Jr. Ethan Moore had worked for about 3 months at Red Rock Grille as a food runner and had some money to spend. He was looking for his first car. He had one big problem though: He had no idea where to even start. He wanted a car that had it all; reliability, speed, looks, practicality, and good gas mileage. It also had to be in good condition. Some people think it’s impossible to find a car like this for $6-8k, but look no further than the Lexus IS250.
The Lexus IS250 is the best first car for a reasonable price. This car has it all. You can drive one down the road and not be noticed, but you can also take this car to a golf course or a wedding and fit right in. Some other cars could fit in with every crowd similar to the IS250, like the Volkswagen CC. Options such as this aren’t as luxurious or prestigious as a Lexus though. The IS250 comes with an all-wheel drive as an option, which is great for winter in Michigan. Some other strong options for first cars only come in front-wheel drive, which isn’t ideal for Michigan roads in the winter. It also comes in stick or automatic transmission, and the only other good first car option that came in a manual was the Infiniti G37. Those are too expensive for a first car now, so if you’re dead set on getting a manual, the Lexus is the way to go. The IS250 also has a Bluetooth function for later models, navigation, a backup camera, keyless start and entry, heated/cooled leather seats, a moon roof, alloy wheels, and cruise control. The only other car that has this many options is the Infiniti. Again, too expensive for a first car.
A good example of a fully loaded version of the Lexus is very nice, let alone for a first car. It also has a lot of aftermarket support, for all of the people who want to make their car their own. Toyotas are also known to be easy to work with as far as fixing things, even if something does end up breaking. The IS250 is also very reliable. Toyota’s reliability is known to be the industry leader; it isn’t uncommon for both Toyotas and Lexus to hit 300,000 miles without major problems. Gas mileage is good too. With 21 cities and 31 highways, you will save a good amount of money at the pump. That is the best mileage out of all of the cars I test drove, besides the Volkswagen. If you were wondering about other numbers, the top speed is 140 miles per hour, and the zero to sixty is just under seven seconds.
Even if it sounds slow, remember there is aftermarket support that makes the potential of this car skyrocket, and starting with over 200 horsepower makes this a good platform to build your car on. GR (Gazoo Racing), a motorsport team for Toyota, used these cars to race in the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Nurburgring, and the Super GT races in Japan. One of the drivers of the race-oriented IS250 is the developer of the video game GranTurismo. It’s safe to say that this car has some pretty impressive racing heritage.
When I was looking for my first car, I considered many cars and test-drove even more. Volkswagen CCs, Infiniti G37xs, Lexus IS250s, even a few BMW 3 series. At the time, all of these options were around $6,000-$8,000. Of all the cars listed, the Infiniti was my favorite, but those are too expensive for your first car. The Volkswagen CC is good, but the reliability could be better since the engine is a four-cylinder turbo that is known to have some issues with the timing chain, which could easily spell out game over for the engine and your bank account. The BMW 3 series is a great car, but not for your first car. If something goes wrong you will pay a fortune for repairs since it is foreign, and these cars are very expensive to maintain.
It truly has everything you need and plenty more for what would be an incredible first car. I test-drove one myself, and the only critique I can give is it was a little underpowered. Other than that, the handling, the ride, the luxury, and the reliability are all there, which makes this car the best option for a fun, reliable, and memorable first car.
