Lexus IS Saloon, XE20
Quieter and better assembled than the German compact executives, rear-drive like the BMW, and sold in far smaller numbers than either.
Overview
The XE20 is the sedan Lexus IS, built 2005–2013 and facelifted in 2010. 2 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €3,200–€12,550, and 1 of the 2 carry a risk level of 4 or 5; the facelift cars sit at a premium over otherwise identical pre-facelift ones. The cheapest way in is the IS 220d 2AD-FHV from €4,100, while the IS 250 4GR-FSE is the lowest-risk engine at €5,750, so which engine you buy matters more here than which year. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.
Lexus IS sedan (XE20) · photo LEXUS IS 250 (XE20) China (5) by Dinkun Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
| Body style | sedan | Production | 2005–2013 |
| Platform siblings | sold in this body only | Facelift (LCI) | 2010 |
Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 2005–2009
The 2 variants sold before the 2010 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.
Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 2010–2013
The 2 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.
2 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.
Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →
Model-year availability
Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.
Rating map, price against risk
Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.
Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.
Prices across the range
Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.
Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. F cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.
Every standard engine · cheapest first · IS 250 4GR-FSE highlighted as best value
at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile
Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these
Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.
Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 2 times: F cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.
Buying summary
Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.
Buy the IS 250. The 4GR-FSE V6 is smooth, chain-driven and durable, and its only real habit is carbon on the intake valves that a decarbonise clears. Be careful with the IS 220d, because the 2.2 diesel can warp its head, and the repair costs a large share of the car. On any diesel, check the particulate filter history, since these were sold to people who often drove them short distances. The petrol is one of the most trouble-free cars here; the diesel is one of the more expensive gambles.
Cheapest and dearest in this chassis
The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.