When the Lexus IS300 sedan was introduced as a 2001 model, it became the first real sports sedan in the Lexus fleet. Targeted toward a younger audience, this sporty car with slick skin and high-tech appointments carries the Lexus badge that's normally associated with a luxurious ride, but it behaves like a road-hugging German touring car. With rear-wheel drive, best-in-class horsepower, and five-speed automatic with manual shifting, it offers a compelling alternative to the benchmark BMW 3-Series.

For 2002, the IS300 SportCross has been added to the line. It's a five-door hatchback, intended for that same young audience but broadening to include jocks in addition to well-heeled geeks and gearheads. Lexus says the SportCross appeals to a "much younger" crowd, and the company jumps through hoops to avoid the words "five-door" or "hatchback" because those words suggest entry level. So the SportCross is officially a 4+1-door. Fortunately, the car isn't as awkward as its tag. In fact, it is anything but awkward.
The IS300 uses Lexus' sophisticated, 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder engine, renowned for its smoothness. It produ-ces 215 horsepower on recommended 91-octane fuel. Like the IS300 sedan, the SportCross uses a five-speed manual automatic transmission with racy shifting via buttons on the steering wheel in the manual mode. Also new for 2002, is a five-speed manual gearbox for the sedan.

For 2002, the IS300 sedan with the five-speed E-shift automatic retails for $30,805, with front side-curtain airbags added as standard equipment. The SportCross starts at $32,305 for that same level of standard equipment, and features slightly wider rear tires on half-inch wider rims, and a sturdy rear window washer/wiper.
Major options for all IS300 models include black or ivory leather seats with full power in the front ($2145), a leather/Escaine (suede-like) version for $1845, DVD GPS voice navigation system ($2000), power moonroof ($500), heated front seats ($440), Vehicle Skid Control ($350), and a limited slip differential ($390).

The IS300 sedan with the five-speed is a sports model that includes a sport-tuned suspension, and sells for $29,435 with all the same standard stuff. Drivers, you're in luck: more sport for less money. Driver jocks are not so lucky, however, since the five-speed doesn't come in the SportCross body style. So much for sport, at least for 2002.
Standard equipment includes four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes (ABS) with electronic brake distribution (EBD), halogen foglamps, high-intensity dis-charge (HID) headlights, five-spoke alloy wheels, traction control, a premium eight-speaker (nine in SportCross) audio system with cassette and in-dash six-disc CD, and all the power-oriented paraphernalia of a luxury car: auto-matic climate system, cruise control, power windows and door locks, auto-dimming rearview and driver's sideview mirrors, heated external mirrors, remote entry, security system and more. Active and passive safety measures in the IS 300 include an energy-absorbing structure surrounding the passenger compartment, three-point safety restraints with locking retractors for five seat positions, a collapsible steering column, frontal and side-impact airbags for the front seats, plus the new front side-curtain airbags.

The platform features short overhangs with the wheels pushed out to the corners. The wedge-shaped format has a conspicuously low prow, and in 2002 the hood has grown a cosmetic bulge down the center to suggest power, which it does, especially from the driver's seat. Creased lines on the hood flow steeply down from raked A-pillars to a familial trapezoidal grille; in 2002 there are three horizontal bars, one less than in 2001. It is ringed with chrome and bordered by jewel-like HID headlamp clusters. Within the air dam, there are round halogen foglamps shielded behind trapezoidal composite lenses. In the rear, there are subtle changes; the taillight housings are smoked gray on dark-colored cars, and chrome on light colors. There were some eye-catching new Lexus colors introduced on the IS300 in 2001, and in 2002 there are more, making a total of nine.
The three rear windows on each side of the SportCross are a bit odd, the back two crowded, as if they're an unsolved design problem. Behind the rear door window there's a non-opening triangu-lar window that looks like an old-style vent window, and behind that there's a another one shaped like a triangle/trapezoid, which neither looks in nor out on anything, and is outlined by a thick black band inside the glass where it fits against the car's interior.

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Lexus calls the SportCross "more than a sedan but less than a full wagon'' (that's the cross), and adds "the new silhouette admittedly places unique design ahead of maximum utility." This priority leaves room for a gaping hole in the concept: there is no standard roofrack, nor even an available one, nor even any rain gutters to attach an aftermarket rack; and the radio antenna, rising from the center rear of the roof, would get in the way anyhow. Lexus says the SportCross will appeal to mountain bikers, and the press kit includes a photo of a SportCross with a bike squeezed in the back to prove it, but we don't think so. The bike has whitewall tires, which suggests how much Lexus knows about mountain bikers. They go everywhere in pairs; their bikes are perpetually caked in mud. They need roof racks.