Lexus IS F
Why 7.0: A hand-assembled NA V8 that starts every morning for 300,000 miles. The cult found it late; owners buy to keep, and the values quietly turned.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
A secondary intake snaps open at 3,600 rpm and turns the Yamaha-headed 5.0 V8 from silent to howling; the stacked quad pipes are the least of it. But 6,800 rpm and Lexus refinement keep it muted everywhere else. A real noise you have to go looking for.
8-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 6,800 rpm redline · rated 7.1 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €41k (2010) → €44k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
LATCH anchors provided for the outboard rear seating positions. A BeSafe/Stokke ISOFIX vehicle-compatibility list independently codes the contemporaneous Lexus IS 250 (2005, same XE20 generation as the IS F) as ISOFIX positions "2,4" only — the two rear outboard seats, no front position 1.
No ISOFIX/LATCH hardware on the front passenger seat; Lexus's standard-issue owner's manual language (shared across the IS/ES/RX range of this era) confines lower anchors to the rear.
No IS F-specific primary source found (owner's manual host blocked); inferred from Lexus's consistent cross-model LATCH boilerplate plus the IS250 ISOFIX-position listing, not an IS F-specific document. Didn't independently confirm an airbag on/off switch for this generation.
Lexus owner's manual LATCH boilerplate (cross-referenced via RX/ES/IS350 manuals) + BeSafe iZi Go ISOFIX car list (Lexus IS 250 2005: positions 2,4) (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
The IS F spent its first decade as the answer nobody asked for — a Lexus with an M3-fighting V8 that got ignored in favor of German options with flashier badges — and the people who bought it anyway tend to be the sort who'd rather have 300,000 trouble-free miles than a valet-line reaction. That reliability is exactly why it gets kept instead of flipped: there's no maintenance-driven exit ramp forcing anyone out early. Values bottomed around the mid-2010s and have been climbing since, the sleeper reputation finally catching up with an ownership experience that was always there.