Lexus IS300H vs Volkswagen Arteon

What's the difference?

Smooth, cosy, quiet, the IS looks and feels better than ever, but without a doubt this hybrid version is a car best suited to cruising the dense metropolis of Chiba at midnight more than it is carving up a bunch of S-bends in the Australian countryside on the weekend.

While that might still limit its appeal for fans of German sports luxury sedans and place it further from the original IS’s ambitions, it does offer an intriguing efficiency and luxury focused alternative, without the compromises brought by rivals with more sporting intent. In a way then, the IS 300h perhaps inadvertently best embodies what Lexus is as a brand.

The value, driving dynamics and appearance are on point for a premium play here. If you can forgo the badge snobbery attached to the German big three, then you'll find lots to like about Volkswagen's Arteon.

Look closely and quite a lot has changed. This is really a story of doing a facelift right. Lexus has kept all the great-looking bits of the car that launched in 2013, like its striking side profile and angular accents, while dumping most of its least popular elements like the spidery front light-clusters and busy front splitter, in favour of something more refined and conservative.

It even adds some new flair in the rear three-quarter, with dramatic LED light-clusters working their way into a trendy highlight strip across the boot lid.

These changes all add up for a much tougher, sportier, and nuanced design compared to the outgoing car. One that manages to make an eight-year old design look as contemporary as ever.

I even liked our test car in its plain black shade, although I'm less sure about those conservative-to-a-fault, almost Camry-esque alloy wheels.

On the inside, sadly not a whole lot has changed. The busy design looked dated when this generation of IS launched in 2013, and it still looks dated now.

The visual assault of buttons, toggles, displays, textures, and trims is a lot to take in, and makes the cabin feel smaller than it is.

It probably didn’t help the sensory overload of this car’s interior as I hopped out of the stripped-back interior in the Tesla Model 3 I had the week before.

My less-than-impressed brother, a student of design, described the IS’s interior best when he told me “It’s a bit maximalist, don’t you think?”

If nothing else, at least Lexus hasn’t blatantly imitated anyone else when it comes to its interior, but the brand remains firm on dorky design items like the laptop touchpad, redundant drive-select dial, and odd vacant panels under the climate unit which do it no favours.

A welcome upgrade for the 2021 model year is the new media screen, a highlight piece perched atop the dash. It’s bright, has excellent contrast, and doesn’t seem to fall victim to glare.

The Apple CarPlay support I used was seamless and sharp and made the most of the available real-estate in its widescreen layout.

I somehow didn’t mind that the instrument cluster in this base car is analog. It almost suits the IS’s character better than a digital set-up would. Also offered is a small information display between the dials which I used for monitoring the hybrid drive.

A final note on the IS’s design. The fit and finish is quality, inside and out. It leaves you with an impression that this is an immaculately built vehicle, one that should be a must for all luxury cars, and always a strong point for Lexus.

It's really all about the looks here, and while the Shooting Brake is particularly handsome, the regular Arteon looks premium and polished, too.

VW tells us injecting a bit of sportiness was a key aim here, both inside and outside, and that's particularly true of the R-Line model, which rides on bigger 20-inch alloys, compared to the 19s on the Elegance, with their own bespoke design.

The body styling is more aggressive, too, but both trims get lashings of chrome along the body work, and a sleek, swept-back style that looks more premium than overtly sporty.

In the cabin, though, you can see that this is an important car to VW. The touchpoints are almost all soft to the touch, and it's both understated and tech-saturated at the same time, including the swipe-to-adjust function for the stereo and climate, with new touch-sensitive sections added to the centre console and steering wheel.

It feels, dare we say it, premium. Which is likely exactly what VW was going for...

Well, the IS is a sedan, so it doesn’t quite have that high-riding appeal of an SUV, and for this update it has even leaned further into its low-slung proportions with a roofline that descends a further 15mm and a boot lid which is 31mm lower overall.

As with the previous car, the interior is quite closed-in thanks to that busy dash design and large centre console. Rather than feeling claustrophobic though, it is best described as cosy, with lots of plush finishes throughout the doors and centre stack befitting a luxury nameplate.

Adjustability is great for the front two occupants and there are two large bottle holders between the seats, a large but shallow console box under the armrest, bottle holders with adjoining bins in the doors, and a smallish glove box.

That’s about where storage ends though, with no extra trays or bins in front of the oddly placed shifter, just an awkwardly finished plastic panel where it feels like a little tray or storage cutaway should be.

The touchpad for operating the media screen joins an unnecessary drive-select cluster in eating up centre console space where there could be more storage.

The rear seat is quite limited on space despite being lavishly trimmed. I fit behind my own (182cm/6'0") driving position with little knee or headroom to spare.

Again, it’s cosy and very comfortable, but if you're taller or wider than me you may run into issues.

The centre rear seat is all but useless for adults, with the IS’s rear-drive architecture necessitating a huge transmission tunnel that almost comes as high as the seat base itself.

Storage is limited to pockets on the back of the front seats, small bins in the doors that double as handholds, and a drop-down armrest with two bottle holders.

