NOT EVEN CLOSE! 2026 Lexus IS 350 vs 2026 BMW 330i

Who makes a better sports sedan, BMW or Lexus? We're going to find out with today's comparison. The BMW of Murray and the Lexus of Murray are providing us with both of these cars, so I'm going to put a link to both of their websites in the description down below. Let's get right into it. Powering the BMW is a turbo 2.0L 4-cylinder that goes through an 8-speed. Fuel economy is 26mpg around town, 34mpg on the highway with power outputs being 255hp and 295lb-ft torque. Powering the Lexus is a naturally aspirated 3.5L V6 that goes through a 6-speed automatic. Fuel economy is 19mpg around town, 26mpg on the highway with power outputs being 311hp and then 280lb-ft torque. Honestly, both of these sound super solid. If you're looking for more straight-to-the-point unbiased comparisons like this, make sure you subscribe. Both of these have an aggressive front-end design. Of course, the BMW's got the signature kidney grille design, but look at those headlights. It like comes into a point almost. You can see with the Lexus, again, everything is very angular, and you'll notice that the grille is actually pretty big on the Lexus. Surprisingly, we have a car that has a grille that's bigger than the BMW. With the BMW, it's 225x40x19 for the front and for the rear. With the Lexus, it is 235x40x19 in the front and then 265x35x19 in the rear, so a slightly staggered setup. Now, here's a side profile of the BMW. You can see, again, with some of the sharp lines that go to the rear. And having elements like the wheels and trim pieces around the windows and everything blacked out creates a nice contrast. Now, with the Lexus, very aggressive. Almost like over-stylized in a way, but I like it. And then you'll note that it has a similar theme with darker elements. Mirror caps, window trims blacked out. But then you also notice where this one has the red painted brake calipers, which adds some pizzazz. Now, the BMW's trunk is pretty darn spacious, so that's a big plus. Let's see if we can pick up the load floor. I'm not really seeing a good grab point here. I'm pretty sure that you can, but they don't have like a nice little strap or anything like that. But something that is nice with the BMW, power. I think the opening in the Lexus might be a little bit wider, but it seems like the storage space back here is pretty similar. Let's see if getting underneath the load floor... Oh, they give you a nice little thing so you can access the spare. It actually has a spare. That is surprising. This is going to be fun to put back. Now, unlike the BMW, this is not powered, so you just have to throw it down yourself. I don't think I should be so surprised at how similar these are, but I am also very surprised stylistically. Like, obviously the BMW doesn't have a light bar, but just look at how the taillights are designed and then the exhaust tips there at the bottom. Look at how aggressive that is and the black painted trim. It's almost like copy and paste in a way. Now, in the back of the BMW, I technically fit back here. I do have my own climate zone, some USB ports. I love the red on the seats. I think that's really cool. Nice trim in general. And then you can see two-tone with the door panel trim and getting more red. The headroom back here is also pretty good. So I will say, just how the Lexus seat is shaped and everything, I think I fit a little bit worse in here. And then also, got the big driveline hump there in the center. USB ports though, so not as practical with the back seat. But I do like the trim. I think this is really nice. Door panel obviously don't have the red. And then this feels like it's tighter with the roofline. Blind spot warning with the mirrors in the BMW. Regular glass on both cars, by the way. But yeah, you've got more of the kind of two-tone coloration. We've got all of our window controls, the mirrors, power fold-in, memory seats. So it still has the factory wrapping, but you got the cool red seats. Getting in is easy with the BMW. Just kind of pop down. Pretty solid. So yeah, that compares to the Lexus. Very techie, so that's fully digital. The steering wheel, it's got paddles on the back. This is kind of cool with the design thing on the bottom. And then we do have just a backup camera in reverse with it. And then you notice for the infotainment system, it's quick to respond. So I think that that is a plus. Your climate controls are accessed at the bottom. Just heated seats and heat steering wheel with this. We've got more storage underneath, like the cup holders and everything. And then we have this physical control stack. Control like the infotainment system, some of the different drive modes. A little set of console. Again, more of that nice red trim. It's kind of cool with the