IS250 'Advance' ... ??

[Sundance]

I've seen an IS250 'Advance' listed for sale.  Could it be an SE-I or SE-L variant?  And of which generation?  Not being an experienced aficionado of the marque I've tried googling various sites but can't seem to find reference to it anywhere. Can any of you kind Lexusists enlighten me or indeed link me to an explanation of what distinguishes an 'Advance' model?

🤔

[Linas.P]

Advance is second lowest trim after SE, it was introduced after facelift. So you basically get SE > Advance > SE-i/F-Sport > SE-L.

[Sundance]

Thanks for that Linas.  I still find it a bit odd that I can't find a site that explains the description and specs of the 'Advance' variant.

[Linas.P]

Yeah, it doesn't look like Lexus really advertises that and to be honest it is often difficult to find historic prices, options and specifications... especially if you want to find UK brochure. US brochures are easier to find, but irrelevant.

This is the only thing I found, see page 43 (car on P3 is Advance as well):

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/aci-uk/lexus/pdf/IS.pdf?utm_source=LexusOwnersClubUK&utm_medium=ForumLinks

In summary, Advance gets Sat-Nav, Leather, Bi-Xenon and 18-inch wheels over SE as standard. But does not get for example seat ventilation like SE-i.

 

[Sundance]

Thanks for the PDF-link.   I'll have a good gander ... ideal bed-time reading ☺️👍

[drrn]

UK prices here

[Linas.P]

Yeah it was kind of "final limited edition", by ~2011 IS mk2 sales tanked as it was already 6 years old model and Advance was nicely wrapped SE for a good discount. I doubt Lexus sold many SE-i or SE-L for last 2 years. So really two main choices were F-Sport because of the looks and Advance, because it was priced close to SE, but didn't missed much compared to SE-i.

[Sundance]

1 hour ago, drrn said:

UK prices here

Cheers Darren ... at last some media that actually quotes something about the mysterious 'Advance' variant. 👍

[F.A.]

23 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Yeah, it doesn't look like Lexus really advertises that and to be honest it is often difficult to find historic prices, options and specifications... especially if you want to find UK brochure. US brochures are easier to find, but irrelevant.

This is the only thing I found, see page 43 (car on P3 is Advance as well):

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/aci-uk/lexus/pdf/IS.pdf?utm_source=LexusOwnersClubUK&utm_medium=ForumLinks

In summary, Advance gets Sat-Nav, Leather, Bi-Xenon and 18-inch wheels over SE as standard. But does not get for example seat ventilation like SE-i.

 

Bi Xenons were never available on the 2IS for some reason. The hi beam was a normal halogen bulb. Frustratingly I remember the literature always quoted Bi Xenon lights but this was clearly a mistake.  

[Linas.P]

Yes you absolutely right, I only said bi-xenon because I quoted from the document without thinking much about it, but indeed Bi-Xenon were never available on IS mk2.

Whenever that is good or bad I am not sure, there are great bi-Xenon implementations and there are terrible ones.

[F.A.]

Yes, I never had any complaints with the Xenons on the 2IS

[jumbojake]

'Advance'  seems to be the trim level they put on the outgoing models... both my IS200d and my wifes Rx450h are both 'advance' ... both were last 6months of the model before phased out. 

For me, it was both value for money, but also the last cut of the model usually has all of the know issues fixed ...

[Texas]

The last model in any range should always be the best of the lot! Wheather it be cars, TV’s, computers etc as all the developments in that item have reach its peak.

[Linas.P]

On 4/21/2021 at 8:57 AM, Texas said:

The last model in any range should always be the best of the lot! Wheather it be cars, TV’s, computers etc as all the developments in that item have reach its peak.

Yes and Lexus had that in other regions. For example my first car was European 2012 IS250 F-Sport, but it was something like "Final Edition", maybe that was exactly what it was called, but I remember I got the booklet explaining how it has "all the options", because it is last and the best and it had few stickers around the car to remind about it. 

To be fair it didn't have anything that you could not get in say 2011 F-Sport, but as far as I can tell it had every single possible option.

Advance on the other hand was just improved SE and generally not that well equipped, but it did make sense because it had key options yet cost was almost the same as SE... In short it wasn't "last the best", but rather good value proposition.