There are no power outlets for rear passengers, but there are dual adjustable air vents.

Boot space is 450L which is a little small for the class. It’s impressive the hybrid only managed to lose 30 litres compared to petrol-only IS variants, though, so best to count your blessings.

The largest CarsGuide travel case easily fit in the wide but short available space.

Interestingly, both body styles share near identical dimensions, with the Arteon stretching 4866mm in length, 1871 in width, and 1442mm in height (or 1447mm for the Shooting Brake).

Those numbers translate to a seriously spacious and practical cabin space, with an acreage of room for backseat riders. Sitting behind my own 175cm driving position, I had heaps of space between my knees and the seat in front, and even with the sloping roofline, plenty of headroom, too.

You'll find two cupholders in a pull-down divider that separates the back seat, and a bottle holder in each the four doors. Backseat riders also get their own air vents with temp controls, as well as USB connections, and phone or tablet pockets on the rear of each front seat.

Up front, the theme of space continues, with storage and cubbies sprinkled throughout the cabin, as well as USB-C connections for your phone or devices.

All that space means a sizeable boot area, too, with the Arteon serving up 563L with the rear seats in place, and 1557L with the back pews folded. The Shooting Brake ups those numbers - thought not any as much as you might think - to 565L and 1632L.

The Arteon carries an unsurprisingly premium price tag in the VW family, but it can still be cheaper than an entry-level equivalent from some of the German premium brands.

Or, in the words of VW, the Arteon "challenges the luxury car makers without becoming one ourselves."

And you do get a lot of stuff. In fact, a panoramic sunroof, and some metallic paints, are the only cost options here.

The range is offered in 140TSI Elegance ($61,740 Liftback, $63,740 Shooting Brake) and 206TSI R-Line trims ($68,740/$70,740), and the former is offered with VW's Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster, along with a head-up display and a central 9.2-inch touchscreen that pairs wirelessly with your mobile phone.

Outside, you get 19-inch alloy wheels and full LED headlights and tail-lights. Inside, you'll find ambient interior lighting, multi-zone climate control, keyless entry and push-start ignition, as well as full leather interior trim with heated and ventilated front seats.

Also worth calling our here are the digital buttons on the dash or steering that control everything from the stereo to the climate, and work a bit like a mobile might, you can swipe left or right to control the volume or switch tracks, or change the temperature.

The R-Line model is the sportier-feeling option, and adds 'carbon' leather interior trim with bespoke bucket-style sports seats, 20-inch alloy wheels, and a more aggressive set of R-Line bodywork.

The IS 300h does stand out from the luxury sedan crowd by offering a hybrid drivetrain at a reasonable price. Some rivals offer plug-in options further up the price scale cementing them as a niche option, but the beauty of this Lexus is its very mild $3000 price jump over the base petrol car.

The base car’s 2.0-litre turbo is dumped in favour of a 2.5-litre non-turbo Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder hybrid set-up similar to the one proving popular in the Toyota Camry and RAV4.

The petrol engine produces 133kW/221Nm on its own, and the electric motor produces 105kW/300Nm. Toyota says the “combined system output” of this is 164kW.

Either way, that's less than the base 2.0 turbo. The 300h also swaps out an eight-speed torque converter automatic in favour of a continuously variable transmission. Rare in a rear-wheel drive car.

There are two drivetrains on offer here — the 140TSI with front-wheel drive in the Elegance, or the 206TSI with all-wheel drive in the R-Line.

The former's 2.0-litre turbo-petrol produces 140kW and 320Nm, which is enough for a sprint to 100km/h in around 7.9 seconds.

But the lust-worthy engine tune is definitely the R-Line, in which the 2.0-litre turbo-petrol ups the grunt to 206kW and 400Nm, and drops the sprint time to a brisk 5.5 seconds.

Both pair with VW's seven-speed DSG automatic.

As you might hope this hybrid IS has an astoundingly low official/combined fuel consumption rating of 5.1L/100km.

I was pleased to find that after a week of mainly urban driving conditions, our IS was returning a figure of 6.9L/100km. Not bad at all, especially for a class where fuel consumption can get a little out of hand with turbocharged engines or V6s.

Of course, using the hybrid system to your advantage over the long term will get this number much lower, as I discovered on my long-term test of the Toyota Corolla hybrid which essentially uses a smaller version of the same system.

Certainly, if fuel consumption is a high concern, you’re better off with this car than the top-spec V6 (IS 350) which will easily see consumption enter double digits.

Lexus recommends a minimum RON rating of 95 for the IS 300h, and the fuel tank is 66 litres regardless of variant, giving the hybrid an impressive theoretical range of around 1000km.

Volkswagen says the Arteon Elegance will need 6.2L per hundred kilometres on the combined cycle, and will emit 142g/km of C02. The R-Line needs 7.7L/100km on the same cycle, with emissions pegged at 177g/km.

The Arteon is fitted with a 66-litre tank, and a PPF or petrol particulate filter, which strips some of the nasties out of the vehicle's emissions. But, VW says, it's “very important" that you only fill your Arteon with premium feel (95RON for the Elegance, 98RON for the R-Line) or you risk shortening the life of the PPF.

