[conan]

My salesman gave me a call at 4:30 yesterday to tell me that they had the exact model that I ordered on the lot. Needless to say I hurried over to Lexus of Naperville to get a first hand look at the car I ordered. What they had where three 2002 for media distribution. A red and siver sedan and a silver sportcross. Naperville is the midwest distribution site for the midwest (10 states listed on the post started by boot).

Anyway, since I noticed a few things. The spoiler definitely blends very well into the sedan, the tires are by Dunlop not Bridgestone (I'm not sure if late 2001 have these or not. Red color (though still dirty) is very sharp, almost a candy color. The armrest is perfect height for me at least. It comes up parallel to your forearms when your hands are on the steering wheel at the 4 and 8 o'clock positions, and the speaker in the doorsill has aluminum (probably fake) around the edge.

I didn't see it but the salesman said there is a compass this year, and like other posts have said they are making it loaded with leather escaine (which this red one had).

The silver 2002 was right next to the red and in my opinion doesn't compare. The silver sportcross they had was very nice looking but I noticed a strong resemblance to the Saabs.

He still said to expect the my car around the 3rd week of August (the 19th), and that they will be in West Chicago (where Union Pacific drops them off) probably for a week before that before they are distributed.

So if you read Motortrend or the other mags and you see a picture of a red sedan that was the one I sat in

Oh, a couple of last thoughts the shift is about 5" in length and the chrome shift ball is slightly larger than a golf ball (and it wasn't too hot when I put my hand on it at 6:00 in the evening, sun out all day) and the salesman said he took it for a spin but couldn't light up the tires until he remembered he had to turn the limited slip off.

Overall very cool color, the red, and they are in for media distribution.

 

[VVTIS]

Cool man, I love that red color! About the chrome shifter, even if it does get hot, lexus offers a leather optional shifter, only for manual.

[ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: VVTIS ]

 

[TNguyenIS300]

Conan: I think you are the first IS member to see and sat in the '02 IS300. But one thing that you forgot to do is take your camera with you......!!!

 

[vlad_a]

Originally posted by conan:
...and the salesman said he took it for a spin but couldn't light up the tires until he remembered he had to turn the limited slip off.

Limited Slip cannot be turned off. It is a mechanical part, a nice one too. You, probably, mean traction control.

P.S.
Great info.

 

[Lexus Guru]

I saw a distribution list for California and some of their 5 spd. IS 300 are coming loaded with the nav and full leather not the ecsaine. The MSRP was 35982 loaded

 

[IS300GTE]

i did this back in april at the NY auto show, check out the pics i took of it in gallery, they will have IS300GTE on them.

Originally posted by TNguyenIS300:
Conan: I think you are the first IS member to see and sat in the '02 IS300. But one thing that you forgot to do is take your camera with you......!!!

 

[conan]

Oops sorry about limited slip, yeah I did mean traction control. Also I wanted to take pictures but my camera is not working right

I wish it was, the red and silver were parked right next to each other with the sportcross a few cars down.