trim piece across the dash. And then we do have a center from top. Blind spotting with the Lexus. Like I said, just regular glass up front. And then again, not as crazy with the coloration on this one. You can get brighter interior colors with Lexus. I do think the controls have a more of a nice feel to them. We do have power folding mirrors. You've got memory seats. The seats are aggressive. That's for sure. Getting in, I'd say almost a little bit more difficult, but very similar. Door sounds solid. Full digital cluster. The more traditional style where it's recessed into the dash. And then the steering wheel. Perforated trim. Got paddles on the back. All the other practical controls like adapter crews. Now this is an upgrade for the Lexus. 360. The BMW doesn't have. The infotainment system doesn't look quite as fancy pants as the BMW, but it functions well. We do have our physical toggles for the climate controls. Got your front charging pad there. And then, yeah, this car is just a much more physical feeling setup. With everything, the BMW has gone very synthetic. It's got some tactile feel. Cold seats. This is nice. I do like this trim, by the way, here. I think it's kind of cool. And yeah, the interior, I think, is not as stylized in certain ways with the Lexus. And then you do have a sunroof. When it comes to pricing, the Lexus is about $56,800. The BMW is about $57,300. So the BMW is more expensive. Let's drive them. So we're going to start off in the Lexus first. And then we're going to drive the BMW. Second, this interior is tight. By the way, the hair is real. A lot of people ask me. It's so funny. People think the hair is attached to the beanie. Oh, beanie's right here. It's got no hair in it. Anyways, man, these seats are comfortable. They're aggressive, but, like, they're comfortable. They're really comfortable. I think Lexus does a really good job with their seats. And I hope that this new version of the IS gets a 500 again. I will be extraordinarily disappointed if I do not get to review a V8-powered IS ever again. I think that my life will be a sad place if that happens. And the other thing that I want, the other reason I want that to happen is the previous IS 500 was similar in price to a BMW M340i. I think that's another really interesting comparison that I'd love to do at some point. Time will tell. Man, there is way more traffic than there ought to be. Smooth V6 power. See, this comparison, I think, is really going to, like, is really going to show how different people's tastes are nowadays. Because I feel like there was more consensus, like, 10 years ago. But now, I drive this and I go, this is smooth, good power. Whereas, I think a lot of people, they're going to get in this thing and be like, oh, transmission's not quick enough. The engine doesn't have enough low-end torque. It needs to be, right? It's not snappy enough. But man, when I drive this thing, I go, that V6 sounds pretty nice. And it gives you smooth, linear power. I like it. Obviously, the fuel economy is worse than the Lexus. But you know what? I don't care about fuel economy anymore. And it's not because I'm Mr. Moneybags, because I'm definitely not. If you want to make money, you sell cars. You don't review them. I don't care because reliability, in my opinion, is just, especially in today's world, more valuable. Because, you know, even with gas prices being higher, it is much more expensive to have to replace stuff on cars than fill up more often at the gas station. I look at my V8 Land Cruiser all the time. I don't ever have to do anything to it other than regular maintenance. And it gets 14 miles per gallon. Yeah, I spend a little bit more money on gas. But I'm not having to spend, you know, $4,000 here or $5,000 here because it's got a fancy part that has to get replaced. And I'm sure stuff eventually will break on it. So far, so good. But that is something that, you know, could push some people away. I don't think people are as gas sensitive as they used to be. Depends on where you live, though, of course. Always depends on where you live. Man, what a beautiful machine, though. Naturally aspirated V6, smooth transmission. Yeah, again, it's not as... I mean, but here, let's pop into the sport mode here. It's not as snappy as some of the other stuff. But even so, like, look how... It's smooth. And for me, I'm like, this feels like it's a pretty lightweight car, especially for a modern car. It feels fun. It feels more than adequate. And I like, I just, I like NA power delivery. Because it's never, it's never weird. It's not like torque gap or anything like that. It's just always power on tap. You put your foot in throttle and you get some power. It's not like, oh, wait a second, we'll give you power. We just got to get a little bit more