There is no doubt the IS 300h is capable. You can feel it through the car’s solid rear-drive underpinnings, silky smooth steering, and reactive chassis.

What this car doesn’t offer is excitement in quite the same sense as many of its rivals. That’s down to this hybrid’s drivetrain. It just doesn’t have that powerful follow-through in the same way turbocharged BMWs or Audis or Mercedes do.

If it’s that 'sports luxury' experience you’re seeking better off looking to the base 2.0-litre turbo or the V6 and their eight-speed automatics.

The 300h does offer something a bit different. The gentle refined efficiency of Toyota’s signature hybrid system in a luxury rear-drive package that’s smaller than this car’s ES bigger brother.

While it may feel capable thanks to the lighter suspension components and altered track that the brand has committed to for this update, the hybrid drive matches this car’s softer character brought about by its gentle suspension tune and light steering.

This is an easy car to drive around a city, it filters out bumps nicely, while offering near silence in the cabin and breezy steering for every day scenarios like manoeuvring in tight parking lots.

The CVT auto and instantaneous torque available from the electric motor make it best at traffic speeds, being both reactive and predictable, with silent acceleration when inching forward at the lights or cruising along at 50km/h.

As you might expect though, the wheezy Atkinson cycle engine and CVT conspire for a noisy and less than engaging experience under heavy acceleration.

It’s not as though you’re rewarded with particular vigour either, with this combination being a bit sluggish when a lot is asked of it.

It loses its reactivity and refinement at higher speeds or in the corners on country roads as the transmission elastically tries to keep up with the demands of the driver.

Still, few luxury sedans are quite as purpose-built for the toils of a city, and if you want to get drawn into this car’s hybrid drive antics, it’s easy to make a game out of saving fuel by trying to rely on its low-speed electric motor capability.

Really then, it leans into its urban luxury appeal. A luxury sedan for the streets of Tokyo. An ideal car in this class for the urban environment.

If you don’t care for the thrill of a turbocharger or frequently seek to explore the twists of your nearest B-road, you could do worse than the comfort and ambiance the 300h offers.

Full disclosure: we only spent time behind the wheel off the R-Line variant for this test, but even still, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that it's the punchy powertrain you want.

Surely the very first hurdle any company hoping to play with the premium-brand big boys must clear is that of easy, effortless momentum? It's difficult to feel like you've made the premium choice when you're engine is straining and striving under acceleration, right?

And on this, the Arteon R-Line shines, with plenty of power underfoot whenever you need it, and a delivery style which means you rarely, if ever, fall into a hole waiting for the power to arrive.

For mine, the suspension might be a touch too firm for those seeking a truly wafting drive experience. For the record, it doesn't bother me — I always prefer to know what's happening underneath the tyres than be entirely removed from the experience — but a result of this sporty-feeling ride is the occasional registering of bigger bumps and road imperfections in the cabin.

The flip side of the firm(ish) ride is the ability for the Arteon - in R-Line guise - to swap personalities when you engage its sportier settings. Suddenly there's a snarl to the exhaust that's absent in its comfortable drive modes, and you're left with a vehicle that tempts you to head for a twisting back road to see what it's about.

But in the interests of science we instead headed for the freeway to put the Arteon's autonomous systems through their paces, with the brand promising Level 2 Autonomy on the highway.

While the technology still isn't perfect — some braking can occur when the vehicle's not entirely sure what's happening ahead of it — it's also pretty impressive, taking care of the steering, accelerating and braking for you, at least until you're reminded its time to put your hands back on the wheel.

It's also bloody big, the Arteon, with more space in the cabin - and especially the backseat - than you might be thinking. If you have kids, they'll be positively lost back there. But if you cart adults on the regular, then you'll hear no complaints.

Essentially, if VW makes it, the Arteon gets it. Think front, side, full-length curtain and driver's knee airbags, as well as VW's complete IQ.Drive safety suite, which includes a Fatigue Detection system, AEB with pedestrian detection, Park Assist, parking sensors, rear traffic assist, lane change assist, adaptive cruise control with lane guidance - which is essentially a level 2 autonomous system for highways - and an around view monitor.

The new model is yet to be crash-tested, but the last model scored a five-star rating in 2017.

Lexus gets slightly ahead of the luxury pack with an extra year of warranty. While BMW and Audi still sit on three, Lexus offers four, but it is limited to 100,000km and is still outdone by Mercedes-Benz and Korean newcomer, Genesis, offering five-year/unlimited kilometre promises.

The IS has capped price servicing fixed at $495 for the first three years of ownership with roadside assist, and the brand will even pick up and drop off your car, or offer a free loan car during every 12 month or 15,000km service.

It’s worth noting that German rivals offer pre-paid service packages out to five years, and Genesis is trying to make a splash with free servicing.

Lexus does offer a luxury ownership program dubbed ‘Encore’ which includes invites to experiences and certain partnerships with restaurants and the like to keep potential owners enticed.

The Arteon is covered by VW's five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and will require servicing every 12 months or 15,000kms. It will also get VW's capped price servicing offer.