mode to the next, unlike some vehicles (I'm looking at you, Audi A3) that go from Ferrari to Corolla with the flip of a switch.

Warm welcome: The IS provides occupants with an unusual and charming experience inside. The basic black dash with silver trim appears modern yet doesn't feel too slick or gadget-laden.

The $3,450 F-Sport package adds the TFT instrument cluster, which is about the prettiest package of gauges I've enjoyed in a while; the round speedometer/tachometer combo slides from the center and reveals more information on the usual variety of topics.

HVAC: Need a temperature change? The controls feature clear plastic sliders with red on top, blue on the bottom. Touch the top portion lightly and the LCD display tells you the temperature is rising; touch the bottom, and it comes back down. Buttons control the rest of the functions.

The center vents sit out from the dash in a pretty array but don't allow for much directional control.

Shifty: The six-speed automatic shifts via the lever or paddles. Both modes are comfortable and provide clear evidence of shifts without much confusion.

Play some tunes: Left and right dials control tuning and volume. A joystick/mouse-hybrid controls most of the rest of the functions. It can be hard to find the right amount of force, but unlike Edmunds, I find this setup functions best.

The tuning dial offers the perfect combination; it changes one channel at a time with great accuracy but also can move through 30 or more channels at once when you're in a hurry to get from XM21 to XM132 and don't feel like fooling with presets.

The sound quality, unfortunately, is only B+, and this is with the Mark Levinson Premium Audio (part of a $2,995 package that also added navigation).

Friends and stuff: Storage space is conspicuously bad. The console can't hold even one CD - I know, I know, join the new millennium already. Even the glovebox is too small for CDs, if you want to keep the voluminous owner's manual in there as well. The cupholders require some twisting to reach.

Backseat occupants face snug accommodation. Sturgis Kid 4.0 notes that from his vantage point approaching six feet, looking out the windows requires ducking. (I was just happy to hear he looked up from his screen.)

A seatbelt in the middle can be there only to taunt people; it is only for the legless or the dog.

Fuel economy: All that fun driving comes at a price. I observed just over 20 m.p.g. in a week of foot-stomping good fun. Yes, it drinks only premium.

Where it's built: The IS hails from the Kyushu and Tahara plants in Japan.

How it's built: Consumer Reports puts the reliability of the 350 well above average, but the 250 is only average.

Next week: Will the 2015 Infiniti Q50S 3.7 AWD top them all?