boost. Anyways, let's go pop into the BMW, which happens to have, in my opinion, BMW has, like, the best turbo engines. And their inline-6 is obviously, like, the king. But even their turbo four-cylinder is very impressive when it comes to powertrains. So let's go pop in it. So 330i, 330i. One thing to note, BMW is, at least what I've seen, it seems like they're not building as... My hand just, like, slipped right off. I've never had that happen before. That was weird. I guess the steering wheel is too smooth. Anyways, I've noticed that BMW's not building as many of the cars. And I think it's, it could, I don't know if it is 100%, but I think it could be because of the tariffs. I've noticed that, like, their SUVs, for example, those are all built, or most of them are built in North Carolina. Spartanburg facility. Is it North Carolina or South Carolina? I can't remember. One of the Carolinas. I haven't been, I've been to one of them. I can't remember which one. But anyways, yeah, I've noticed they built, BMW's building a ton of SUVs and not as many of the 3 Series. Like, just to give you an idea, you guys saw they had a little lineup of the ISs. This is the only new 3 Series that I saw at the BMW dealership. And we have the same number of BMW and Lexus dealerships here in Utah, by the way. So it's not like, oh, you know, huge Lexus store and tiny BMW. No, it's like they're the same size of dealer. So, yeah, I'm wondering if availability on these is going to be a little bit more challenging. But, let me turn this, if I turn it up to higher temperature, will that make it be less aggressive? Yeah, there we go. The seats are not as comfortable as Lexus, but they're, for some people, they might feel more comfortable. And the reason why I think they might feel more comfortable is how firm they are. These seats are pretty firm, and so some people might like that. I'm okay with the seats that are, and Lexus seats aren't, like, overly soft. I'm okay with the seats that are a little bit softer. Now, this is definitely quicker to shift, but it's not any smoother. The torque feels really good on this. It does, again, we're at higher elevation, it does feel like it's got more torque. But, back to back with the Lexus, the Lexus doesn't feel like, doesn't feel like a slouch, doesn't feel slow at all. So, that's another plus. Yeah, and the Lexus has, you know, being naturally aspirated, a quicker instant response. This, it's very torquey on the low end. Again, BMW does a good job with producing peak torque at basically no RPMs, right? Zero, it's not zero RPM, but it's pretty, pretty darn close. But even then, you get a little bit of lag before it kicks in. So, something to consider. I'm personally a person who prefers instant response over bigger torque with a little bit of lag. Fuel range on this is very appealing. I mean, this has almost a full tank, and it's showing close to 500 miles of range. Lexus is, again, fuel economy is not gonna be as good, so not gonna have as much range. So, if you're looking for a more modern feeling setup, the BMW, the Lexus has more modern tech, so it's not like the BMW wins in tech, it's more of like the powertrain. BMW powertrain feels more modern. See, like, that's good. I just don't, I don't mind, like, the Lexus not being quite as, like, aggressive with the shift points and quite as punchy with the torque. I think that the smooth power delivery is really nice, especially in a sporty car. So, if it was the previous version of the IS, I would say BMW gives you more tech and a more modern powertrain, but now the IS has modern tech. So, the BMW has a modern powertrain. Do you want quick shifts, torquey engine, or do you want smooth, instant power from the NA engine? I prefer the Lexus out of this comparison, personally, but that's because I kind of like a more relaxed drive, and BMW, for turbo engines, makes really good engines, especially their inline-6. Their B58 inline-6 is a tank of an engine. You can easily get several hundred thousand miles out of that powertrain, but turbo engines will always be typically less reliable than NA engines. The Lexus will be able to do really well, and I think that, from what I've seen, the V6 in the Lexus is more reliable than this 4-cylinder turbo. I think this is actually, from what I've read, one of, not BMW's most problematic engine, but it's more problematic than some of their other powertrains, and definitely not as reliable as the B58. Just kind of pros and cons that way. Let me know which one you would pick. Like I said, I lean towards the Lexus, but I got kind of more of like a boomer taste, I guess, where I like the slower, more laid-back, smooth, but if you've got a kind of needs-for-speed type deal, you're probably gonna like the BMW a little bit more in that way.