<P>It seems that Lexus Vice President and General Manager Bob Carter was indeed correct when he said how pleasantly surprised we'd be with the numbers. Here are the highlights of the pricing press release:
<P>Manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) is $29,990 for the IS 250 rear-wheel drive with the six-speed manual transmission. The 2006 IS 250 includes $5,000 of additional standard equipment with only a $255 increase over the previous model. The IS 250 rear-wheel drive with six-speed sequential automatic transmission MSRP is $31,160 and includes Formula One- inspired steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. The IS 250 all-wheel drive MSRP is $34,285 and, in addition to the above features, includes a perforated leather-trimmed interior upgrade with heated and ventilated front seats and wood trim.
<P>The IS 350, the fastest sport sedan in the near luxury car segment, MSRP is $35,440. Its highly tuned 3.5-liter engine delivers a best-in-class 306 horsepower and 277 lb.-ft. of torque, resulting in the quickest zero-to-60 mph time of any competitor sport sedan.
<P>In the other notable news on that press release, that 0-60 time for the IS350, by the way, has been officially upgraded from the originally quoted 5.6 seconds to an even faster 5.3 seconds. For even more good news, the official launch date has been moved up slightly, from the Monday 17 October originally quoted by Bob Carter to this coming Friday 14 October. Further, 10-way power driver's and passenger's seats have been added to the standard equipment list, following in the footsteps of the sunroof and leather seats.
<P>For the full text of the press release, <A HREF="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051011/latu048.html?.v=30">click here.</A>
