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.