Damansara, 6 January 2009… Lexus Malaysia today unveiled its 2009 model of the IS 250, now offering not only the updated IS 250 but also a luxury variant of the model which was first introduced in 2007 during the luxury carmaker’s inception in Malaysia.  The new variants have received some updates to refresh its exterior and interior appearance, as well as enhancements in terms of comfort, convenience, performance and safety.

At a preview event held for members of the media, Kuah Kock Heng, Managing Director of UMW Toyota Motor and Lexus Malaysia said that in designing the new IS 250, “We wanted to engineer a car that would appeal to drivers not only on a personal and individual level, but to also appeal to the sensory satisfaction of the driver on an emotional and active level. We wanted a car that would make whoever that came in contact with the car to have a feeling of being specially cared for.”

Needless to say, Lexus has certainly delivered this promise with the new IS 250. The luxury carmaker’s trademark L-finesse philosophy was used in the exterior styling of the IS 250. The entire body has a combination of bold concave surfaces with a sculpted image that gives a sensation of speed and high performance, with improvements to the 2009 model such as a restyled grille, front lip, rear combination lamps and redesigned door mirrors which incorporate turn indicators, a feature previously not available on the IS 250.

Under its hood, the rear wheel drive IS 250 packs a DOHC 24 valve 2.5-litre V6 petrol engine with an aluminium die-cast cylinder block and intake manifold, and a resin-made intake chamber. Featuring a D4 direct-injection technology which affords this unit with a very high injection pressure, it develops 153 kW (205 bhp) at 6,400 rpm and a class-leading 252 Nm of torque at 4,800 rpm. This gives the IS 250 the ability to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/ in 8.4 seconds and attain a top speed of 225 km/h.

As for the interior of the vehicle, two trim types are available. On the IS 250, leather finishing is used while for the luxury variant features a leather and wood finish. Though the exterior dimensions seem compact, the cabin of the IS 250 has a spacious feeling, thanks to the large surfaces and long character lines around it. The instrument panel’s character lines softly flow towards the driver and then cut back to form the hood for the meters. On the door panels, the stylists have created a unique appearance with a raised surface that runs from rear to front and then fluidly reverses direction to form the door grip.

New for the 2009 IS 250 is Lexus Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM), a new concept of vehicle kinematics control that integrates brake control, drive power control, steering control and coordinated control with the automatic transmission. This is a very advanced form of vehicle stability control and helps the driver to retain control of the car in slippery conditions by automatically applying the brakes to counteract understeer or oversteer and at the same time, adjusting engine torque to match.

Kuah added that the IS 250 will further strengthen Lexus’ foothold in the local luxury car market to further propel the brand to greater heights. In addition, he also mentioned that besides the IS 250, additional model variants are in the pipeline for 2009.

The new IS 250 is available for viewing at the Lexus Center in Mutiara Damansara from 6 January onwards and its on-the-road price, without insurance is RM270,000 for the IS 250, and the IS 250 Luxury at RM 305,000.